And that makes me superior to you, so says David Barker, former Liberal party candidate for the western Sydney electorate of Chifley.
Mr Barker, who calls himself a "man of strong Christian faith", reportedly used his Facebook site to accuse Labor of moving the nation closer to being a Muslim country. In a letter to local Christian leaders seeking their support, pointed out prime minister Julia Gillard was an "atheist" and that his Labor opponent in Chifley, Ed Husic, was a Muslim. Mr Barker said he did not understand why he had been disendorsed as the Liberal candidate for Chifley.
"I made a comment that I believe God is the only way to heaven and we shouldn’t have a Muslim candidate running in that area,”
"I don’t believe that’s exactly in line with what we believe as Australians."
Liberal Party state director Mark Neeham said Mr Barker had not conducted himself in a way the party expected of its candidates. Opposition leader Tony Abbott said attacks on people, based on their religion, had no place "whatsoever" in the election campaign. Which is odd, because at the same time both sides of politics are more than happy to fall over themselves pandering to the redneck racist vote by demonising asylum seekers – but only some of them, inconveniently the ones who by and large are dark skinned and Muslim. The ones coming by plane, conveniently largely European and Asian, and nor Muslim, seem to be ok.
