The Australian Christian Lobby has raised serious concerns about the
Senate’s inquiry into “right-wing extremist movements”, warning it may be
incompatible with United Nations international human rights norms, and that
it could be weaponised by the far-left to silence their political
opposition.

The Senate referred the inquiry to the Legal and Constitutional Affairs
References Committee on December 7 last year, with a report due by 6
December 2024. Submissions were due on April 5 and are now published on the
inquiry website.

The Christian group’s March 22 submission stated that according to UN human
rights authorities “counter-extremism measures must relate to far more
tangible, and real threats, involving violence, than the subject matter of
this inquiry; and respect must be maintained for fundamental human rights,
including freedom of expression”.

“The ACL is extremely concerned that this inquiry is not confined to key
issues such as preventing terrorism, countering violent extremism, or the
implications of radicalisation that leads to terrorism and violent
extremism.”

The ACL went on to state that the Terms of Reference of the inquiry are
“much broader than extremism associated with violence” as they only refer
to “violence imagined at a remote point” rather than “threatened or actual
violence”.

“Note that the Terms of Reference for this inquiry should be of major
concern because they concern activities involving no violence, not even
appropriately connected to violence. Submissions are invited on whether
there even exists the ‘capacity for violence of extremist groups and
individuals holding such views’.

“The inquiry appears to be concerned more with matters that have no current
association with terrorism or violent extremism, namely harmless political,
right-of-centre beliefs. The Terms of Reference could be construed as an
exercise in identifying harm where it does not exist, and in creating the
opportunity of associating politically ‘right wing’ views with extremism,
to invoke justification for repressive measures against political
opponents.

“The Inquiry is likely to appeal to the radical far-left elements that
propagate narratives that those with a message contrary to their own are
posing an extremist threat when, for example, protesting in support of
women’s rights or other highly politicised matters, as a means of shutting
them down.”

The inquiry has received 21 additional submissions, including from ASIO,
the Australian Human Rights Commission, and the Counter Extremism Project
(CEP), a New York-based “international” NGO set up by former US government
officials.

The CEP submission, written by Joshua Fisher-Birch and Alexander Ritzmann,
based in the US and Germany respectively, claims that “Australian
right-wing extremists have become leading voices in the decentralised
online neo-Nazi sphere”, and warns about the “Active Club strategy”.

The CEP recommends that the Australian eSafety Commissioner “address the
broad re-emergence of Australian right-wing extremist individuals and
groups with for-profit online platforms like Twitter/X”.

“These individuals or groups often violate the terms of service of the
platforms, which generally claim that they do not allow the presence of
White supremacists/right-wing extremists on their platform,” the CEP
submission said.

“Strengthening the legal framework for platform regulation could be
contemplated to ensure and enhance comparable content monitoring standards
between platforms.”

The CEP submission also urges the government to crack down on “crowdfunding
efforts from members of the Australian right-wing extremist community”, and
suggests following the example of Canada, where bank accounts of “freedom
convoy” protesters where shut down during the Covid pandemic.

Additionally, the CEP recommends “monitoring of changes in strategy of
organisational models of right-wing extremist groups due to the proximity
of Australian key extremist individuals to the transnational Active Club
network” which it claims was “specifically developed to evade law
enforcement monitoring and intervention”.

<https://www.noticer.news/right-wing-extremism-inquiry-could-be-weaponised-by-radical-leftists-to-persecute-and-silence-conservatives-christian-group-warns/>

<https://archive.ph/ZneDe>

D. Ray is clearly trolling quite scared

> The Australian Christian Lobby has ...

.... quite a bit of dirty laundry to hide when it comes to spreading
hate, discontent and religious extremism in our multicultural,
multi-ethnic and certainly quite secular society.

> The Christian group’s can ...

.... whinge and whine all they like, their disgusting political
activities speak for themselves. Quite damning, actually.

Back with you to cry into your momma's skirt. You and ilk will never get
any sympathies from rational and socially conscious people.

--
Ördög
The on duty Newsgroup Devil