Yes, Pauline has that heady mix of bitterness, fighting spirit, and manipulation. All to negative effect.

What would have taken real courage would have been to talk and act positively.

As far as falling for a Muslim man, has she caught up with news Dodi Al-Fayed is off the market?

I haven't lived in the UK since 1977. At that time there were other nationalities settled in UK but my current understanding is influenced by my daughter, living in Coventry, who assures me that there are large areas of the UK where few white people are seen.
I hope PH gets on OK in UK but from my subscription to Big Brother Watch weekly newsletter I have doubts that it will satisfy her.

It would be nice if social commentators ceased getting automatic credit for taking a swipe at Pauline Hanson. Cheap kudos. And it would be even better if, when they were critical, their comments were a little more sophisticated. NB "Shone" is preferable to "shined" in the context of the sentence in which it appears here.

PH was a divisive individual, however, the effort that the major parties and media went to in 'destroying' (martyring?) this woman was extraordinary.

As noted, moving to the UK to escape multicult PC culture is a bit intriguing, but maybe she wants a better fight?

regarding the author's following thoughts:

"specific local and global economic, social and political factors are the cause of certain problems in society"

"a robust multicultural society can only be built by a genuine political culture with the motto “everyone matters” and by politicians who look after everyone’s interests, whether they are Anglo, indigenous, migrant or refugee"

I think we need only look at places like Indonesia, Malaysia, Turkey, the US and Australia, and hope that radical Islam does not change the current, western influenced, freedoms we all have - and perhaps a little less Shar'ia?

"Pauline Hanson is deeply imbued with bitterness for her own failure in politics"

Name another politician who changed Australia more.

In what sense do her statements that "she wouldn't sell her house to an Asian who has lived in Asia" and "Muslims are incompatible with Australian culture and way of life and would cause problems in the future" constitute a "racist outburst"?
So she doesn't support immigration from Asia and believes that the Muslim religion is incompatible with Australian culture. In both cases she is putting a view that Australia, in her opinion, would be a better country if Asian immigration and Muslim immigration were stopped.
But why are these views considered to be racist? Of course Muslims are a religious grouping not a racist grouping, but even allowing for that, is she saying that Asians and Muslims are somehow inferior, that their legal and other rights should be attenuated?
Or is the word "racist" just a convenient term of abuse to describe the views of persons whose beliefs you don't share.

Regardless of Pauline's bitter views against all non-white people, the woman was not suited as a politician anyway.

She was neither intelligent nor articulate and would have been swallowed up a lot earlier if the media hadn't taken her racist ramblings and ran with them.

Pauline would have been more suitable as a receptionist for the local ku klux klan chapter, but certainly could never cut it as an effective politician.

benk,

PH didn't contribute a thing. She only gave voice to the Red Necks, whom most of Australia ignored. You should ask who has embarrassed Australia more.? Then, we would be struggling to answer.

Come back Pauline.
We need you.
PH for PM !

A well written article Alice.

Personally I prefer the brutal honesty of Pauline Hanson to that

slithery character, Tony Abbot.I wish he would sell his house and move

to England too. What a relief!

This is an injustice and typical of the way in which Pauline Hansen has been misrepresented in the media:

The article says, "Hanson .... told a journalist that she wouldn’t sell her house to an Asian who has lived in Asia."

In contrast, the Herald article and the newsreel where she can be seen and heard speaking, reported:

"Asked if Asians were welcome to express interest in the property, Ms Hanson said she would not sell the home to an Asian who lived overseas.

But she had no problem with selling the property to "an Australian who is of Asian background".

"No problems whatsoever," she said.

Asked if she would be prepared to sell the property to a Muslim, she said she would not.">

http://www.smh.com.au/national/pauline-hansons-muslim-ban-illegal-20100428-tqbb.html

Clearly, what she was saying was that she would object to her home being included in an Asian investor's portfolio of Australian property.

I have not been in agreement with PH's opinions on anything that I can recall, but it's hard to know exactly what her opinions are when she's the favourite target for anyone who needs one to make some point.

PH represented 25% of public opinion. We're supposed to be living in a democracy and as such, those 25% are as entitled to representation as any other citizen. Instead we have seen her bullied non stop. She was victimized by the dominant party (supposed to be 2 but they are largely interchangeable) - ie: the "get Pauline fund" that was used to pay media outlets to vilify her after she refused to give her preferences to either major party.

There's never been any investigation; there's never been any investigation into the false charges that put her in gaol where she was squat searched and humiliated in every way that a person can be. Nobody has been brought to account for any of that.

Her (apparent) opinions should have been debated properly in parliament; education and ideas should have been used to win them over.

I don't agree with her, but have even less respect for those who vilify her.

<"...it would have been too great an expectation for a fierce and outspoken woman like her to leave her ancestral land for good “quietly” and without making a scene.">

Why should she leave quietly?

None of us knows why she is going overseas; but there is no reason why she should skulk off.

