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Waleed's video has been shared across the country and then across the world, not because it promotes an idealised world of lovey-dovey peace, but because it conveys information that is not being widely promoted to the mainstream. Namely, that the stated intention of ISIL is to drive a wedge between Western nations and Muslim immigrants, thus forcing the immigrants into the beckoning arms of the terror group. It's not a particularly complex strategy, but it's a disappointingly effective one, and the more simplistic members of the media have been mindlessly playing right into it.Not that any of them would admit it.Andrew Bolt—the columnist who increasingly sounds as if he's looking for a way to travel back in time not to 1889 to kill Baby Hitler, but to September to stop Tony Abbott losing the Prime Ministership—was having none of it."First, [Waleed Aly] is a Muslim and was spokesman for the Islamic Council of Victoria at a time that it had voted to make the extremist Sheik Hilali the Mufti of Australia," explained Bolt. "He could be seen to have an agenda."
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As Aly pointed out, Channel Nine's Weekend Today program had added to the static by interviewing Pauline Hanson, failed politician and future failed politician. Hanson did what Hanson was supposed to do, which is to warn everyone that letting in refugees might mean letting in some undercover ISIS plants.
Displaying the same complex view of history as a torn Fantales wrapper, Hanson repeated the popular claim that "Not every Muslim is a terrorist, but every terrorist is a Muslim". It's fact that can only seem plausible if you literally don't know anything about the world.It's not as if Pauline Hanson is being quizzed on this because she's an expert on terrorism or world affairs or Islam. Networks scramble to get her on the air because she's going to say something ignorant and incendiary, and everyone is going to get up in arms and write think pieces and in those think pieces they'll mention Hanson-featuring programs such as Channel Nine's Today and Channel Seven's Sunrise, both airing from 6am-9am weekdays, thus giving them free publicity. It's a vicious circle, and I refuse to play any part in it.It's not as if Pauline Hanson is being quizzed on this because she's an expert on terrorism or world affairs or Islam.
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