Community radio stations have a mission, well defined in the Broadcasting Services Act, to serve the diverse needs of their local communities. 2MIA FM has a strong commitment to multiculturalism and devotes several hours per week to ethnic programming, presented by volunteers from various migrant communities in and around Griffith, NSW. 2MIA management were as shocked as we were to find that one of their staffers was an administrator on the ‘Fuck Off We’re Full’ and ‘Australian Protectionist Party’ Facebook groups.

Soon after Asher Moses began developing this story, Ms Verney set about deleting as much of her racist tripe as she could from Facebook. She very quickly withdrew from her Administrator positions on ‘FOWF’ and ‘APP’. Verney was definitely proud to be a racist bogan on the world-readable Facebook- why is she running scared when the equally world-readable Sydney Morning Herald comes-a-callin’?

Racism is an unacceptable civic behavior under any circumstances but it is particularly so when one has been entrusted with access to public assets like community FM radio broadcasting.

Ms Verney attempts to excuse her racism by claiming she’s a ‘patriot’. Verney’s entitled to her own opinions but she’s not entitled to her own facts nor dictionary definitions. Verney doesn’t like non-whites and Muslims- she’s a racist and a bigot. Verney expresses her small-minded beliefs on those issues in the public sphere. That makes her a racist activist.  If Ms Verney happens to be a patriot, she can be that simultaneously, but being a patriot does not preclude nor excuse one from being a racist.

We hope that the Griffith Community FM Association gives very close consideration as to whether or not Terrie-Anne Verney possesses the good character required by ACMA for a person to be entrusted with access to a community broadcasting facility. We at FDB do not believe she does nor will in the foreseeable future.

nb: Many thanks to the dedicated denizens of the Australians Against Racial Discrimination (AARD) Facebook group for their assistance and support in researching this story.

From the SMH:

Multicultural radio presenter linked to anti-immigration Facebook groups

Asher Moses
July 2, 2009 - 2:02PM

Terrie-Anne Verney

A presenter for a NSW community radio station that specialises in multicultural programming has been reprimanded after she was revealed to be an administrator of several racist, anti-immigration groups on Facebook.

Terrie-Anne Verney, a presenter and sales representative for Griffith FM radio station 2MIA, was the administrator of the group “F— Off, We’re Full” and had also joined several Facebook groups including “Stop the Islamisation of Australia while we still can”, “Australian Conservative United Party”, the “Australian Protectionist Party” and “Australians against Multiculturalism”.

In posts on the site she ridiculed foreigners who did not have a good grasp of English, claimed the Islamic faith was destroying the Australian way of life and said that attacked Indian students should go back home to study.

She also wrote that groups of immigrants tended to develop a “mob mentality”, claimed KKK members she knew were “intelligent” and that she did not want immigrants who did not speak English or assimilate into “the Australian life” to be allowed into the country.

“If we allow the Islamic faith to continue to grow, sooner or later the Australian way of life will be destroyed,” Ms Verney wrote in one post.

“I can’t even imagine where we start to fix the problems caused by the introduction of this *cough cough* religion and its invasion of our society, but something needs to be done. Before its (sic) too late.”

Of bashed Indian students, she said they were “playing the victim card” and “the shit around their head must do something to their brain”.

“Maybe a gun to their head might help them get the hint that they are not wanted here!!,” she wrote.

Edna Wakley, president of the Griffith Community FM Association and station manager at 2MIA, said in a statement that she was “horrified” by Ms Verney’s affiliations, and that she was unaware of until yesterday.

She said the station did “not condone in any way sites such as these” and would “take appropriate disciplinary action where necessary”.

2MIA prides itself on “multicultural programming” and has several presenters from diverse backgrounds. Ms Verney works there as a sales representative and also presents a music show on Saturday afternoons.

“It is disappointing that this staff member’s actions could place a cloud over the integrity of this Association and all that it has achieved in Ethnic Broadcasting, multiculturalism and the community at large,” the statement said.

