"Islam is a Religion of War"

Madame Valérie Boyer is a right-of-centre deputy in the French National Assembly.  Here she is on Twitter, regarding the possibility that 130 Jihadists who left France to join Islamic State will be allowed back into the country.

Watch her in this English-subtitled video posted by Canadian blogger Vlad Tepes.  It includes Interior Minister Christophe Castaner's dismissive and seemingly arrogant reply to the lady's well-stated fears.

As that brave and perspicacious French intellectual, Guy Millière, a firm friend of Israel, has warned

'.... Radical Islam may be on the defensive, but its offence has not stopped. The main Islamist organizations seem to be waiting for the moment to attack again....

Islamist jihadist groups are still active in Libya, where they control human trafficking activities and infiltrate their operations among immigrants trying to cross the Mediterranean to Europe. The police continue to seize components used to make explosive devices and have thwarted attempted attacks on European soil, but videos with instructions are still circulating.

It is important to emphasize that radical Islamists use other means of power than terrorism to gain ground. The Muslim Brotherhood, the main Sunni Islamist organization, has never rejected violence but says it prefers the da'wa (proselytism, infiltration, and influence) to achieve power in the Muslim world and beyond. Sayid Qutb, their leader in the 1950s, said that the goal of the Muslim Brotherhood was to "establish the Islamic regime" wherever possible, by "any means"....  The Muslim Brothers ... continue to have the support of Turkey and Qatar, and Hamas was founded as the Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood.

The latest reports indicate that the members of the Muslim Brotherhood can now turn to an affiliate network in more than 70 countries. They maintain their hope of winning throughout the Muslim world, but their main objective seems to be the transformation of the West.

The leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood seem to think that if the West falls, the rest of the world will fall too. In the US, the Muslim Brothers have unofficial branches, hiding, but very active; These include the Council for American Islamic Relations (CAIR) and the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA)....

It is still allowed to criticize Islam in Western Europe, but all who dares, with some exceptions, such as Éric Zemmour in France or Thilo Sarrazin in Germany, are almost totally ignored by the mainstream media. ...  Hamed Abdel-Samad, a former member of the Muslim Brotherhood who now lives in Germany, is the author of Islamic Fascism. Abdel-Samad says what Western European leaders refuse to see: "Islam is a religion of war." In a recent interview, he added that when a non-Muslim country is strong, "Islam may end up agreeing to live together", b Abdel-Samad says what Western European leaders refuse to see: "Islam is a religion of war." In a recent interview, he added that when a non-Muslim country is strong, "Islam may end up agreeing to live together", but when a non-Muslim country is passive "war appears" on the horizon. This war, he continued, "can be violent. It can be non-violent. Western European countries show all the symptoms of being passive....'

Read all of the chilling warning here

Sizer, Najar, & Two Anglican Prelates Called George

On Stephen Sizer's Facebook page, beneath a post of his linking to this Guardian report, eyebrow-raising posts by a Michigan-based "friend" of his, Linda Najar:

And on Najar's own Facebook page, such current uglies as these:

Is the ex-vicar of Virginia Water, now CEO of the so-called Peacemakers Trust, really happy to have Facebook friends such as she?  If he is not, he should demonstrate his disapproval by de-friending such people forthwith. 

Former Archbishop of Canterbury Dr George Carey, now a life peer, is seen below asserting, in  an interview on i24NEWS with video anti-antisemitism campaigner and Middle East analyst Jonathan Sacerdoti, a few home truths on Holocaust Memorial Day:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5E8Xx58zq68

Inter alia, to quote the uploader:

