In a video posted to her Facebook page on Thursday, the Queensland senator took aim at London's first Muslim mayor, Sadiq Khan, for comments he made in September about terror attacks bring 'part and parcel of living in a big city'.
'People are feeling sorry for people over there and I've seen the hashtag #prayforlondon,' she said from Parliament House in Canberra. 'Well look, I have my own hashtag and you won't need to be praying for this place or that place, because it's #pray4amuslimban.
Ms Hanson called Mr Khan's comments 'amazing' and said she never wants to hear anything similar said in Australia. Mr Khan's comments were not referencing Wednesday's attack and were made during an interview in September in response to the bombs that were detonated in New York City and Jersey.
'It's amazing that the Muslim mayor over there has come out and said 'oh well terrorist attacks are part and parcel of a big city''.' she said. 'Well they don't have to be, they never have been in the past and that's something I never want to hear or see in Australia from any mayor in any city'.
In a video posted to her Facebook page on Thursday, the Queensland senator took aim at London's first Muslim mayor Sadiq Khan (pictured) for comments he made in September. Ms Hanson's criticism mirrors that of Donald Trump Jr who re-tweeted the six-month-old article with Mr Khan's comments on Thursday. 'You have to be kidding me?!' the son of the US President tweeted with the article.
 |
| Muslima strolling past the carnage: Infidels got killed, "Just part & parcel of living in Muslim-controlled London." |
The video was made in response to Wednesday's attack where a man ploughed his Hyundai SUV into pedestrians on London's Westminster Bridge. Three people were killed on the bridge before the driver stabbed and killed an unarmed police officer. The driver was later shot dead by officers outside the House of Parliament.
Many Australian politicians expressed solidarity with London after the horrific attack, including Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, who offered his 'heartfelt sympathies'. 'Australia's heartfelt sympathy and resolute solidarity is with the people of the United Kingdom who we stand with today as we always have in freedom's cause,' he said. Opposition leader Bill Shorten tweeted: 'This shocking crime, designed to weaken the U.K., will only make her stronger. All Australians stand with Britain today.'
The leader of the Katter's Australian Party, Bob Katter, used the opportunity to repeat his call for a visa ban on people from the countries between Greece and India and North Africa. 'Whist certainly not all people from the Middle East are like this, it is unfortunately true and real that all of these attacks are coming from people from these areas who have extreme ideologies,' he said in a media release.
'There should be no visa issued to anyone from these areas unless of course they are persecuted minorities – the Sikhs, Jews and Christians'.
Pauline Hanson wants to 'shut down' Islam in Australia by changing the constitution. The One Nation leader said Muslims were preaching extremist views because the government was powerless to ban religions and wants a referendum to change this.
'I really do believe they are a political ideology that wants sharia law in this country and they're using that as a guise,' she told Andrew Bolt on Sky News on Tuesday. 'We need to know what they stand for. What do they intend to do in the country?'
She singled out pro-sharia law group Hizb ut-Tahrir as she called for Islam to be banned in Australia. 'Let's expose it for what it is and if it is really a political ideology like Hizb ut-Tahrir and these other organisations then shut it down,' she said. Senator Hanson argues Islam is an ideology and not a religion and wants a royal commission to determine this.
Her party also wants a referendum to be held on scrapping section 116 of the constitution, which stops the government from banning a religion. For a referendum to pass, the yes vote has to surpass 50 per cent in a majority of states and be supported by a majority Australian voters. Since Federation in 1901, only eight out of 19 referendums have passed and the referendum to ban communism failed in 1951.
The bearded man in the video claimed it would take 653 years for Muslims to reach 35 per cent of the Australian population. 'So we can guess why Hanson and the right-wing are already alarmed screaming and pulling their hair out,' he said. 'So if everything goes according to plan, Muslims will reach the 35 per cent mark by the year 2670. '
However, a closer look at the numbers shows Islam is a fast-growing faith in Australia. Australian Bureau of Statistics Census data shows the number of Muslims grew by 70 per cent between 2001 and 2011. Their numbers jumped from 281,578 to 476,300 during that 10-year period, with their proportion of the Australian population growing from 1.5 per cent to 2.2 per cent.
Data from the 2016 Census is likely to show another increase in Australia's Muslim population when the figures are released later this year. Former prime minister Tony Abbott in 2014 called for a ban on Hizb ut-Tahrir, which wants a global Muslim caliphate. Its overseas arms support suicide bombings in Israel and advocate the killing of homosexuals.
'There is no doubt they are an organisation that campaigns against Australian values, that campaigns against Australian interests. They are a thoroughly objectionable organisation,' Mr Abbott had said.
Hizb ut-Tahrir operates in more than 40 countries and is banned in Muslim-majority nations including Turkey, Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Uzbekistan. However, it continues to operate in Australia and the United Kingdom.
Media outlets, including Guardian
Australia, have previously published opinion pieces arguing that Hizb ut-Tahrir
should not be banned and in 2015 it also gave the group's spokesman Uthman
Badar space for an opinion piece.
