Australia gets anti-Islam political party
The Western Australia state’s capital, Perth, has hosted the secret launch of the Australian Liberty Alliance, a right-wing anti-Islam political party.
The party was inducted into the Australian politics during an inaugural ceremony at a private home on Tuesday after state officials begrudged it a public venue.
Its agenda features efforts aimed at introducing a ban on face veil across Australia and stemming the flow of Muslims into the country, where adherents to the faith comprise 2.4 percent of the population.
Andrew Horwood, the party’s director, alleged that Australians sympathized with its cause.
“Islam in its current form doesn’t fit with Australian values and if we want to retain the gift of living in the greatest country in the world and passing it onto the next generation, we need to be able to have these honest and frank discussions,” he claimed.
The alliance also defended having held its inauguration ceremony in secret, alleging it had to ensure the safety of the event’s keynote speaker, controversial far-right Dutch MP Geert Wilders, who is widely known for inciting hatred against Muslims and spreading Islamophobia.
The politician, who is the founder and leader of the anti-Islam Party for Freedom in his home country, addressed the event, saying, “Let us reclaim our countries. Stop the mass immigration from Islamic countries. We say no more to the governments and the Islamization process.”
West Australian Premier Colin Barnett had banned state-owned venues from hosting Wilders. “I do not support him and I do not support the things he says,” Barnett said, noting, “He can say what he wishes to, but he will not have any support from the West Australian government at all.”
The Australian party has registered with the Australian Electoral Commission and plans to field candidates in the 2016 federal election.
One Nation, a similar Australian right-wing party secured nine percent of the national vote at its peak in 1998, winning one seat in the Senate, which it lost in later years.
Earlier in the year, different locations across the country played host to far-right anti-Muslim protests and counter-rallies supporting multiculturalism.
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