A far-left Muslim Greens senator has said the Australian parliament should get rid of the Lord’s Prayer in a combative interview where she also refused to say terrorist group Hamas should be disbanded.
Mehreen Faruqi, who was born in Pakistan and earlier this year claimed in court that White people could not be the victims of racism, appeared on ABC’s Insiders on Sunday where she was grilled about her constant pro-Palestine activism.
When asked about her views on plans by Muslim organisation The Muslim Vote to target MPs in Sydney and Melbourne electorates where Christian Australians have been largely replaced by Muslims, Faruqi responded by saying the Lord’s Prayer should be axed.
Pakistan-born Muslim Greens Senator Mehreen Faruqi told ABC’s Insiders today that the Australian parliament should get rid of the Lord’s Prayer.https://t.co/XUeNOlMRYn pic.twitter.com/TLP0tUD7Hd
— The Noticer (@NoticerNews) July 7, 2024
“We start our day with the Lord’s Prayer, lets not forget that, as much as I would love for our parliament to be secular, I completely believe in a secular parliament, believe in the separation of church and state,” she said.
“You’d like to get rid of the Lord’s Prayer?” host David Speers asked.
“I would like to get rid of it, because so many people of different faiths and from all over the world live in this country, and that is not representative, parliament is not representative,” Faruqi, who worn a Palestinian scarf to the interview, responded.
MPs have started each parliamentary sitting with the Christian prayer since Federation, although anti-Australian left-wing extremists have made sporadic calls for its removal, with Victorian premier Jacinta Allan saying in January that “cultural diversity” should be reflected in parliamentary practice.
Mr Speers also quizzed Faruqi on a recent pro-Palestine protest at Parliament House in Canberra in which demonstrators breached security and hung banners from the building’s roof causing it to be shut down video of which had been shared by her party.
“We are not encouraging any protests which are violent,” Faruqi said.
“I think it was a bit rich of the Prime Minister to say that unfurling a banner from the top of the Parliament House was somehow not a peaceful protest.”
When asked how she felt about the desecration of the Australian War Memorial, Faruqi replied: “I again think that talking about some paint on a building rather than what’s happening in Israel … I wouldn’t have done it, but I understand that people are angry, and people want some way of the government to listen to them.”
Earlier in the interview Faruqi was repeatedly asked by Speers whether Hamas should be “dismantled”, which she refused to say despite admitted that it was a listed terrorist organisation.