'.... Lord Carey of Clifton told i24NEWS on Sunday that 'Christians are to blame as well' for high-levels of anti-Semitism in the UK, which he suggested was linked to the one-sided narratives many received on pilgrimages to Israel and the West Bank. 'What I think we need to do is to better educate Christians who go on these pilgrimages to see this as not the total story,' Lord Carey said, urging the thousands attending such religious trips to prominent and widely-contested holy sites in the region to seek the entire picture with regards to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Many of the religious sites such as Jesus’ birthplace in Bethlehem and the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron are located in the West Bank, often flashpoint and conflict-centric areas. 'What they don’t realize is what is happening to the Jewish communities in their own land who are sidelined and in a way persecuted by Palestinians. You’ve got to get a much more balanced view of what’s going on,' he continued. 'I think of Israel as a wonderful, sophisticated, democratic society surrounded by undemocratic nations. I mean we must support one another,' he said, emphasizing shared the Judeo-Christian heritage. 'Christians owe so much to the Jewish scriptures and Jewish history, so we stand as one,' the former top church leader added. Lord Carey of Clifton has often spoken out publicly against anti-Semitism in the church and across the UK. 'It’s not going to cost my life, it’s not going to cost my future, and this is what Jews fear, you know, the persecution, indirect persecution,' he asserted, referring to the detrimental impact anti-Semitism can often have on daily life. 'Think of Jewish children walking to school with armed guards, guards outside synagogues — in an advanced civilization such as ours, this is quite deplorable,' he told i24NEWS'

On the other side of the world, meanwhile, here's George Browning, former Anglican Bishop of Canberra and Goulburn, who's president of the Australia Palestine Advocacy Network (APAN), warming the hearts of supersecessionists everywhere, and (in a passage not quoted by me in the excerpt below) giving the nod to Stephen Sizer, with no mention of that gentleman's dodgy postings and dodgy associations over the years:

'Christian Zionism does not support Israel for Israel’s sake, but because ‘believers’ have been led to understand the Bible teaches Israeli sovereignty from the Nile to the Euphrates will herald the end of the world and trigger the ‘rapture’, when Jesus will come again and establish his Kingdom – from Jerusalem. So important is the acquisition of land to this cult like ideology that Zionists resist ‘land for peace’ or the unfolding of a peace process that would ultimately see the establishment of a Palestinian state.

It should not simply be left to secularists to describe this for what it is – absurd, dangerous, nonsense .... Tiptoeing around is to condone cruel apartheid for Palestinians who, through accident of birth and heredity, inconveniently stand in the way of these delusional ambitions, cloaked as they may be in saccharine piety. Tiptoeing around is not simply to support Israel in its overtly apartheid system of colonisation, it is also to turn a blind eye to the reality that Saudi Arabia has been the cradle from which terrorism has sprung, while the demonization of Iran leaves it dangerously outside the checks and balances that come with being part of an international community of trade and diplomacy.

Just as Christian Zionism’s concern for Israel resides in a very different priority; similarly, US Middle Eastern politics is driven not by events in the Middle East, but by US domestic politics and the base from which Donald Trump relies on for support – the Evangelical Christian right. We are confronted with utter hypocrisy and disdain for truth on every corner. It is very unlikely that Donald Trump believes the nonsense of the Christian Zionist position, but being their champion keeps him in the White House. (By contrast the very honourable John McCain refused to accept endorsement from this quarter). It is almost incomprehensible that Christians of any description could condone Trump’s deceitfulness, self-aggrandisement, and appalling behaviour, particularly to women, and yet none of this seems to matter to the Christian right, as long as he supports their agenda.

[Emphasis asdded; the irony of citing Trump's alleged misogyny, while turning a blind eye to the appalling reality of Islamic subjugation of women, not least in Iran, will surely not be lost on readers!]

.... So, what of Australia? How many Christians are motivated by a Zionist ideology is very hard to know. What motivates [Liberal federal politician] Eric Abetz to demonise Palestinians and unconditionally laud the state of Israel? Only he could answer. His public statements following the Labor Party motion to make the recognition of Palestine a priority indicate either he has callous disregard for Palestinian suffering at the hands of the occupation and settlement program, or that he chooses to block this reality from his mind. He continues to insist that Palestine refuses to accept the right of Israel to exist even though since the Oslo accord more than 20 years ago Palestinians have accepted a territorial divide based on 1967 borders. Further he refuses to acknowledge that the boot is on the other foot, most ministers in the Netanyahu government have said they will never allow a Palestinian state.

