Australia, like many other nations, is facing so-called people smugglers trying to get refugees fleeing from countries like Afghanistan or Iraq, into the country. It is invariably via leaky and unsafe boats departing from Indonesia or somewhere close by in that region. All too tragically people have been lost at sea. How to overcome these boatloads of people has become a hot political issue in Australia.
The leader of the Federal Opposition, a Tony Abbott, is an openly devout Catholic. His policy position is to turn the boats back and perhaps to even not go to the aid of a boat in distress. Pure and simple, no matter what the consequences. Forget about whether that is in breach of international law.
Tackled with the question how he, Abbott, a religous man, could advocate his policies when they were so apparently "un-Christian" his response was very straight-forward. Those trying to enter Australia, illegally according to him, were "un-Christian" in their behaviour.
Apart from the extraordinary response, Abbott obviously doesn't know that those "illegals" are, in the main, actually Muslims.
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