Hume/Moreland Leader | By Elizabeth Allen

13th April 2011

Broadmeadows state Labor MP Frank McGuire has demanded Western Metropolitan Region state Liberal MP Bernie Finn retract a Facebook comment regarding Islam.

But Mr Finn said it had been taken out of context and he was clarifying that comments on Islam could not be racist, as it was a religion. Mr Finn wrote on his Facebook page that he did not understand “how concerns about a religion that seems to sanction decapitation can be construed as racism”.

The Facebook comment was raised in State Parliament last week and prompted Mr McGuire to call for a commitment to tolerance.

“Inflammatory language is unnecessary and unhelpful because it can divide the community,” Mr McGuire said.

“This type of language is concerning to people living in Broadmeadows who this week voiced their fear of racist attacks,” he said, referring to an Islamic Council of Victoria submission to a federal inquiry on multiculturalism.

Mr Finn said he was commenting on the discussion that followed an incident in Afghanistan where UN workers were beheaded, and wanted to state that those people questioning what had happened were not racist. Mr Finn said the comment was not aimed at the Muslim community but at people who were attacking free speech by claiming it was racism.

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