Extract from ABC News
By political reporter Henry Belot
Updated
Labor MP Anne Aly has told Parliament she received
death threats after she condemned Immigration Minister Peter Dutton's
comments about Lebanese-Muslims.
Mr Dutton singled out the Lebanese-Muslin community earlier this week, saying most people charged with terror-related offences came from the background.Dr Aly, the first Muslim woman to be elected to Parliament and an expert in counter-terrorism, said the Immigration Minister's comments were "extremely disappointing" and feared they were made in malice.
She said the comments prompted death threats directed towards her family.
"I don't worry about myself because in this place I am afforded the protections that not many people are afforded," she said.
"But these were death threats against my family.
"Someone came out and said they would like to kill my family. Where are my rights?"During a debate on equality, Dr Aly asked if a right to free speech was worth more than her right to be protected.
"Now if I'm getting those kinds of emails, you can be sure that there are people out there in the communities, people out there in Liberal-held seats of Arab, or Muslim, or Lebanese background, or just any kind of migrant background who are also going to be getting comments like that in the streets."
Mr Dutton last week stated that former prime minister Malcolm Fraser "did make mistakes in bringing some people in" as part of his immigration policies in the 1970s.
"The advice I have is that out of the last 33 people who have been charged with terrorist-related offences in this country, 22 of those people are from second and third generation Lebanese-Muslim background," he said.
Aly asks: Is free speech worth more than protection?
Coalition MP Andrew Laming defended Mr Dutton's comments saying he did no more than speak the "prima facie truth" about ethnic communities.During Question Time in the Senate, Attorney-General George Brandis said he did not believe the comments would make it harder for the Government to cooperate with the community on counter-terrorism measures.
During a debate on equality, Dr Aly took issue with Coalition MPs pushing for reforms to section 18c of the Racial Discrimination Act.
"I would ask those people whether they think that their right to free speech is better or more worthy than my right to feel protected," she said.
"Am I a second-class citizen, that my right to feel protected is less than someone's right to be a bigot?"Dr Aly recalled being bullied by two peers in primary school, with one girl spitting in her face and telling her that she was "a dirty Muslim, a dirty Arab and that she hated me because I didn't believe in Jesus".
After complaining to her teacher, she said she was told to stop being silly and "don't be stupid".
"That experience doesn't define for me what Australia means, that experience I had in the playground that day didn't equate with me saying Australia was a racist country," she said.
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