Sydney, Aug 15: Australian Senator Fraser Anning on Wednesday compared Muslims with "poisonous jelly beans", following his "racist" maiden speech in the Senate seeking immigration restrictions based on race.
Anning, from the conservative Katter's Australian Party, advocated a return to White Australia policy and called for migration bans on Muslims in his speech in Parliament on Tuesday.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull joined other politicians and community leaders in criticizing the Queensland Senator for suggesting a "final solution" (the phrase that refers to a plan hatched by Nazis to annihilate the Jews) to the immigration "problem".
Turnbull said Anning made "a shocking insult to the memory" of those murdered in the Holocaust.
Following his controversial speech, Anning targeted Muslims once again in an interview to a Sydney talkback radio.
"Look, if you can tell me which ones are not going to cause us harm, then fine, that'd be great. But unfortunately if you have a jar of jelly beans and three of them are poisonous, you're not going to try any of them," he told Alan Jones of radio 2GB, while referring to Muslims.
Anning insisted that Muslims should be stopped from entering Australia. "I'm afraid that the Muslims, as a group, there's going to be three or four or five per cent that are going to mean us harm.
"Because I can't tell who's who, I think the safest thing for Australians is that we don't have any of them," he said.
Earlier in his Parliament speech, Anning said: "The record of Muslims who have already come to this country in rates of crime, welfare dependency and terrorism is the worst of any migrants and vastly exceeds any other immigrant groups.
"We have black African Muslim gangs terrorising Melbourne. We have Islamic State-sympathizing Muslims trying to go overseas to fight for it. While all Muslims are not terrorists, certainly all terrorists these days are Muslims," he said while urging for a plebiscite to decide who enters Australia.
Several Australian parliamentarians denounced the speech as "disgraceful" and called on Anning to apologize for his choice of words.
Muslim MP Anne Aly said that the Queensland Senator deliberately used "neo-Nazi, white supremacist terminology".
"That was a deliberate use of a heinous word that brings back so many painful memories and sets a precedent for the future of our country that we need to stand up and stop it," said a tearful Aly in Parliament.
"I'm tired of fighting. I'm tired of having to stand up against hate, against vilification, time and time again."
Besides Muslims, Anning also targeted international students as he asked for an "end to Australian-job-stealing 457 visas" and "force international students to return to their country of origin once they finish their education".
He also sought the number of student visas to be cut drastically. India is the second largest source of international students after China.
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New Delhi: Since the closure of airspace in West Asia, Indian airlines have brought back around 15,000 stranded passengers from the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Oman.
According to the Ministry of Civil Aviation (India), recovery flights began on March 2. These figures cover operations through March 5. On Friday, March 6, a total of 40 inbound flights returned people to India.
As many as 51 flights are scheduled to arrive on Saturday, March 7 which is the highest number since airstrikes in the region began on February 28, according to The Hindu.
Besides Indian carriers, Gulf airlines are also engaged in the airlifting activity. The Emirates, flydubai and Etihad Airways have operated some special flights and limited commercial services.
The ministry has set up a control room and helpline for passengers seeking travel assistance and can be contacted on 011-24604283 and 011-24632987.
