As Australians across the nation celebrate Australia Day, the Australian Coptic Community are bewildered after witnessing Prime Minister Gillard’s strong words of condemnation following the devastating Moscow terror attack that has claimed at least 35 lives. Other senior cabinet ministers including Kevin Rudd, Wayne Swan and Stephen Smith condemned the loss of lives in the strongest terms possible and rightly so.
It has been a bloody start to 2011 as Islamic terror mania rocks the world from Alexandria to Moscow. Terror threats have also been directed against Australian Churches, however the PM does not seem to care about this and neither does the Foreign Minister or Defence Minister. The West’s policy of ‘winning the hearts and minds of Muslims’ has clearly failed and if anything, has resulted in more terrorist attacks despite the billions of dollars spent worldwide.
Many are asking the question is the loss of life in Alexandria (January 1, 2011) not of importance to the Australian Government? Is it not a big deal for innocent and peaceful Christian worshippers to be blown up into pieces? Why is Christian Persecution in Egypt, Iraq, Nigeria and other countries being tolerated? Why is the Australian Government silent on this issue?
Interestingly, even the King of Saudi Arabia condemned the Alexandrian massacre. We are talking about a country that has no respect for Human Rights and does not even allow Churches to be built on their soil so as not to defile the land. Australia’s response to the Alexandria bombings has been less than that of Saudi Arabia’s – what an absolute disgrace and embarrassment to Australia in front of the international community.
We demand answers as discontent grows amongst Australia’s Christians from African/Middle Eastern backgrounds. We demand answers to these questions from our government led by PM Julia Gillard. The PM is supposed to represent all the constituents in this country. We have written thousands of letters to Government Ministers in the last 12 months alone with blanket responses. Politicians at State and Federal levels from all sides of politics (Liberal , CDP and recently NSW Labor) are sympathetic to our plight and have written strong statements and stated that they will take this serious issue further.
Australia’s Coptic Community in particular is severely hurt with our PM’s lack of response, especially in light of the fact that our Churches are now subject to terrorist threats and so are certain individuals. It is as if the 80 000 strong Coptic Community in Australia does not exist. Why is this the case? Australia’s Coptic Community has integrated successfully into the mainstream Australian landscape and we have contributed greatly to Australian society. For example, Coptic doctors serve the country across the metropolitan and regional areas and have been doing so for generations. We deserve more from our Prime Minister. The Foreign Minister of France attended a Coptic mass on Christmas to reassure his Government’s support to the Coptic community, the Canadian PM went out of his way to meet Coptic leaders. The US President has twice condemned the attack on the Christians of Egypt, Iraq and Nigeria. The European parliament has debated the issue and in the past so has the House of Lords within the United Kingdom.
Happy Australia Day.
Peter Tadros
Chairman
Australian Coptic Movement
