Joyce condemns 'world view' behind protest

16 Sep 2012, 2:03 pm   -   Source: AAP

Outspoken federal senator Barnaby Joyce says Australian society won't work if Sydney's violent protest "was to be replicated across every city".

Outspoken Nationals senator Barnaby Joyce says political leaders must speak out against a violent protest in Sydney to protect Australia "from what we might become years down the track".

Six men have been charged following Saturday's demonstration against an anti-Islam film which left half-a-dozen police officers and 17 others injured.

"It's not xenophobic to ask what is in your national interest and what values we support and what actions we will condone," Senator Joyce told the Nationals' federal conference in Canberra.

"The riot that has happened in Sydney was supported by a certain world view that is not in our national interest.

"A response is demanded by politicians."

Senator Joyce stressed he didn't have a problem with Islam generally and said he was comforted by the fact senior Muslims had condemned the violence.

But the Queensland senator was disturbed to see people in Sydney scared.

"You look at that and say 'That is not what we are'," he said on Sunday.

"We have a responsibility to our nation now to protect them from what we might become years down the track.

"If we do not make that statement today we are not politically correct - we are cowardly.

"The structure of the nation we have here is something that just will not work if that type of behaviour was to be replicated across every city."

Senator Joyce said if political leaders didn't articulate what was in Australia's national interest "then we just create a vacuum and into that vacuum will come any other set of values and beliefs that are proximate to us".

He railed against political correctness which he said worked against defining a "philosophical core".

That philosophical core should include standing up for freedom of speech and religion so long as it didn't invoke the ire of others or shut down the centre of Sydney.

Senator Joyce said people shouldn't say things that were "utterly offensive" to any religion be it Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism or Islam.

The Nationals' conference on Sunday passed an urgency motion that called on all Australians to "respect the freedom of peaceful expression of others including respectful commentary upon religious views of others".

The motion commended NSW Police for their handling of the demonstration and demanded violent protesters be prosecuted "to the full extend of the law".

There have been protests around the world in response to the low-budget movie Innocence of Muslims in which actors with strong American accents portray Muslims as immoral and gratuitously violent.

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