OK, imagine for one moment that you are a grandmother and you wish to register your anger over recent comments made by Sydney’s Sheikh Taj al-Hilaly. You want to send a powerful message that you are not a piece of uncovered meat. What do you do?
That’s right. First, you wait a few weeks until the story has dropped out of the media. Then, you strip down to a bikini, rally a bunch of other women to dress likewise, and, finally, you stage a protest march that ends at a different mosque in a different city; a mosque that is led by a different Muslim leader who has publicly repudiated the comments made by Sheikh Taj. And what day do you choose for this powerful expression of girl power? The 1st anniversary of the Cronulla riots, of course.
This all sounds rather silly but that is exactly what Melbourne grandmother Christine Hawkins has organised: her Great Australian Bikini March is being sponsored by a company called True Blue Productions and is supported by the White Supremacist Community who appear to be rallying the troops for the march; a march sensitively scheduled to take place on the 9th December, the first anniversary of the Cronulla riots.
Aside from the obvious question of why would anybody bother, a more pressing question is how should the people attending the mosque respond? Leave suggestions in the comments.
UPDATE: Andrew Bolt describes the march as “confrontational bigotry” and calls the sponsor a “xenophobic clothing company”