Depends What You Mean By Extremist Quotes

“Walking to the train station I Wikipedia Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the man Hizb-ut-Tahrir refuse to accept as Islamic State's leader.
I discover he is only one year older than me. I'm hit with that melancholy you get when you realise someone around your age has achieved so much more than you and you mightn't ever catch up.”
― John Safran, Depends What You Mean By Extremist

“We go around the room, introducing ourselves.

'I'm Hamza, I'm a friend of John's, I suppose,' he says a little reluctantly. Hamza tweeted recently that Muslims should not befriend the infidel. So I'm chuffed by his declaration. A bit like when a friend's cat hates everyone but you.”
― John Safran, Depends What You Mean By Extremist

“ASIO turned up on Hamza's doorstep a year ago, after he and his mate, both in their mid-twenties, returned from Yemen. They weren't charged with anything but they were placed on no-fly lists. Hamza is convinced ASIO is monitoring their phones and watching their homes. So, as a workaround, he, the paladin dwarf, and his mate, a gnome, skip through forests in World of Warcraft, chatting business over their headsets.

I ask him what he was doing in Yemen.

'Okay, now this... what you're getting to now, is a dangerous area.' He pauses. 'I was eating pizza.'

He asks for a selfie with me. He says the gnome will be stoked because they had to lie low at one point and were confined to a small apartment in Yemen. They passed the time watching Breaking Bad and John Safran vs God. Pretty chuffed by the inroads I've made into the jihadi demographic.”
― John Safran, Depends What You Mean By Extremist

“An emotional man with bushy eyebrows tells us that if the proposed mosque is built in Bendigo 'the foundation of Australia will be lost forever'. His first example: Muslims sometimes pray on the street outside the mosque.

'They block off the entire street!' he shouts. 'And I ask you today, if you've got a child at home with an egg or nut allergy and they go into anaphylactic shock, how is the ambulance care going to get to that child?'

The dastardly Muslims–peanut allergy connection!

You really can reverse-park anything into your belief system.”
― John Safran, Depends What You Mean By Extremist

“Pastor Daniel, meanwhile, is sipping water on the balcony of a former sailing clubhouse, I ask if he can show me which parts of the Qur'an cause him concern. He tells me he's not the best person to ask.

'I can introduce you to a guy – I wouldn't call myself a scholarly person on Islam.'

Strange response, considering his travelling roadshow routine.”
― John Safran, Depends What You Mean By Extremist

“I recall a podcast featuring American white nationalist Jared Taylor. He claims that every important decision in their lives - where to live, whom to marry, where to send their children to school - 'liberals are not different from members of the Ku Klux Klan'.
And, if you believe the Age article, in the only federal electorate held by the Greens, families are making their schooling decision as if they're in the UPF.”
― John Safran, Depends What You Mean By Extremist

“The National Party's Barnaby Joyce has mocked Pastor Daniel for calling bottle shops 'Satan's stronghold'. It occurs to me that if Pastor Daniel's motivation is to suck up to white Australia, he wouldn't be denouncing beer.

The pastor knows that the concept of Satan would be a laugh for the average Aussie, but he says he won't budge. 'I can't lie to be somebody. I have to be who I am. If they accept me, they accept me as a Christian. If not, tough luck.'

(Later it strikes me the pastor has basically said, 'I will not assimilate.')”
― John Safran, Depends What You Mean By Extremist

“So it turns out I wasn't the only Jew at the rally. There were two and a half more. Not protesting against the UPF, but supporting them? That clinches it. Skinheads side by side with Jews; immigrants against immigrants; Shermon's promise of a far-right hajj – this is a case for John Safran, Jew Detective.”
― John Safran, Depends What You Mean by Extremist