Racism Allegations
The Party has been brought into the spotlight for ideologies of violence, racism, and inciting hatred. Fight Dem Back, Slackbastard, B'nai B'rith and many other anti racist groups have accused the Australia First Party of being "racist", "neo Nazi", "extreme right" and of being "far right". The Party has denied all of these accusations. Party leader Jim Salaem was formerly part of the National Socialist Party of Australia in the early 1970s.
Australia First also endorsed independent candidate John Moffat, who was later criticised by B'nai B'rith Anti-Defamation Commission chairman Michael Lipshutz, Cronulla Liberal MP Malcolm Kerr and Lebanese Muslim Association spokesman Jihad Dib for "inciting racial hatred".
On 10 July 2009, The Sydney Morning Herald reported that David Palmer, the Imperial Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan in Australia, said several Klan members had secretly joined Australia First. Palmer said Australia First had been identified as an Aryan party and would prove useful "in case the ethnics get out of hand and they need sorting out."
In July 2010, the Green Left Weekly reported that Australia First was distributing leaflets comparing Africans to monkeys, as well as "blaming Africans for the social problems in Sydney's west". Australia First denied responsibility for the leaflets, claiming that they had been distributed in an attempt to discredit the party.
Read more about this topic: Australia First Party
Famous quotes containing the word racism:
“Few white citizens are acquainted with blacks other than those projected by the media and the so—called educational system, which is nothing more than a system of rewards and punishments based upon one’s ability to pledge loyalty oaths to Anglo culture. The media and the “educational system” are the prime sources of racism in the United States.”
—Ishmael Reed (b. 1938)