When Ms Verney was approached for comment over her Facebook posts, she said it was “unfortunate” patriotism was now regarded as racism.

“As a proud Aussie, I welcome new Australians in the hope and belief that they too, become proud Aussies,” she said.

“This country is beautiful the way it is, and like most average citizens, [I] do not want our society to change to suit others’ needs.”

But after this website approached 2MIA for a comment yesterday, Ms Verney began removing some of her Facebook group affiliations and posts.

In April, a contractor for one of Australia’s largest Defence Department-linked companies was suspended after she was alleged to have been involved as an administrator of the neo-Nazi web forum Blood & Honour.

From the ABC:

Public wars with council over new Islamic school

By George Roberts for AM

Sydney’s south-west is once again the battleground over plans to build a new Islamic school.

Last night, the Liverpool Council approved the school, despite some councillors’ attempts to send the project back to the drawing board.

The decision comes less than a month after the Land and Environment Court rejected plans to build an Islamic school further west, in Camden.

There are about 30 Islamic schools in Australia, with about half of those in New South Wales.

Eager to hear whether Hoxton Park would have a new school, locals packed the Council Chamber and spilled out into the lobby.

This time allegations of racism and threats against council members have marred celebrations over the approval of the school.

The Malek Fahd Islamic school already has one campus in Greenacre and wants to build another further west.

Two weeks ago, the Liverpool Council approved the school, but three councillors moved a motion to send it to another vote.

Last night, that motion was defeated 6-4, allowing the school to go ahead.

Outside the chamber, the debate was far from over.

“It’s devastating. They just haven’t any regard for the concerns of people in the area,” one man said.

“To me it sounds like the council aren’t hearing the residents of Hoxton Park,” one woman said.

“We feel neglected by our council. Our council has let us down on numerous occasions and this is just another occasion,” another man said.

While speaking in favour of the school, Councillor Mazhav Hadid became angry, claiming there had been threats made against fellow councillors over the vote.

Later he told AM that police were investigating the threats.

Debate continues

But not everyone is upset, including the principal of the new school, Dr Intaj Ali.

“We are very pleased with the decision. I’m very pleased that the councillors made the decision based on purely planning grounds,” he said.

“We will do our best to work with the residents and the council, of course.”

Some locals say there are already three schools in the area and too much traffic.

“We are already overloaded. We don’t need another 800 kids, which is going to put 500 cars on the road,” one man said.

“We would have to move. I could not see myself living there with that kind of traffic going in front of my house,” a woman said.

Geoff Newcombe from the New South Wales Independent Schools Association says that is just an excuse for prejudice.

“Schools, be they government, Catholic or independent schools, have the right to establish in any area as long as they comply with planning conditions and this school clearly has,” he said.

“I think it shows that our democracy is working and that we’re not responding to emotional or racial pressures.”

But some local residents reject accusations that they are racist.

“Having the school would not bother me, but where they’re putting it; that’s what concerns me,” one woman said.

Those opposed to the school are vowing to take the matter further. Their only option may be court action.

What on earth could have happened?

Wait, Darrin ‘gay porn & sex toys’ Hodges of the ‘Australian Protectionist Party’ (which isn’t actually a political party) tells us:

Darrin wrote at 11:23pm
The original group “Fuck off we’re full” was taken over by multicultualists [sic] on 15/06/09.

Who are those dang interloping, Facebook group deleting multiculturalists?

Who COULD they be?

FDB knows- but we’re not telling.

Deakin University Associate Professor Dr Rohan Bastin said: “If people are saying ‘if you don’t like it, leave’, then they’re demonstrating that they’re profoundly stupid.”

We knew that, too. The disappearance of the FOWF group is proof positive.

From KVOA-TV, Tuscon, Arizona:

Home invasion suspects tied to border group

Two of three people arrested in a southern Arizona home invasion that left a little girl and her father dead had connections to a Washington state anti-illegal immigration group that conducts border watch activities in Arizona.

