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Christian leaders fall silent on calls for an investigation into Islamic antisemitism.

The Australian Christian Lobby has accused the Royal Commission into the Bondi terror attack of ignoring the elephant in the room.

Or, more accurately, the ideology in the room that everyone is terrified to name.

ACL chief executive Michelle Pearse told The Australian,

“There are a number of drivers of antisemitism in Australia, including hard-right racism and hard-left anti-colonialist ideology, of which the latter is of greater scale.”

So she covers all the bases.

The far Right. Tick.

The far Left. Tick.

And then she commits the great Australian social sin of saying something everybody is allowed to think but nobody respectable is supposed to say.

The Ideology Nobody Wants to Name

She continued,

“However, ACL contends that the main cause of antisemitism in Australia is Islamic antisemitism.”

I agree.

I’ve been to more than a few anti-Israel marches in Sydney.

And I’ve observed people from all walks of life at these protests.

But overwhelmingly, at the marches I’ve attended, large numbers of participants openly identify with Islam and make no secret of the fact that their worldview is informed by their religion.

And the alleged Bondi terrorists themselves were allegedly acting according to their interpretation of Islam.

Which makes the reluctance to seriously investigate Islamic antisemitism rather extraordinary.

Imagine holding a Royal Commission into a bushfire and deciding that, whatever else we do, we mustn’t discuss the match.

You can investigate right-wing extremism.

You can investigate colonialism.

You can investigate social media, masculinity, misinformation, migration and mental health.

But Islam?

Steady on.

That might lead to an awkward conversation.

When Christian Leaders Go Quiet

But here’s the part of The Australian’s report that really annoyed me.

Contacted for comment, representatives for Australia’s largest Christian denominations – the Catholic, Anglican and Uniting churches – refused to comment on the ACL’s stance.

Honestly, I shake my head at the major churches in this country.

Nobody is asking them to condemn every Muslim.

Nobody is suggesting every Muslim is an antisemite.

Nobody is even asking them to agree with the ACL’s conclusion.

They’re being asked whether a Royal Commission investigating antisemitism should at least ask whether Islamic antisemitism is one of the factors involved.

But apparently, that question is too hot for our church leaders to touch…

The Questions the Royal Commission Must Ask

I guarantee you, if someone suggested the Royal Commission investigate whether climate change was contributing to antisemitism, the response from churches would be an immediate yes.

If somebody suggested investigating Christianity’s historical role in antisemitism?

I guarantee that self-flagellating pastors and priests would be trampling each other in the rush to repent for sins committed by people who died 400 years before they were born.

But ask whether certain interpretations of Islam might be contributing to antisemitism in Australia today?

And Christian leaders are quieter than a church mouse.

Christian leaders ought to be the people least afraid of difficult truths.

Instead, too many of our institutional churches seem determined to demonstrate their courage exclusively on issues where courage costs them absolutely nothing.

They’ll challenge Western civilisation.

They’ll lecture Christians.

They’ll confess the sins of their ancestors.

But when confronted with a difficult question about another religion — one directly relevant to a Royal Commission examining antisemitism and terrorism — apparently, discretion becomes the better part of valour.

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Republished with thanks to The James Macpherson Report. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.