Free Speech was dealt a massive blow in Australia after two pastors, Danny Nalliah and Daniel Scott, were taken to court for sharing verses from the Koran at a local seminar in Victoria.
What happened over the ensuing two years, would vilify both pastors and cost Danny Nalliah’s church, Catch The Fire Ministries, over $600,000 in legal fees. However, his legal stand would ultimately preserve free speech in Australia and the West.
The Background
In 2002 the Australian province of Victoria under LABOR, passed the Racial and Religious Tolerance Act. which:-
“prohibits conduct that incites hatred, serious contempt, revulsion or severe ridicule of a person or group of people based on religious belief. “
This was a subjective law (“offence” coming from emotions) not an objective law (“truth” coming from the rational).
That same year the Islamic Council of Victoria filed a complaint that resulted in convictions for two Pastors, Danny Nalliah and Daniel Scot – the first convictions in Australia under the nation’s religious vilification ban.
How the battle for free speech was fought
The complaint lodged in VCAT said Scot and Nalliah had “vilified Muslims” at a seminar on Jihad on March 9, 2002. The two Pastors addressed a private seminar held by Catch The Fire Ministries to some 250-300 Christians. They were lecturing on the differences between Christianity and Islam. The seminar came about as a result of “September 11” and their community wanted an understanding of the true features of Islam.
Danny Nalliah having lived under Sharia Law in Saudi Arabia and witnessed three beheadings, had quoted from the Koran during the seminar, to demonstrate what some Muslims believe.
The Islamic Council of Victoria had sent three Anglo-Saxon converts to Islam masquerading as Christians to the Christian seminar. They took on 52 points as complaints against the seminar and took Pastors Scot and Nalliah to court under the Equal Opportunity Commission and demanded an apology.
Danny Nalliah refused to apologise on the grounds that what was stated was word-for-word from the Koran.
The court case at the VCAT tribunal went on for forty days over a period of two years.
In the eyes of the law, it’s not a matter of whether or not these two men told the truth – they did – but whether someone felt bad about what they said. Even the Islamic Council barrister told the judge, ‘Your honour may I put in record, under the new law—TRUTH is not a defence’.
On December 17, 2004, VCAT Judge Michael Higgins, ruled that Catch the Fire Ministries, Pastor Danny Nalliah and speaker Daniel Scot vilified Muslims at a seminar in 2002, in a newsletter and an article on a website.
The Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) determined that Pastors Scot and Nalliah violated the Act.
The Tribunal not only found the pastors in breach of the Act but also ordered the pastors publicly to apologize for their sincerely-held beliefs and promise never to repeat those beliefs.
Nalliah refused to apologize. “Right from the inception, we have said that this law is a foul law. We will go to prison for standing for the truth and not sacrifice our freedom and freedom to speak,”
Their case was then brought before the Supreme Court
On August 14, 2006 Australian attorneys, with the assistance of The Becket Fund on international law arguments, submitted appeals papers to the Supreme Court of Victoria at Melbourne based on the Victorian legislation violating international human rights treaties.
(These actions by VCAT were in direct violation of international law. Australia is obliged by international conventions to protect rights of conscience, freedom of expression, and equal protection under the law as Australia has ratified the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and its enforcement mechanism, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). The free speech, belief, and religious exercise provisions of Articles 18, 19, and 26 in the ICCPR protect the right freely to preach about and analyze religious truth-claims of competing religions.)
In December 2006, the Supreme Court upheld their Appeal and ruled in favor of Daniel Scot and Danny Nalliah, vacating the original ruling and ordering the trial to be heard again in front of a different judge at VCAT. The Islamic Council of Victoria was ordered to pay half of Nalliah and Scott’s legal fees.
During the five years duration of this legal action Danny Nallaiah endured “Alluha Akbar” death threats, threats of his house being burned down and his children being kidnapped by phone. Further the cost of legal fees by the time the case was decided had amounted to $600,000.
Back at VCAT, the parties agreed to go to a mediation prior to the re-hearing to see if the case could be resolved.
The case was finally resolved at a Mediation at the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal on Friday 22 June 2007. If mediation had not resolved the complaint it would have gone to a re-hearing at VCAT in December 2007.
The Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal of Australia, the Islamic Council of Victoria and Catch the Fire Ministries have reached an agreement that citizens have the right to “robustly debate religion” and “criticize religious beliefs” within the limits of the law.
The ICV has agreed to withdraw the complaint. A media release was issued as follows:
Champion of Free Speech in the West.
As a result of this case WA, NSW and SA completely rejected the same UN inspired legislation for their states—leaving LABOR governed Victoria as one of the few places in the free world where this legislation exists.
Select Committees of the House of Lords and the House of Commons in the United Kingdom invited Danny Nalliah to address them on a similar law that was being fashioned for the UK Parliament. As a result that law did not get passed in the UK.
The US Congress also invited Danny Nalliah to address a Congressional Select Committee hearing in order to brief the Committee on a similar law that was being introduced to the USA. Based on the Australian experience that law also did not make it through Congress.
83 cases across the world…are now using this Australian case as a defence against Islam’s attempt to introduce “offence legislation” (Sharia Law) onto the legal statue books of the West.
The tenacity of this Aussie battler not only saw through that 5 year long legal action, countless threats of intimidation from the Islamic community and a cost of $600,000 to put a stop to this draconian piece of UN inspired legislation taking hold in other free nations of the West.
However, after travelling to the UK and the USA, Danny saw how the West was buckling under the oppression of the Politically Correct laws that were being introduced by the socialist inspired UN. So in 2013 Danny founded the Rise Up Australia Party in order to protect the Australian values and culture—as he says “to keep Australia—Australian”.
The Rise Up Australia Party website is http://riseupaustraliaparty.com/
EDITOR: Please support this great Australian.
Reference:
http://www.wnd.com/2007/07/42680/#V5sjf7CV0VcAWspi.99
http://www.theage.com.au/news/National/Historic-win-in-religious-hatred-case/2004/12/17/1102787271940.html
http://www.jimball.com.au/Features/Scot-Nalliah-VCAT-decision.htm
http://www.wnd.com/2007/07/42680/#V5sjf7CV0VcAWspi.99
http://www.rowlandward.net/articles/current-issues/overcoming-evil-with-good/