Jason Eugene Bush, 34, Shawna Forde, 41, and Albert Robert Gaxiola, 42, have been charged with two counts each of first-degree murder and other charges, said Sheriff Clarence Dupnik of Pima County, Ariz.

The trio are alleged to have dressed as law enforcement officers and forced their way into a home about 10 miles north of the Mexican border in rural Arivaca on May 30, wounding a woman and fatally shooting her husband and their 9-year-old daughter.

Their motive was financial, Dupnik said.

“The husband who was murdered has a history of being involved in narcotics and there was an anticipation that there would be a considerable amount of cash at this location as well as the possibility of drugs,” Dupnik said.

Forde is the leader of Minutemen American Defense, a small border watch group, and Bush goes by the nickname “Gunny” and is its operations director, according to the group’s Web site.

She is from Everett, Wash., has recently been living in Arizona and was once associated with the better known and larger Minuteman Civil Defense Corps.

A statement attributed to officers of Forde’s group and posted on its Web site on Saturday extended condolences to the victims’ families and said the group doesn’t condone such acts and will cooperate with law enforcement.

“This is not what Minutemen do,” said member Chuck Stonex, who responded to an e-mail from The Associated Press sent through the Web site. “Minutemen observe, document and report. This is nothing more than a cold-hearted criminal act, and that is all we want to say.”

The assailants planned to leave no one alive, Dupnik said at a press conference in Tucson on Friday. He said Forde was the ringleader.

“This was a planned home invasion where the plan was to kill all the people inside this trailer so there would be no witnesses,” Dupnik said. “To just kill a 9-year-old girl because she might be a potential witness to me is just one of the most despicable acts that I have heard of.”

Dupnik said Forde continued working through Friday to raise a large amount of money to make her anti-illegal immigrant operation more sophisticated.

Forde denied involvement as she was led from sheriff’s headquarters.

“No, I did not do it,” she said. “I had nothing to do with it.”

Gaxiola also denied involvement; Bush was arrested at a Kingman, Ariz., hospital where he was being treated for a leg wound he allegedly received when the woman who survived the attack managed to get a gun and fire back.

Killed were 9-year-old Brisenia Flores and her 29-year-old father, Raul Junior Flores. The name of the wounded woman who survived the attack hasn’t been released.

Forde is well known in the anti-illegal immigration community, said Brian Levin, director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University-San Bernardino.

“She’s someone who even within the anti-immigration movement has been labeled as unstable,” Levin said. “She was basically forced out of another anti-immigrant group, the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, and then founded her own organization.”

Stonex, of Alamagordo, N.M., said he met Forde while on an Arizona border watch operation last fall, and liked her despite her reputation in the Minutemen community.

“I know she’s always had sort of a checkered past but I take people for what I see and not what I hear,” the 57-year-old said.

She recruited him to start a new chapter in New Mexico, but was secretive about her group or its members.

Stonex said he didn’t know how to recruit for a chapter and never did.

He said Forde called him on the day of the attack while he was visiting Arizona and asked him to bring bandages to an Arivaca home because Bush had been wounded.

Stonex said it appeared Bush had a relatively minor gunshot wound, which he treated.

He said Forde and Bush told him Bush been wounded by a smuggler who shot at him while the group were patrolling the desert.

Stonex said he didn’t suspect that might not be the case until was contacted by a deputy on Saturday about their alleged involvement in the crime.

Arizona, by the way does very bad things to people convicted on multiple murder raps.

65,000 sign on to anti-immigrant Facebook group

By News Online’s Amy Simmons

A Melbourne academic says shutting down Facebook hate groups is not the way to combat “rising levels of intolerance” in Australia.

After recent attacks on Indian students in Melbourne and Sydney, one Facebook group - which says Australia is “full” and urges immigrants to “learn the language” or enjoy their “right to leave” - has attracted nearly 64,500 members.

