Australia’s Victoria State Supreme Court has sent a key religious freedom case back to a lower court for retrial. Pastors Danny Nalliah and Daniel Scot are hailing the decision as a victory for free speech. Two years ago, a civilian tribunal convicted the two men of violating section 8 of Victoria’s Racial and Religious Tolerance Act for comments that were made during a church seminar on Islam. The Christians were accused of vilifying Islam and were ordered to apologize. The two Danny’s said no, they have the right to freely express their views in Australian society. The High Court set aside that lower court order.

Following the decision, Pastor Daniel Scot said he will continue to conduct seminars on Islam, the Koran and Hadith. “Some Muslims have got the idea they have to hide the truth, and that's very sad," he said.

The truth is this case was a set up. Here is a portion of an interview I did with Danny Nalliah in Melbourne just before he and Scot filed their appeal:

Nalliah:

“The three complainants who came into the seminar were sent into the seminar and the person who sent them was a lady by the name of Mae Halu who at that point worked for the Equal Opportunity Commission which actually was the body which had actually put forward this racial and religious vilification law or the monitoring body of this law under which we were taken to task.”

Lane:

“So it was a set up?”

Nalliah:

“It was definitely a set up. It was confessed in the courtroom and the Islamic Council’s representatives cross examined on this and in cross examination their complainants did state very clearly that they were told by Mae Halu to go to the seminar. So, when you look at the situation, it was not like someone came into the meeting and said, ‘I felt hurt for what you said.’ But these people came to be vilified. So, they came with pen and paper, not one of the three complainants stayed for the whole seminar, each came two hours apart and covered the whole seminar and took a 52 point complaint about the seminar. Now, the three people who came were Caucasian converts to Islam so, when they came in no one could identify them whether they were Muslims or not. They did not register at the door when everyone else registered; their names are not on the registration sheet…there was no entrance fee.”

Lane:

“So, it was open to the public?”

Nalliah:

“It was open to the public, public when I say particularly it was only Christians who knew about it so, we expected a Christian audience there because it was promoted in the churches which we work with.”

Lane:

“It sounds to me like they had an agenda.”

Nalliah:

 

“Certainly that was proven and it was also given in the judge’s verdict. He has stated that two out of three of the complainants had stated they suddenly decided to come to the seminar but then he goes on to state however that he cannot put value on their statements because he knows all three of them had basically heard about the seminar prior to the seminar through the same source and they were sent to the seminar.”

Lane:

“How do you feel about that knowing that this was actually directed by someone who was employed by the Equal Opportunity Commission?”

Nalliah:

“Well, this is the most shocking incident in a free democracy where everyone should be treated equal and also where we have the freedom to speak. We have a monitoring body of a particular law that becomes also the instigator of people to bring complaints against this issue. When you look at it, we have a journalist by the name of Andrew Bolt who wrote an article in a column appearing in the Herald Sun a while ago where he stated up to ten thousand Arab Muslims were trained by the Equal Opportunity Commission to go looking for complaints.”

Lane:

“Do you think this is something the Equal Opportunity Commission should be involved in?”

Nalliah:

“ Members of the Equal Opportunity Commission were interviewed by talk back radio several times and in one of their last talk back radio interviews they stated that Mae Halu is no longer in Australia, she’s left Australia, she was never an Australian resident or citizen. She was here for a period of time and employed by the Equal Opportunity Commission so, they basically said they do not hold responsibility for what Mae Halu has done. But the talk back radio host went on to ask them, but it’s your responsibility –you were supposed to be unbiased in monitoring this law, but you actually sent someone from the Equal Opportunity Commission who worked for the Islamic Council to get someone to come and complain against the two pastors.”

To learn more about this important religious freedom case in Australia, click on
this link:

http://www.saltshakers.org.au/html/P/20/B/0/