South African apartheid enjoyed the imprimatur of conservative Christians based on spurious interpretation and application of biblical text. To be doing the same in the land of Jesus who revealed that in God there are no boundaries, no divisions; common or shared humanity is more important than tribal, ethnic or religious identity; is to deny the very foundations of Christianity itself.'

What a ripper of an article, by contrast, and on the ABC site no less, by co-CEO of the Executive Australian Jewry Peter Wertheim, who having ably described Australia's support for Jewish statehood at the UN General Assembly in 1949, remarks:

 'If [the Australian] Labor [Party, which at its conference last month voted to recognise a Palestinian state on assuming office] today were to apply the same criteria to recognition of a Palestinian state that it applied to recognition of Israel, "Palestine" would fail on all of them. In particular, due to the schism within the Palestinian national movement, there is no Palestinian entity that exercises "control of all forms of administration within specified areas" that comprise the territory claimed by the Palestinians ― namely, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

The internal divide between the secular nationalist movement among Palestinians, represented by the PLO and Palestinian Authority (PA) which controls parts of the West Bank, and the theocratic movement, represented by Hamas which controls the Gaza Strip, has resulted in internecine violence on many occasions. They are at odds over the most basic questions, not only concerning peace with Israel and other policy issues, but also on the essential nature of a future Palestinian State, and the basic rules by which it will be governed.

Hamas refuses to relinquish its arms to the PA and to place its operatives under the PA's command. The PA is too weak to force Hamas to do so. The Palestinians have never had their "Altalena" moment.

So for reasons which are entirely internal to Palestinian society, there is no reasonable prospect for the foreseeable future of any government being formed which would exercise effective control over both the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, and possess the capacity to give effect to any agreements signed by "Palestine" ― including any peace treaty that might be negotiated with Israel.

Recognising a Palestinian state in these circumstances would therefore not help to end the conflict with Israel, but would almost certainly inaugurate a new and bloodier phase of that conflict, at the likely cost of many more lives than the conflict has claimed thus far.'

"Extremist Hate Preachers, pro-Jihad Activists, and Avowed anti-Semites" Talk the Talk on British Campuses

On Holocaust Memorial Day, Facebook friends of Mick Napier, verbose chief of chieftain the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign, share an obnoxious cartoon popular with the Israel-demonising crowd.

For his part, Napier (current Facebook profile avowing "Working to boycott and isolate the genocidal State of Israel") has used Holocaust Memorial Day to push his anti-Israel message in posts and a live broadcast to followers, including one invoking Raphael Lemkin's definition of Genocide.

A follower runs with the theme of Israelis as deliberate perpetrators of genocide, and another, reflecting what has become commonplace in the anti-Israel movement, especially since the rise of Corbyn, is not shy about making antisemitic tropes:

To which the chief's observation is hardly an outright condemnation:

Meanwhile, Tomas Rowan, described as "with UNRWA as a United Nations Refugee Affairs Officer in Gaza during the First Intifada" whose "novel of that period A Bar Mitzvah At Arafat’s will be published this summer", is advocating adoption of an "anti-Palestinianism" declaration analogous to definitions of antisemitism.

And the London-based Henry Jackson Society has published a very revealing, very disturbing analysis of extremist speakers on campuses in the UK during the academic year 2017-18.

Inter alia:

'Extremist hate preachers, pro-jihad activists, and avowed anti-Semites have “near-unfettered” access to students. It catalogues 435 events promoted to students held over the last three academic years featuring elements of extremism – 16% of which took place at just one university.  The nationwide league table identified events promoted by university groups that have included: extremist or extremist-linked speakers, those that fundraised for extremist organisations, or included extremist content.

