September 16, 2003
HAIL TELEVISION
This SBS interview with a young Australian Muslim is the best thing you’ll read all day, guaranteed. It’s especially worthwhile for the interviewer’s concerned responses:
REPORTER: Afroz's son Andez, who lives mostly elsewhere with his mother, has a passion for television and video games. This is giving him a very different view of the world.
ANDEZ ALI: There's actually one game I really like. It's called 'Not Against Allah 2'. It's an anti-terrorism game.
REPORTER: Anti-terrorism? What does that mean?
ANDEZ ALI: It's like, um, like taking out all the terrorists and kind of like that. I've been watching the news every single night.
REPORTER: When did you start doing that?
ANDEZ ALI: Right when September 11 happened. The planes crashing into the twin towers, that's why I started, just in case anything else happened.
REPORTER: And you wanted to be able to watch out for it?
ANDEZ ALI: Yeah.
REPORTER: Do you know what you want to be when you grow up?
ANDEZ ALI: I want to be in the army. Yes.
REPORTER: In the Australian Army?
ANDEZ ALI: Yes.
REPORTER: Why do you want to be in the army?
ANDEZ ALI: I want to serve Australia and make sure everyone is safe.
Oh no! An Australian citizen wants to join the army! As the interviewer remarks, “All of this comes as a surprise to his father Afroz.”
AFROZ ALI: This is interesting and in fact quite shocking that he has that, which means that he is watching the very thing that I would like him not to watch, and that's television. It is certainly giving an exceptionally warped and wrong information to, here we go, my child. And that, to me, is really beyond belief.
Too late, Afroz! Your boy is OURS! Incredibly, the interviewer describes the kid’s pro-Australian, anti-terrorist mindset as a “problem”. And it gets worse:
REPORTER: The problem is even more complex than it appears. Since Andez has been spending only weekends with his father, he has started to call himself a Christian.
AFROZ ALI: I personally think that the episode of September 11 has had a negative impact upon him, a negative image of Islam on him. I believe that he has not fully made his mind up about it, and that's where the confusion arises.
On the contrary. Sounds like this youngster isn’t confused at all.
(Via reader John S.)
Posted by Tim Blair at September 16, 2003 03:21 PMAFROZ ALI: This is interesting and in fact quite shocking that he has that, which means that he is watching the very thing that I would like him not to watch, and that's television.
Thanks Afroz! that's gotta be the dumbest quote I've read in a long time! I look forward to future interviews:
AFROZ ALI: This is terrible, because it shows that my boy has something which I don't want him to have, which is an opinion. Also an ability to express that opinion. Where did I go wrong?'
Posted by: TimT at September 16, 2003 at 03:26 PMDoubtless the youngster has been glued to our ABC.
One for the good guys!
Posted by: Nemesis at September 16, 2003 at 04:18 PMNow if we can get this type of message into the Mosques "Being Aussie is good, being a terrorist killer is bad". If some kid worked it out without help from his dad then there must be hope for the young ones yet.
Posted by: Jake D at September 16, 2003 at 05:34 PM"IFRAN YUSIF: Without in any way meaning to reduce or discount the importance of what happened in New York, that sort of thing happens in Baghdad. It was happening in Baghdad not too long ago. And it didn't happen once. It happened every day for a number of months."
HUH?!? WTF!?!
and from Garry Dargan:
"...And you also have to be careful how you define terrorism. From my point of view, someone who sits in a helicopter gunship and fires a missile into a car in a crowded street and kills the target in the car and several civilians, who they laughingly call collateral damage, that's an act of terrorism. "
Yeah, mate, well done. Let's define "terrorism" so that it means "protecting civillians by killin' folks who're planning to blow up buses and cafes". The civilian deaths are an accident, you moron. Civilian deaths in the WTC or Jerusalem are the whole point of the exercise. Huge moral difference. If you don't understand that, you are a twisted individual.
"Laughingly"!?! Oh, I forgot, the evil Jooooos strike again! Next thing they'll be "laughingly" poisoning the wells...
Some of these people could learn a lot from young Andez Ali.
Let the kid stay and kick his terrorist loving piece of shit father out of the country.
Posted by: Andrew Ian Dodge at September 16, 2003 at 09:05 PMThere's one Muslim who isn't a terrorist. Good boy. The whole purpose of multi-culturism is to preserve the power of the tribal heavies like Afroz Ali, so it's good when one gets away, isn't it?
BTW does anyone know the URL of David Oldfield's web page - the one that got him into trouble with the commos in the Victorian Anti-Discrimination Tribunal?
Posted by: John Murphy at September 16, 2003 at 10:13 PMREPORTER: The problem is even more complex than it appears. Since Andez has been spending only weekends with his father, he has started to call himself a Christian.
If this "problem" broke out world-wide, my gosh, imagine the horror.
Posted by: Random_Prose at September 16, 2003 at 11:36 PMSo the SBS is saying that people shouldn't watch tv. Tune into channel 28 to find out why.
Posted by: Random_Prose at September 17, 2003 at 12:24 AMNext thing you know, the spawn of a terrorist-lover will be playing football and cricket.
The horror...the horror
Posted by: Tongue Boy at September 17, 2003 at 12:50 AMSo this kid has been influenced by TV has he?
well they must get bad reception for SBS at his house!!
Posted by: DeadED at September 17, 2003 at 12:59 AM"I personally think that the episode of September 11 has had a negative impact upon him, a negative image of Islam on him. "
Oddly enough!
Posted by: BH at September 17, 2003 at 01:30 AMJohn,
I don't wish to provide the URL, but I'll mention that Hisam Sidaoui, who is making the complaint against David Oldfield's website, has previously complained about a sketch on BackBerner.
Posted by: Andjam at September 17, 2003 at 04:19 AMDid the interviewer even bother to interview the lad whilst with his mother, who apparently has him the other 5 days out of 7? Maybe she has been trying to bring him up as a person, first and foremost, instead of a robotic vassal/serf.
In 2001, I tutored an 18 year-old guy like this from Iraq. His family moved here (New Zealand) in 1995, for obvious reasons. He was really into rugby and the All-Blacks, and his brother played for a local team. He would spend the weekends getting drunk and chasing kiwi women, and was in a rock and roll band. He even said "choice, bro!" like a true Nyoo Zilunder. All this after being here for only 6 years.
Just after 9/11, we were in one of the labs at the local university and saw some Arab idiots, whom I later found out were from Jordan, who were having a good old time laughing at those pictures of people jumping out of the towers. He launched at them one of the most impressive tirades I've ever seen. It was a while a go, but this is the sort of thing he said: "You sort of people are the one and only reason why Arab countries are so screwed up. You're cowards! Show some respect and dignity, you fucking tards!" He wasn't the smartest guy in the world, but he sure knew where he stood for an 18 year-old from Iraq.
Posted by: dave_c at September 17, 2003 at 03:28 PM