Thursday, September 13, 2007
“THIS WILL BE PUBLICISED”
Deny a Palestinian writer an immediate visa, and you can expect trouble:
A Palestinian journalist has warned of a Muslim backlash over the failure of Australian authorities to grant him a visa in time to speak at today’s Brisbane Writers Festival.
Abdel Bari-Atwan, a best-selling author and among the last Western journalists to interview Osama bin Laden, was cancelled as a speaker at the festival yesterday as he waited for his visa application to be processed …
He said his visa problems would air throughout the Muslim world. “This could, in fact, incite trouble for Australia because there are a billion-and-a-half Muslims over the world and this will be publicised among those people,” he said. “They are not serving the Australian peoples’ interests, they are not serving Australian security, they are actually doing the opposite.”
Can’t imagine why our immigration officials might be studying this chap with greater than usual interest.
(Via KK)