A vote for the Labor candidate in Isaacs, Mark Dreyfus, is a vote for pro-Israel policies and a hostile stance towards Muslims, says Asem Judeh, President of Australian Muslim Palestine Committee. He says because of the Greens’ preference deal with Labor, a vote for the Greens is also not an option in the seat.
“In the 2004-election Isaacs was a Labor marginal seat that was held by 1%,” says Judeh. “In the 2007 election it became safe Labor, held by 7.4%. This is because Muslims are not united and organized.”
Judeh says there are at least 7 Mosques in the Isaacs electorate. “The Muslim community can make a difference in that seat,” he says. “Imagine if it was the other way around. Do you think that the organised pro-Israel lobby would allow a Muslim candidate to win a parliamentary seat if they had a large number of Jewish votes? Yet Muslim voters do not vote in their own interests. It is time they did.”