One poster calls on Australians to stand against “curry munching idiots”, saying the attacks on the students may have been “frustration driven, due to their foolish traits and culture”.

“We request you to please unite and stand against the recent protests by Indians … drive all the immigrants out and make Australia clean,” he said.

“We have our unique Aussie culture, we drink beer, we eat meat, pork and beef. If you can’t bear with that, please leave.”

Deakin University Associate Professor Dr Rohan Bastin says Australia has a strong sentiment of ‘assimilationism’, where immigrants are expected to become part of a ‘mainstream Australia’.

“If people are saying ‘if you don’t like it, leave’, then they’re demonstrating that they’re profoundly stupid,” he said.

“You’re not being racist, but you are being essentialist, homogenising and therefore completely intolerant.”

Dr Bastin says the fact a Facebook group, like this one, could attract so many members is depressing, but not surprising.

“The previous federal government under John Howard really promoted those issues,” he said.

“I don’t think that they managed to marginalise Pauline Hanson and her ‘mainstream Australia’ views so much as to incorporate them - she disappeared politically as the ideas were taken on board.

“It [this group] reflects the fact that intolerance is really on the rise.”

But he says Facebook should not be targeted and that closing down such groups is not the answer.

“It’s much better for people to get the opportunity to put their thoughts out there,” he said.

“Things like this Facebook group have got their roots very much in contemporary culture and you see these kinds of intolerance and assimilationism in much more ordinary things.

“It’s uncouth, it’s young people spilling their minds.

“People think that we’d better stop it because it’s going to create violence, well hang on, it’s coming from somewhere and it’s largely coming from ignorance.

“We have a responsibility to combat that.”

A spokeswoman from Facebook says the social networking site wants to be a place where people can openly discuss issues and express their views.

She admits Facebook sometimes find people discussing and posting about topics that others may find “controversial, inaccurate or even offensive”, but says there is no place for “racism or any form of hate speech”.

Good old Facebook!

Fuck Off We’re Full
Basic Info
Type: Just for Fun - Fan Clubs
Description: Australia - The Right to Leave!
Admins: Timmy (Markham)

See also : Part the 1st: “Fuck off we’re full.” (Of shit.) (January 28, 2009)

Racist Facebook group targets Aussie immigrants
Briena Barrett
WA Today
June 10, 2009

A rapidly expanding social networking site has been slammed for its racist taunts against immigrants to Australia.

The Facebook Group, F*** Off, We’re Full, has nearly 65,000 members and believes any immigrants coming to Australia must adapt to what it calls the ‘Aussie lifestyle.’

“This idea of Australia being a multicultural community has served only to dilute our sovereignty and our national identity,” the site states.

“As Australians, we have our own culture, our own society, our own language and our own lifestyle.”

The website is full of debate on its discussion board. The latest topics put up for comment include: Will Indian race-rioters be hunted down? and All foreigners need to be euthanised…

More here.

‘Disgusting’ website urged offensive against Indians

By Mark Schliebs

NEWS.com.au

June 04, 2009 07:26am

AN Australian website urging a “hate offensive” against Indians was condemned as “disgusting”, while fears grow that racial tensions will escalate.

For the past six months, Melbourne man Patrick O’Sullivan has posted comments onto a white supremacy forum about how “evil” Indians were and urged others to participate in a “Summer hate offensive” in the Victorian city.

In a post just before Christmas, he asked for people to call him if they wanted to participate.

“For those of you in or nearby Melbourne, contact me. This summer a lot of Race Hate is occurring! RAHOWA!”

RAHOWA is understood to stand for Racial Holy War.

Senior police and Indian students deplored the web comments but police said they doubted they had caused a spate of assaults on Indian students, despite members of the forum pledging to join in the “offensive”.

Mr O’Sullivan, who was jailed in 2002 for stabbing a man who accused him of not being a Nazi due to his Irish blood, told news.com.au that the posts were not intended to incite violence and that he was now a peaceful man.