In September 2015 at a speech in Birmingham, then Prime Minister David Cameron ordered universities to stop providing extremists with “the oxygen they need to flourish” by hosting extreme speakers.  He cited 70 events featuring extremist-linked speakers that had occurred on campuses the previous academic year.  In spite of his warning, the University Extreme Speakers League Table discloses that more than 100 such events have been targeted at students in each and every year since.  In the 2017-18 academic year, the number of publicly promoted events increased by 87%, with 200 such events. The report warns that the true figure could be much higher, given it lists only publicly promoted events. 

Over the last three academic years, SOAS is the university which has hosted the most events promoted to students which feature extremist groups or speakers.  The university has repeatedly disputed that it is in breach of its Prevent duties and has seen 70 events promoted by student groups that feature extremist groups or speakers – 43 of which took place in the last year alone.  In the 2017-18 academic year, over 20% of all events featuring elements of extremism took place under its auspices.  SOAS, hosted over four times as many events as its closest rivals; King’s College London, Birmingham, and Queen Mary University.

Among the extremist speakers identified by the Henry Jackson Society are:

35 events featuring speakers from the pro-Jihad lobby group CAGE.  CAGE speakers include: Moazzam Begg who has praised Al-Qaeda figures and encouraged Muslims to travel to Syria; Shaker Aamer considered an Osama Bin Laden affiliate by the US Government; and Asim Qureshi who has promoted violent jihad, called Jihadi John a “beautiful young man”, and refused to condemn female genital mutilation.

4 of the 6 extremist speakers David Cameron warned universities not to host in 2015 have continued to speak at student events collectively making appearances in 54 student events over the past three years.  They are Hamza Tzortzis, Uthman Lateef, Haitham al-Haddad and Alomgir Ali.

Other radical Islamists among the almost 100 speakers identified include: Yahya al-Raaby who has called Shia Muslims “devils” and “rafida”; Yusuf Chambers who has advocated death for homosexuals;and Muhammed Taqi Usmani who has claimed that Islam allows slavery under certain conditions.

140 events featuring representatives of organisations linked to Haitham al-Haddad.  Al-Haddad is one of Britain’s most notorious extremist hate preachers who has sanctioned forms of female genital mutilation, child marriage, death for apostates and adulterers, and said that men who beat their wives should not be questioned.

The rankings also include appearances by the far-right extremist Tommy Robinson and noted anti-Semites including Jackie Walker, the former Vice-Chair of Momentum.The report argues that universities’ protocols for upholding the Government’s prevent strategy are “not fit for purpose”.'

Warning of an “industrial-scale failure by universities to apply their Prevent duties”, the report’s author highlights the apparent disparities between universities’ obligations under the law and the reality on the ground.  Universities have an obligation under the ‘Prevent duty’ enacted by the Counter-Terrorism and Security Act (2015) to protect students from extremist speakers.  The rules were instituted by Theresa May during her tenure as Home Secretary. The Government’s guidance on the duty states:

“…when deciding whether or not to host a particular speaker, [universities] should consider carefully whether the views being expressed, or likely to be expressed, constitute extremist views that risk drawing people into terrorism or are shared by terrorist groups. In these circumstances the event should not be allowed to proceed except where [universities] are entirely convinced that such risk can be fully mitigated without cancellation of the event.” ....

(Emphasis added)

Read the entire article, with a list of the most affected campuses and accompanied by a video featuring the report's author Emma Fox, here.

Rachel Riley Speaks Out

In The Times of 26 January, an interview with Channel 4's Countdown's numbers whizz Rachel Riley, who's Jewish, and who has been bombarded with "vile abuse" and even threats of violence since speaking out against antisemitism in Corbynista circles.

Inter alia,

'Until recently Rachel Riley had never felt particularly Jewish. “When I was a kid my mum would give us pepperoni pizza,” she said. “We’d light the menorah candles but we didn’t go to synagogue and I’ve never done Friday night.”

