Ben Harvey: Muslim leaders whining about treatment of anti-Semitic nurses need to read the room

This column serves as a memo to the more than 50 leaders of Australian Muslims who signed an open letter of complaint about the treatment of the two NSW nurses who bragged about wanting to kill Jews. Take it as a bit of free advice. You clearly need it. You must understand that you are in a public relations war with Israel as much as a real one. The hearts and minds of everyday Australians (hearts and minds which are more open than you might think, by the way) are not going to be won by saying they are over-reacting to that video. It sickened and scared us. Please appreciate that we don’t want this crap in Australia. The United Muslim Community Statement gave the perception that you do. You may not have intended it but the letter’s ill-advised title “We Condemn the Hypocrisy Over Nurses Controversy” gave the impression that you were defending public servants who have threatened to use the Australian health system to kill patients. In this country there are no “yeah, buts” with that one. It gets unequivocal condemnation. The title should have been “We Condemn the Nurses”. The readers of the letter who were forgiving enough to let the communique’s title go through to the keeper probably did a double-take when they read the text that followed. Australia’s outrage was not “selective” and “politically motivated”, as you suggested. It was just outrage. Not selective. Not political. It was certainly not “outrage” in inverted commas, as the word was dressed in your letter. And I can assure you that any moral panic over the past few days was not “manufactured”, as you suggested. It was genuine. Your suggestion that Ahmad Nadir and Sarah Abu Lebdeh were not being anti-Semitic was patently absurd. Why on earth would you, the Federation of Islamic Councils, endorse that ridiculous argument by being the first signature on the letter? Why on earth would you, Senator Fatima Payman, as the self-styled voice of moderate Islam in this country, say that the nurses had been demonised disproportionately? “We never see the same level of anger and vitriol when the roles are reversed,” you said. Sorry, Fatima, I don’t think this specific role has ever been reversed. I can’t remember any Jewish nurses being recording threatening to kill Muslim patients. If they were, I reckon you would see that Australians were just as “outraged” as they are now. You pick the battles you have a chance of winning. This wasn’t it. You’re not going to convince Australia that there are any mitigating factors for what the nurses said. The very act of arguing the point meant you risked losing the support of middle Australia. As grudging and lacklustre as that support might sometimes appear to you, it’s critical that you have it because if what’s left of the sensible centre mobilises on this issue, it’s going to move to the right of the political spectrum. You will be opening the door for an Australian version of Donald Trump to walk through. And then into The Lodge. For the sake of the tens of thousands of Muslims who came to Australia so they wouldn’t have to put up with religious vendettas, please read the room.