You probably don't hear about it when your local neighbourhood school gets a bomb threat. Back when I was a student, school bomb hoaxes were a dime a dozen. We'd march out to the oval, sit in the sun, and thank the unknown prankster for getting us out of math class. No media frenzy. No lectures from Canberra. No national soul-searching.
But fast-forward to today, and suddenly, every phone call to a mosque or Islamic school is national news. Not because it's new or more dangerous. No. It's because it fits the narrative. The great moral panic of modern Australia: Islamophobia.
A fake bomb shows up at a mosque on the Gold Coast. A hoax threat was called into an Islamic school in Brisbane. Next thing you know, half the media is on fire, politicians are lining up to out-condemn each other, and taxpayer-funded bureaucrats are drafting policy responses before the dust settles.
Enter Mr Aftab Malik, the Albanese Government's Special Envoy to Combat Islamophobia. Yes, that's his real title. Yes, it's a real position. And no, it's not a joke. You're paying for it.
Now, who exactly is Aftab? Well, apparently, he's a "distinguished thought leader" in social cohesion and countering violent extremism. He's worked with bureaucrats in NSW, hobnobbed with academics overseas, and received praise from UN bodies that most Aussies have never heard of.
Aftab even ran a conference after the Christchurch attack to talk about right-wing extremism in Australia. Because an incident overseas requires pointing the bone at the scary "right-wing" in Australia, despite the fact that the only terrorist attacks, foiled or otherwise, in modern Australia have been Islamist.
Oh, and he wasn't born in Australia. He's migrated to our country and is now lecturing us on how to speak, act, and behave.
All of that will be covered in Aftab's blueprint. That's what they're calling it. A plan to stamp out Islamophobia in Australia.
Let me play Nostradamus for a moment. I predict Aftab's blueprint will be a roadmap for more hate speech laws, more surveillance, more control, and more ways to punish Aussies for saying something that offends someone else's delicate religious sensitivities.
Just like the "combating antisemitism" report before it, this one's not about protecting people from real violence. It's about criminalising opinion. It's about silencing you when you say something problematic on Facebook. It's about giving more power to unelected bureaucrats and activist groups to decide what you can and cannot say.
Most of the intercommunal hate in this country these days isn't coming from mainstream Australians. It's imported. It originates in the Middle East. And it's centuries-old. Jew versus Muslim. Sunni versus Shia. Palestinian versus Israeli. Ancient animosities are now being fought on Australian soil, in Australian suburbs, in Australian schools and shopping centres.
And the rest of us are expected to be the ones who walk on eggshells?
When a bomb threat targets a state school, it's a prank. When it targets a private Islamic college, it's a national emergency. When kids cop bullying online, it's tragic but local. When someone allegedly yells something at a girl in a hijab, it's front-page news and proof of our collective national shame.
This isn't equality. It's not fairness. It's not even good governance. It's soft totalitarianism dressed up as tolerance.
And to make sure you're keeping in line, the antisemitism report has already floated the idea of a national anti-hate database. You read that right. A database. For "hate." Not criminal acts, just "hate," as subjectively defined by activist groups and bureaucrats. Lawful but offensive speech could soon land you on a list shared with law enforcement and intelligence agencies.
That's the kind of thing you'd expect in Iran or North Korea, not in Australia.
The multicultural experiment was sold to us as unity in diversity. What we've ended up with is imported tribalism, victimhood politics, and censorship. And somehow, it's always the majority that's expected to bend, apologise, and surrender its freedom to appease someone else's grievance.
Keep a very close eye on what comes out of Aftab Malik's report. If the early noise is anything to go by, it will be the beginning of a bureaucratic machine with the power to police your thoughts, your speech, your jokes, your posts, and ultimately, your conscience.
https://nationfirst.substack.com/p/what-youre-not-allowed-to-say-anymore