Sonia Kruger, judge on The Voice, has clearly noticed the respect Donald Trump has earned for his immigration policies and decided to follow suit.
Appearing on Today this morning with hosts David Campbell and Lisa Wilkinson, Kruger echoed the opinion of Andrew Bolt's recent column, which argued that halting Muslim immigration was the only way to prevent an attack similar to the Bastille Day Nice attacks happening in Australia.
"There is a correllation between the number of people who are Muslim in a country and the number of terrorist attacks," she argued.
Kruger used the example of Japan, which has a Muslim population of 100,000 within its 194 million people, implying that, like mercury per litre of seawater, there's a 'safe' level of Muslim people in the population which France has exceeded.
I have a lot of good friends who are Muslim and are peace loving who are beautiful people, but there are fanatics..."
“Personally, I would like to see it [Muslim migration] stop now for Australia because I would like to feel safe as all of our citizens do when they go out to celebrate Australia Day and I'd like to see freedom of speech,” she went on.
Firstly, whether or not someone has Muslim friends isn't relevant - although we are curious to see if any Muslim besties will present themselves to the media in order to have Kruger's back. Having Muslim friends doesn't preclude someone from casting aspersions upon the community has a whole, much in the same way as having an actuary best friend makes doing your taxes any easier.
It's true that Japan has a tiny Muslim population, and that they also don't experience much terrorism. But Japan and Australia (and for that matter, France) are very different places. Japan has a long history of monoculturalism and has had nearly zero immigration for centuries, whereas Australia's story is that of a multicultural melting pot, one from which everybody but indigenous Australians have benefited.
(BTW, she didn't have a comment on the 'safe' proportion of authoritarian French colonialists in Syria, Lebanon and Tunia over the past five centuries.)
That's beside the point though - to reference the size of Japan's Muslim population, or to state that Australia's population is 'big enough' assumes a 'safe' level, and that's not the way a society works. It's not like mercury per litre in seawater, where you hit a danger zone in which being poisoned by terrorism becomes inevitable.
But there's no algorithm - there's no correct proportion of religions or ethnicities that prevents violence. What there is is a committment to inclusiveness, and tolerate, and understanding, and compassion, none of which is exemplified by going on breakfast TV to brand large groups of people as 'problematic'.
https://twitter.com/SoniaKruger/status/754879435828899840