He said his rallying call for a “Summer hate offensive” was a peaceful way to recruit people into the Creativity Movement, whose website describes itself as a “Progressive Pro-White Religion”.

In late November, Mr O’Sullivan posted a comment – using the name “RAWHOWA NOW” - on a neo-Nazi forum which said he was sick of “Dirty F**king Indians”.

“They infest the Melbourne area. I could write all day (about) how evil and putrid those scum are… one particularly infuriating thing about these curry n*ggers is their arrogance,” he said.

“I think this may seem (to have originated) from the apathy of Whites not putting tem (sic) in their place. Those browm (sic) maggots used to get spat on, tolchocked and on occasion even stabbed and/or hospitalised.

“I’m not saying to commit illegal acts, violence etc. This is merely and observation of mine.”

Amit Menghani, president of the Federation of Indian Students in Australia, said he thinks the comments were promoting “curry-bashing”.

The term “curry-bashing” is used to describe the hunting down of Indians and beating them.

“This kind of provocation must stop,” Mr Menghani said.

“It’s absolutely disgusting.”

Victorian Police commander Trevor Carter, whose beat covers Melbourne’s west, said that although the comments were “appalling”, the attacks on students were not believed to be racially motivated.

“There is an element of (racism), but the purpose is to steal property from people,” Mr Carter said.

Meanwhile The Australian reports that Indians in Australia are concerned an increasingly “hysterical” reaction in India and among local protestors to assaults and robberies on foreign students could create a backlash against their community.

Raj Natarajan, the outgoing president of the United Indian Associations of New South Wales, said his organisation was concerned about the “flow-on effect” for Australians of Indian background.

“I am proud to look like an Indian,” he said.

“I don’t want to look any other way. But I and my family are Australian citizens, and we are also proud of Australian society. It is tolerant, multicultural and friendly.

“These attacks are a worrying trend, but I don’t believe they are racially motivated.

“Indian kids who live here are not complaining. They’re perfectly happy. They have lots of friends in the broader Australian community, and many are married to Aussies.”

On Sunday, Indian students blocked city streets in protest of a wave of up to 70 violent attacks against them in the past year but the protest itself turned into clashes with police.

Mr Natarajan sought to distance the broader Indian community from the rally, saying it was organised by visiting foreign students.

“It might have an impact on us by creating a backlash,” he said.

FISA CALLS FOR A PEACE RALLY

The Federation of Indian Students of Australia Inc has called for a PEACE RALLY in response to the growing anger in the community against increasing crimes.

The purpose is to create an awareness about an increasing number of hate crimes within the state and to promote racial harmony and peace.

The PEACE RALLY will start on Sunday 31 May 2009 at 11:30am from Royal Melbourne Hospital (corner Grattan Street and Flemington Road) and will conclude at Victorian Parliament House.

We encourage all Victorians to show support for residents of all ethnic backgrounds.

The PEACE RALLY will conclude with a Candle Light Vigil in support for the recent victims of crime.

For further information, please visit our website.

Amit Menghani
President
Federation of Indian Students of Australia Inc
P: 1300 FISA4U
E: president[at]fisa[dot]org[dot]au

Indian student bashings on the rise in Sydney: community leader

* Arjun Ramachandran
* May 29, 2009 - 5:29PM

Violent attacks on Indian students are on the rise in Sydney, and have forced the Indian Government to take steps to assure the safety of Indian students in Australia, a community leader says.

Dr Yadu Singh said there had been at least 20 bashings of Indian students in Sydney in the past month,  but most went unreported out of fear. He estimated over 100 attacks on Indian students in the last 12 months.

Sujatha Singh, India’s High Commissioner to Australia, says there are elements in society that attack people for racist motives.

The revelations follow a strong response by the Indian Government to an apparently racially motivated attack on four Indian students in Melbourne, which left one man fighting for his life in hospital.