Btw nothing wrong with outspoken women. One hardly hears any grumbles about outspoken men.

<"At the same time, a robust multicultural society can only be built by a genuine political culture with the motto “everyone matters” and by politicians who look after everyone’s interests, whether they are Anglo, indigenous, migrant or refugee.>"

I am all for a robust, inclusive multicultural society.

I can't get with the logic that to be inclusive we should be excluding people.

Seems like a bit of redneck logic to me.

<<But her courage is destructive like every other courage that is not shaped and limited by ethics.>>
How can expressing concern for your country be destructive and unethical?
It is perfectly logical not to want to increase the Islamic influence in Australia.
Who in their right mind would seek to Middle-Easternise this country?
It's already happening:
Islamic prayer rooms in our universities represent retrograde desecularisation.
These prayer rooms are gender-segregated!
Imagine the hullabaloo if anybody else proposed gender segregation.
Halal slaughteryards specially exempt from 21st century standards of animal welfare are on the increase.
Female genital mutilation is on the increase to the extent that doctors are now contemplating "low impact" FGM to limit the damage.
Terrorist activity is increasing.
Race-based gang rapes are increasing.
Bandits are using burqas to commit robberies.
Welcome to Multicultistan.
Pauline Hanson is strong.
The only <<human weakness>> we are seeing is the naivete of the weak-minded who are blind to history, particularly to the savage role that Islam has played in the deaths of hundreds of millions of its victims.
Oh, did I mention honour killings?
...the death penalty for blasphemers?
...the death penalty for apostates?
Wake up Australia.

Alice Aslan,

Muslim experts on Islam contradict your belief in the benign nature of Islam:

"The majority of the ulemaa (scholars) of the “House of Islam” are controlled by Islamists who use an authoritative shar’iah which is incompatible with the ideas of liberty and the separation of mosque and state."
M. Zuhdi Jasser, M.D., President and Founder of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy (AIFD).

"My main point is that, what people generally mean as Islam (Tafseer, Hadith, Sira, Jurisprudence, Sharia) is certainly not peaceful. However, peaceful understanding of the religion is possible. Moderate Muslims such as Jasser and others do exist because they do not practice the traditional dominant theology and alternatively they have developed their own personal interpretations for the religion. Until these personal interpretations become the mainstream type of teaching within Islam, I have to agree with Robert Spencer that moderate Islam does not exist."
Tawfik Hamid, Islamic thinker and reformer

"The obstacles to the predominance of modern Islam over political Islam are many– frequent death threats, blind corruptive tribalism, societal and financial power of Islamists, and Muslim illiteracy. This is not to mention the facilitation by western media and government of Islamists due to political correctness."
Jasser

"If we defined Islam in terms of what is being taught and promoted in mainstream Islamic books such the Tafseers and Fiqh, then Robert Spencer is absolutely correct is saying that moderate Islam does not exist. The problem is that this form of Islamic teaching is not counterbalanced by a theologically based peaceful interpretation of the religion. Until today, all main schools of jurisprudence in Islam accept violence in some way or another."
Hamid

http://frontpagemag.com/2010/05/27/symposium-the-worlds-most-wanted-a-%e2%80%9cmoderate-islam-%e2%80%9d/

Please become informed on Islam before propagating misrepresentations.
Please also note Jasser's message to you:
"This is not to mention the facilitation by western media and government of Islamists due to political correctness"

Alice Aslan,

Clearly Islam is just the same as Christianity:

"Washington, D.C. (June 2, 2010) - International Christian Concern (ICC) has learned that an Afghan parliamentary secretary called for the public execution of Christian converts on the parliament floor.
On Tuesday, the Associated Free Press reported that Abdul Sattar Khawasi, deputy secretary of the Afghan lower house in parliament, called for the execution of Christian converts from Islam. Speaking in regards to a video broadcasted [sic] by Afghan television network Noorin TV showing footage of Christian men being baptized and praying in Farsi, Khawasi said, "Those Afghans that appeared in this video film should be executed in public, the house should order the attorney general and the NDS (intelligence agency) to arrest these Afghans and execute them."
The broadcast triggered a protest by hundreds of Kabul University students on Monday, who shouted death threats and demanded the expulsion of Christian foreigners accused of proselytizing.As a result, the operations of Norwegian Church Aid (NCA) and U.S.-based Church World Service (CWS) have been suspended over allegations of proselytizing. The Afghan government is currently undertaking an intensive investigation into the matter. According to Afghan law, proselytizing is illegal and conversion from Islam is punishable by death."
http://www.persecution.org/suffering/ICCnews/newsdetail.php?newscode=12470&title=afghan-parliamentarian-calls-for-execution-of-christians

Hello Alice...
Are you really so naive?

Note that the university protests were not against, but in favour of executing Christian converts.

Pynchme

Yours were two of the very best posts on Hanson I have ever had the pleasure to read: concise, hard-hitting and always on target.

Thank you.

Thanks too Cornflower. I appreciate your acknowledgment and glad that we agree on something.