Muslim public speaker and former ABC presenter Yassmin Abdel-Magied is London-bound, calling it an “Australian rite of passage” after months of criticism over her views on Anzac Day. She announced on Instagram that she was moving to London. In April, Ms. Abdel-Magied’s Anzac Day Facebook post — calling for Australians to remember Syrians, Palestinians and the detainees at Nauru and Manus Island — set off a firestorm of vitriol, as she was accused of politicizing a day of remembrance. She apologized “unreservedly,” but more than 30,000 people signed a petition calling for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation to terminate her, and some said that Ms. Abdel-Magied, a Sudanese-born Australian, should be deported. (Her show “Australia Wide” was canceled, but not because of the controversy, according to ABC.)
On Monday, Seven News Australia put the question of her departure to its audience, asking in a poll on Facebook whether Ms. Abdel-Magied, 26, should move or “stay and face her critics.” The post was pulled today after critics on social media called the poll “extreme bullying” and part of a “vendetta.”
Australia has a controversial track record with minorities or women — or worse, both — who call out the country on its racism. “Australia is generally a very tolerant society until its minorities demonstrate that they don’t know their place,” the TV host and Times op-ed contributor Waleed Aly said in 2015.
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/05/world/australia/yassmin-abdel-magied-…