But now the Countdown presenter is at the forefront of the campaign against antisemitism, having suffered “hideous abuse” and physical threats from Labour activists for criticising Jeremy Corbyn’s failure to tackle it. She is even being given extra security on the programme.

Her sense of Jewish identity is stronger than ever. On Tuesday she was in parliament speaking alongside MPs at a Holocaust Educational Trust reception. “You don’t need any aspect of religion to feel a part of that group,” she said.'

David Singer: “State of Palestine” set to confront Trump at United Nations

Here's the latest article by Sydney lawyer and international affairs analyst David Singer.

He writes:

The bizarre Handover ceremony of Egypt’s Chairmanship of the Group of 77 to the “State of Palestine”for 2019 will enable this non-existent and non-member State of the United Nations to play a leading role in the 74 years old farce – “TheQuestion of Palestine and the United Nations” (PUN).

“The State of Palestine” does not meet the criteria for statehood required under the 1933 Montevideo Convention.

The Group of 77 (“the Bloc”) contains 133 of the 193 member states of the United Nations – ensuring the automatic passage of all United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) resolutions they propose.

UNGA ResolutionA/RES/73/5 – adopted on 16 October 2018 – put  this illusory “State of Palestine” centre stage for PUN’s 2019 New York season – recognising it as the Bloc’s public face in all matters  brought before UNGA and at meetings of representatives of other major groups.

146 countries voted for this Resolution whilst only three – Israel, the U.S. and Australia – voted against, 15 countries abstained and the remaining 29 states did not vote.

US Deputy UN Ambassador Jonathan Cohen called out the hypocrisy of the vote:

"We cannot support efforts by the Palestinians to enhance their status outside of directnegotiations. The United States does not recognize that there is a Palestinian

state.... Only U.N. member states should be entitled to speak and act on behalf of major groups of states at the United Nations."

 Australia’s UN Ambassador Gillian Bird asserted:

"Australia's decision to vote no on this resolution reflects our long-standing position that Palestinian attempts to seek recognition as a state in international fora are deeply unhelpful to efforts towards a two-state solution."

The Handover Ceremony took place in the presence of UNGA President Ms.Maria Fernanda Espinosa Garcés, UN Secretary General Mr. António Gutteres, Mahmoud Abbas  – the self-styled “President of the State of Palestine” (formerly called “the Palestinian Authority” before Abbas unilaterally changed its name in 2013) and Bloc members.

Mr. Gutteres’ 12 minute speech contained this politically-charged statement:“Palestine and its citizens have first-hand experience of some of the most challenging and dramatic global issues at force”

Regrettably the Secretary General failed to elaborate on where he believed “Palestine” is located,

who he considers are its citizens, its capital, the area it controls and its current government.

The Handover Ceremony included a one-hour concert featuring live performances of Astor Piazolla’s “Oblivion”, a Brahms sonata for violin and piano, five works by three Egyptian composers extending over 26 minutes and just 4 minutes of “Palestinian folk songs” whose provenance was not

mentioned in the program notes.

One Egyptian composition – “Lessa Faker” – aptly describes the path UNGA needs to take to end this blatant “State of Palestine” fakery that flagrantly violates international law.

“Foreign Minister”of the “State of Palestine” Riyad Malki has impertinently predicted:

“... we are confident that [the Bloc] will support the Palestinians when it [sic] time comes for negotiations and the US will find out that it cannot ignore Palestine.”

 Malki’s claim is risible.

America has denied the existence of any State of Palestine for the last seven decades. President Trump has closed the PLO diplomatic offices in Washington and ceased America’s annual payments of $360 million to UNRWA. The PLO refuses to entertain any Trump peace proposals designed to end the Arab-Jewish conflict.

President Trump’s response could well see him consigning the “State of Palestine”to diplomatic oblivion to the accompanying strains of Piazolla’s Oblivion – with the United Nations left lamenting at the wake that it holdsfor the phantom State.