Under instructions from the Indian Government, the Indian Consulate in Sydney has formed a committee to address the concerns about the welfare of Indian students in Australia, said Dr Singh, who heads the committee.”Melbourne has a bigger problem but if we don’t do something in Sydney it will be repeated here,” said Dr Singh, a cardiologist.

He said he was aware of numerous robbings and random bashings on Indian students at night and in daylight, on trains and near their homes, often in western Sydney.

He also referred to an incident on Sunday evening, in which hospitality graduate Rajesh Kumar received burns to 30 per cent of his body after a petrol bomb was thrown through the window of the Harris Park home he shared with other Indians.

Dr Singh said the attacks had been happening for about four years, and were a mixture of opportunistic robberies and outright racist attacks.

“There’s a name for [the racist attacks]: ‘curry bashing’ … [as in] ‘lets go curry bashing’,” he said.

“They are not random at all, the people are targeting them. They know these students are easy targets.”

Two 18-year-olds faced a Victorian court late last year after a man was killed in such an attack. The court heard seven friends had met at a Footscray McDonald’s store on January 22 and decided to go out “curry bashing”, which meant assaulting and robbing an Indian.

In the robbery cases, Indian students often became victims because they traveled home late at night, alone, after working to support their studies, Dr Singh said.

Thieves also knew they were unlikely to report incidents to police, he said.

“They are not reporting to police because their experience of police in India is pathetic - they are corrupt, pathetic, not helpful.”

Many students were also afraid that lodging any sort of formal police report would harm their chances at permanent residency.

“So they will suffer the humiliation and the insult … and the criminals think: ‘We are pretty safe robbing them and nothing will happen’.”

Dr Singh did not give much credence to the idea, reported on some Indian websites, that the students were attacked out of jealousy at their academic ability.

“These criminals are not competitors of Indian students. They are no-hopers who have nothing else to do but robbing and committing crimes.”

Dr Singh called for a more intensive undercover police effort to capture offenders. He said there also needed to be more education for Indian students on “street smarts”.

“They don’t walk with the confidence we do. You have to merge with the general persona of Australian confidence, you should have a spring of confidence in your step.”

Reports of attacks on Indians received wide coverage in Indian press, including on popular satellite news programs such as NDTV, Dr Singh said.

Unless authorities acted to reduce attacks, the multi-billion dollar education industry was at stake, he said.

“It’s making a big impression in India. When I went to India in December people [who were considering studying in Australia] asked me: ‘We are not sure … what’s going on there, are you safe? They were asking about me!”‘.

UNSW international students officer Sakshi Sehgal said there were increased concerns about the safety of international students from all countries, not just India.

Federal Education Minister Julia Gillard this week announced there would be a “roundtable” in which international students could voice their complaints.

“I am aware of and am concerned about the reports in the media of international students safety being compromised and of their having unsatisfactory experiences while in Australia,” Ms Gillard said. A recent violent attack on an Indian student occurred in her electorate of Lalor.

Charges were this week were also laid against six youths, aged 12 to 16, involved in what police said were unprovoked attacks on foreign students at Newcastle University.

Rhythm Turner is a lesbian musician from San Diego, in the United States.

After a gig in Mission Beach on May 14th, Rhythm fell victim to a brutal attack by a man whose motivations were based in homophobia, leaving Rhythm with two very serious facial fractures and an inability to perform musically. The attacker was arrested for felony assault, but is not currently being charged with a hate crime.
Rhythm needs reconstructive surgery to fix her fractures, but as a full-time student and musician she has no health insurance.

If you’d like to help with these costs, please consider a contribution via this paypal link.

And you can listen to her band, Rhythm and the Method here.

http://www.myspace.com/rhythmandthemethod

From everyone at FightDemBack, we wish Rhythm a speedy recovery, and we ask anyone who can to help donate to get her face fixed. The United States, for all its wealth, has a health care system that does not provide adequate health coverage for people on low incomes without health insurance, so Rhythm needs all the help she can get, because as a professional performer a broken face can mean the difference between a gig and going hungry.