Queensland: deputy premier denounces Q Society on behalf of Labor government and calls on opposition parties to join him

Q Society SOS campaign

Queensland’s Deputy Premier Andrew Fraser has called on Liberal National Party (LNP) and Katter’s Australian Party MPs to denounce a group spreading anti-Islamic propaganda in the state.

Mr Fraser’s west Brisbane electorate is being letterbox dropped by a group called the Qsociety, which is concerned with the “erosion of Western values and the Islamisation of Australia”. The flyers say “it’s time to say no” to the Halal food industry, “whitewashed Islamic content” in state schools, Sharia finance and “segregation and apartheid” such as prayer rooms. They direct readers to a website and a Victorian address.

Mr Fraser on Thursday told parliament the flyers presented a chance for MPs who voted against his bill on same sex civil unions to take a stand on another human rights issue. The bill passed on Wednesday night, with Labor MPs given a conscience vote and the LNP voting against it. Mr Fraser said they should denounce Qsociety.

“It’s to the credit of this house and our democracy that we can debate a sensitive issue such as civil partnership with civility,” he said. “Perhaps today the LNP can overcome their moral timidity to join with me in distancing themselves from hateful and hurtful prejudice propagated by Qsociety and condemn (it) in the most unambiguous terms as I do, on behalf of the Labor government. (Not) to do so would be an act of complicity. The interests if decency require us all to condemn this prejudice.”

9 News, 1 December 2011

Presumably the Q Society flyer was promoting the speaking tour they have organised for Robert Spencer of Jihad Watch (there is a public meeting in Brisbane today). I can’t find a copy of the actual leaflet but you can get a flavour of the Q Society’s propaganda here and here.

Update:  See “Anti-Islamic hate mail has no place in our society”, Andrew Fraser MP blog post, 2 December 2011

Andrew Fraser tabled a copy of the Q Society flyer, which can be viewed here.

Update 2:  Robert Spencer steps in to defend the anti-Muslim bigots of the Q Society as “a formidable vanguard of Australian patriots who are determined to stand for human rights against Islamization in Australia”. He accuses Andrew Fraser of parroting the arguments of “Islamic supremacist groups” and taking the position that “defending Western civilization is something people should be ashamed of”.