This is truly Theatreof the Absurd – Multilateralism gone mad.

(Author’s note:The cartoon—commissioned exclusively for this article —is by Yaakov Kirschen aka “Dry Bones” – one of Israel’s foremost political and social commentators—whose cartoons have graced the columns of Israeli and international media publications for decades. His cartoons can be viewed at Drybonesblog)

On the Roll Call of the BDS Campaign

A new contender!

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLc9o2XGFtY

In Melbourne, Murder Most Foul

The rape and murder not far from her campus in the Melbourne suburb of Bundoora last week of Israeli Arab exchange student Aiia Maasarwe (a gifted 21-year-old from a Muslim family in Baqa al-Gharbiyye, from which city, incidentally, comes the first Muslim woman to serve in the Israeli diplomatic service) has, understandably, caused widespread anger and anguish here in Australia. 

The press are reporting this weekend that Ms Maasarwe had been bludgeoned to death about the head following a sexual assault so savage that police have applied for a formal reporting embargo regarding the harrowing details.  (One federal senator, who dubs himself "the human headline", had already, to wide condemnation from people concerned for the feelings of the victim's family, had  tweeted a harrowing detail that he alleges he learned from a police source.) Whether the full story will emerge during the trial of the man accused of Ms Maasarwe's murder remains to be seen.

The Victorian premier tweets his sympathy

On Friday evening a silent vigil was held on the steps of Victoria's State Parliament in Melbourne, looking down towards tram stop at the intersection with Bourke Street where Ms Maasarwe boarded the tram the night she died, after socialising with friends.  Her father, Mr Saaed Maasarwe, addressed the large crowd to thank them for their support and to pay tribute to his daughter, and afterwards members of the public carrying bunches of blooms (including red roses, her favourite flower)  boarded the number 86 tram to Bundoora as she had done a couple of evenings earlier.  Further rallies, not only in Melbournr but in Sydney and Canberra, have been held today.

There can be few people, of all creeds and none, and irrespective of political belief, who are not deeply upset by the terrible fate of Ms Maasarwe, or unmoved by the sorrow expressed by her tearful yet supremely dignified father on behalf of his daughter, himself, and his family.. 

So it is disappointing to find sections of the anti-Israel movement in Australia trying to twist this tragedy for their own ends, as we glimpse, for instance, here:

 

Here:

And here:

Meanwhile a number of Israelis and Australian Jews are hoping that Mr Netanyahu will meet Ms Maasarwe's grieving family sooner rather than later to show his support, just as the Australian prime minister, Scott Morrison, met Mr Maasarwe to express his condolences.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-01-20/aiia-maasarwe-family-plea-for-body-to-be-returned/10730050

I  expect that, like me, many Australians who, directly following Channel Nine's news of the shocking murder of Aiia Maasarwe, tuned into Channel Nine's coverage of the Australian Open tennis tournament to try to focus on something less heart-rending, were absolutely astounded to see the  misogynistic advertisements starring Charlie Sheen that have been featuring prominently during the tennis.  Memories of the equally misogynistic ads starring Mike Tyson that marred coverage of the Open when I last watched it (it was then on Channel Seven) came flooding back.

For the car servicing company Ultra Tune, these misogynistic ads, proudly and defiantly defended by the company's executive chairman Sean Buckley, were ably slated in the Melbourne Herald Sun of 14 November 2018 by journalist Michelle Andrews, who wrote inter alia:

'Being a washed up celebrity of the 80s and 90s is also a crucial element in being cast in one of the auto repair company’s videos, but increasingly, there’s another line you should aim to have on your resume that’ll give you a cut above the rest.

And that is convicted rapist or convicted domestic violence offender.

In January of this year, the car servicing company’s Executive Chairman Sean Buckley chose retired boxer Mike Tyson as the face of the sixth instalment of the “Unexpected Situations” advertising campaign, which follows the storyline of a group of women that, aesthetically speaking, could best be described as playing the part of clueless bimbos, being rescued from a roadside situation by the help of a man....

