Actually, Vicki Janson is first and foremost an Islamophobe.
[Janson is] a founder member of the rabidly Islamophobic Q Society, who have arranged Australian speaking tours for Geert Wilders, Robert Spencer and “mosquebuster” Gavin Boby.
In 2011 Janson headed a Q Society campaign against a Muslim group in the Melbourne suburb of St Kilda being allowed to use council-owned premises as a prayer hall. “It is well documented that in many parts of the Islamic world, Friday prayers are noted for escalating violent outbursts towards non-Muslims”, she explained. “The gathering of a large group of Muslims in East St Kilda will likely strike terror into the hearts of local residents.”
She seems particularly exercised about the issue of halal food. And the importation of shariah law into Australia. There’s an extended interview with her here, but it’s fair to say that she doesn’t seem to understand the issues terribly well. For a somewhat different and less inflammatory take on halal slaughter, check out the RSPCA website.
“Well, Muslims are not a race, so no. I have a number of close Muslim friends and more than one that supports my stand against sharia in Australia. Would I be a racist for opposing communism? Islam is a totalitarian ideology and all we are saying is that the legal arm of Islam, sharia, must be severed if we are to really integrate with Muslims as we have with other groups.”
But the halal thing really bugs her. Especially halal Vegemite. Here she argues that promoting halal isn’t promoting tolerance. She’s especially upset that “Vegemite is halal and Kraft is not offering a non-halal option for die-hard lovers of vegemite.”
“She asserted that the sight of a minaret on a mosque was a trauma trigger to St Mary’s church members, whose Christian sect is based in the former Persian lands of Syria, Iran and Iraq. It is also known as the Nestorian church.”
Needless to say, when she’s not having fits of the vapours over halal food and trauma triggering minarets, she is of course anti-abortion. I don’t know if she believes in the mythical link between abortion and breast cancer, but she does believe it may be a cause of domestic violence.
Ms Janson controversially suggested Victoria’s abortion laws are leading to some people being indifferent to violence.“Perhaps the rise in domestic violence is unsurprising if we are conditioned to treat the most vulnerable in our society so violently,” she said.
She doesn’t like foreign aid, or domestic welfare, either: she approves cutbacks favouring “a deliberate culture shift designed to transfer the responsibility of giving from government portfolios to the individual; from mandated support of the less fortunate to an increase in free will giving and the proliferation of community spirit.”
Follow some of the links above, browse around her various online presences, and you will discover that she opposes same-sex marriage, same-sex adoption, supports school chaplains and special religious instruction, and isn’t keen on sex-ed, especially if it mentions the gays.
In fact, she’s a Phobe for all seasons – an Omniphobe. Which makes her the perfect person to chair the chat at the World Congress of Families Melbourne Forum, with Fred Nile.