Catch the Fire and Daniel Scot’s (in)credible testimony

In reality Scot had reported that according to the Koran, “a group of demons - in Arabic it’s called a ‘jinn’ … became Muslim”. (This relates to Sura - chapter 46 of the Koran.)

In His Honour’s findings “a group of jinns became Muslims” becomes “Muslims are demons”. This entirely wrong report was picked up by the media all around the world. For example a radio talkback host in Melbourne was abusing Scot within hours of the ruling being handed down, calling him an “idiot” for saying this very thing.

In fact Scot said nothing of the sort. If His Honour had not been silent about the fact that Scot was speaking about the Koran, such public vilification might have been avoided.

Conclusion

This was an exceedingly complex case, and more could be said about His Honour’s handling of Scot’s evidence. His Honour’s findings on the credibility of other witnesses also deserve scrutiny.

Also of interest are Judge Higgins’ rulings on Christian and Islamic theology. His Honour found, for example, that Wahhabism is “fundamentalist” and irrelevant to the Australian Islamic scene, and despite his repeated references to Muhammad as “the Prophet”, he found that the Koran is an “ancient historical document” whose violent verses relate to contexts which “have no relevance to the 21st Century”.

Setting all such matters to one side, what is sadly ironic about the Victorian Racial and Religious Tolerance Act (pdf file 118KB) is that it incites vilification. A complainant will seek to show that the respondent’s conduct has threatened religious harmony, that they have vile intentions, that they are inciting hatred and are dishonest. In this respect, and to this point of the legal proceedings, the Islamic Council has succeeded in pursuing just such a case against Pastor Daniel Scot.

It is abundantly clear that such proceedings do not promote religious harmony. In the case of the ICV v Catch the Fire Danny Nalliah and Daniel Scot, incompatible religious world views have been in collision. There were theological sparks flying all throughout the case. In the end, Judge Higgins came to his decision in part by finding one side not to be credible, and in part by declaring aspects of the Koran to be irrelevant to 21st century life. However, in the manner of reaching this conclusion, his rulings raise more questions than they answer, closure has not been achieved, and further damage has been done to religious harmony. It seems inevitable that the decision will be appealed.

The Racial and Religious Tolerance Act 2001 itself states that it is meant to be interpreted in a way which promotes conciliation and resolves tensions between groups in the community. This case has demonstrated some profound difficulties faced by our legal system in achieving this admirable goal.

It is high time for the Victorian government to review the religious aspects of this Act, and to consider whether they could be removed altogether, making it simply a Racial Tolerance Act.