In 1992, a jury found Tyson guilty of raping an then 18-year-old woman. Years earlier, his first wife, Robin Givens accused Tyson of domestic violence and was successful in obtaining a temporary restraining order against him during their divorce....

 [T]he ad received an unprecedented amount of complaints, to which Buckley replied, “I think I know what I’m doing. The ads work brilliantly.”

By Jill Meagher's widower

Now ... they’ve passed the baton on to Charlie Sheen.

[T]his is the same Charlie Sheen who in 1997 pleaded no contest to slamming his former partner Brittany Ashland’s head into a marble floor; pleaded guilty to third-degree assault after pressing a knife to his third wife Brooke Mueller’s throat and was forced into a rehabilitation program a decade later; was accused of watching pornography involving boys who looked underage by his ex-wife Denise Richards during their 2006 divorce proceedings. And according to Hollywood madam Michelle Braun, who alleges to have supplied Sheen with sex workers for a number of years, Sheen’s requested “type” of woman was someone who possessed “two tits, a hole, and a heartbeat."

But according to Buckley, who made a recent Facebook post about his choice of Sheen, we’ve got it all wrong. He’s really just a “lovely down to earth guy”.

... So surely we can all agree that it’s a little hard to change attitudes about violence against women when one of our biggest auto company’s uses our TV networks to push the glamorisation of an abuser to the masses. '

The latest ad is drawing well-deserved flak from Twitter users.  And no wonder. In Australia, with its disturbingly high rates of domestic violence,  no less than 69 women were killed by abusive male partners in the past year alone.   Yet derogatory, demeaning ads of this nature (mockery of and hate speech against women, and as such on a par with racism) are tolerated even while politicians pay lip service to women's rights.

A report on the Channel Nine news website

The terrible murder of Aiia Maasarwe invites comparison with four other notorious killings of young women that have taken place in Melbourne since 2012.  To quote journalist Karen Sweeney on Twitter:

'Aiia Maasarwe took public transport, talked on her phone, knew the area and was close to home, she was between a 24-hour service station, a shopping centre, a row of townhouses, a major road and intersection and she was still murdered. How far do we have to go to stay safe?

Jill Meagher had talked on the phone with her brother, was walking along busy Sydney Road in Brunswick and her husband was waiting, expecting her home just minutes after she was dragged off the street, raped and murdered on September 22, 2012.

Renea Lau was on her way to work when she was chased down, beaten and raped beside the Victoria Police Memorial at 5:30am on June 28, 2014. The attack lasted 80 minutes and she lived, with horrific injuries, for at least 35 of those minutes.

Masa Vukotic was murdered in a frenzied attack in broad daylight while walking on a track near her home after school on March 16, 2015. Her killer spent 11 hours searching for a victim before deciding she would die because he didn’t like the way she was talking to the birds.

Eurydice Dixon was stalked for five kilometres over an hour before being raped and murdered 900m from her home on June 13, 2018 after a night with friends. She’d just messaged her boyfriend to say she was nearly home safe.

They were women walking alone. We all do it. We know that 99.99 per cent of the time it’s safe, the calls we make are unnencessary, putting keys between our fingers is as silly as it feels, that we’re more likely to hit call by mistake on the 000 we dialled than on purpose.

You might walk behind us knowing you’re not going to kill us, but it’s not like murderers have signs warning us they’re the bad guys. It’s the 0.01 per cent of times we can’t predict that we’re afraid of.

All these women died in different situations, the only common theme that they were women and they were alone. Being safe is a right. We know we can’t be guaranteed it, but that doesn’t mean we can’t and shouldn’t fight for it.

Looking back I wonder what has changed since 2012. We’ve had marches and vigils and law changes but women are still being murdered in terrible and preventable circumstances. Something more has to change. I just wish I knew what and how.'