From the Oz:

Cronulla candidate campaigns for race hatred
Greg Roberts
January 05, 2007

NSW election hopeful John Moffat has stepped up his attacks on Muslims, posting messages on extremist right-wing websites claiming young Lebanese hate Australia.

In a posting on National Vanguard, which is linked to well-known Holocaust denial and white supremacist groups, Mr Moffat said Australian women were at risk of “racially motivated pack rapes” perpetrated by Lebanese Muslims.

He said Sydney had become a dangerous city because of Lebanese immigrants; young Lebanese gangsters “hate Australia and Australians with an intensity that would peel paint”.

The postings by Mr Moffat, whose poll campaign in the Sydney seat of Cronulla is backed by the Australia First Party, prompted a united response from Lebanese and Jewish community leaders.

Lebanese Muslim Association spokesman Jihad Dib said he was disturbed by the messages published by Mr Moffat and the nature of the websites he was using.

“It worries me that we have got to the stage where people do this kind of thing and it is just accepted as OK,” Mr Dib said. “People are working hard to provide solutions to problems we have had, and these divisive ideologies are not helpful.”

B’nai B’rith Anti-Defamation Commission chairman Michael Lipshutz said Australian Muslims and Lebanese should not be subjected to the kind of attacks being mounted by Mr Moffat.

“It’s not a matter of free speech when what you are doing is inciting racial hatred,” Mr Lipshutz said.

“He is trying to appeal to the lowest common denominator by feeding on the fear of people.”

Mr Moffat said the southwest Sydney suburb of Cabramatta was known to locals as Vietnamatta, and drive-by shootings were common there. In another posting, Mr Moffat described as a “half-breed” the part-Filipino Australian model Michelle Leslie, who served three months in an Indonesian jail in 2005 for drug possession.

He said: “She looks better - that is to say, more European - than many such mixed women.”

Mr Moffat has based his campaign for the March election on support for what he describes as a “civil uprising of the Australian people” - the December 2005 riots at Cronulla, when Lebanese youths were attacked by drunken young white men.

His election manifesto says the riots were “spontaneous” in contrast to the “ruthlessly cold and malicious” retaliatory attacks on Sydney neighbourhoods by Lebanese gangs.

Liberal MP for Cronulla Malcolm Kerr said Mr Moffat risked further undermining the area’s reputation by making “ridiculous” claims about the Lebanese community.

But Mr Moffat is unrepentant. “I, along with many others, am concerned about the survival of the white race,” he told The Australian yesterday.

“It is true that Sydney is becoming dangerous because of these people. There is widespread community support for what I am saying.”