Government keeping tabs on religions

[Sanx]

No - it's not one of 'those' religious threads.

My other half's just received a letter from The Honourable (I use this both correctly and with great irony) Phil Goff wishing her and her family best wishes for the Feast of Eid; the celebration that occurs at the end of Ramaddan. The letter was addressed to her personally and contained other references to the importance (yadda yadda) of the Mt Roskill Muslim Community, and so on.

Which begged the interesting question: how the hell did Phil Goff know she's a Muslim? She is, as it happens. Maybe not a very good one considering she's living with me before marriage and I met her in a vodka bar, but that's not relevant. She's not a member of any Mosque, doesn't associate with any Muslim groups and other than contact with her family and a few friends, she doesn't really have anything do with any Iranian (her country of origin) groups either.

In fact, the only time she's ever made her religious views public is when she filled in the last census form. But those are meant to be confidential.

So, I called Phil Goof's (damn typos) office to find out how they knew. They told me that the Office of Ethnic Affairs pattern-matches surnames of registered voters. They basically sent out letters to anyone with a Muslim-sounding name. Except my partner's name is not a Muslim name - it's actually Armenian in origin. Pattern-matching is not a very accurate way of ascertaining someone's religion either. Tariq Aziz, former Deputy President of Iraq under Hussain, was actually Christian. Closer to home, the surname 'Hellerby' (as in Hellerby meats) is actually an anglicised version of Hallabi, which in turn was an arab-icised version of Halevi - a Jewish Lebanese name.

So, digging a bit further I called the Office of Ethnic Affairs to find out how they got this information and indeed, whether it was actually true. They denied they keep lists of Muslims or supply other governmental bodies with lists of Muslim-sounding names. So someone's lying.

All in all - it's a little bit worrying. Why would the government be keeping lists of people's religions? Surely, that kinda stuff is meant to be private unless the individual concerned wishes to publicise it.

[Skyryder]

No - it's not one of 'those' religious threads.

My other half's just received a letter from The Honourable (I use this both correctly and with great irony) Phil Goff wishing her and her family best wishes for the Feast of Eid; the celebration that occurs at the end of Ramaddan. The letter was addressed to her personally and contained other references to the importance (yadda yadda) of the Mt Roskill Muslim Community, and so on.

Which begged the interesting question: how the hell did Phil Goff know she's a Muslim? She is, as it happens. Maybe not a very good one considering she's living with me before marriage and I met her in a vodka bar, but that's not relevant. She's not a member of any Mosque, doesn't associate with any Muslim groups and other than contact with her family and a few friends, she doesn't really have anything do with any Iranian (her country of origin) groups either.

In fact, the only time she's ever made her religious views public is when she filled in the last census form. But those are meant to be confidential.

So, I called Phil Goof's (damn typos) office to find out how they knew. They told me that the Office of Ethnic Affairs pattern-matches surnames of registered voters. They basically sent out letters to anyone with a Muslim-sounding name. Except my partner's name is not a Muslim name - it's actually Armenian in origin. Pattern-matching is not a very accurate way of ascertaining someone's religion either. Tariq Aziz, former Deputy President of Iraq under Hussain, was actually Christian. Closer to home, the surname 'Hellerby' (as in Hellerby meats) is actually an anglicised version of Hallabi, which in turn was an arab-icised version of Halevi - a Jewish Lebanese name.

So, digging a bit further I called the Office of Ethnic Affairs to find out how they got this information and indeed, whether it was actually true. They denied they keep lists of Muslims or supply other governmental bodies with lists of Muslim-sounding names. So someone's lying.

All in all - it's a little bit worrying. Why would the government be keeping lists of people's religions? Surely, that kinda stuff is meant to be private unless the individual concerned wishes to publicise it.

Go and see your MP and make a lot of noise. It's politicking of the very worst kind.

Skyyrder

[Tank]

Contact Phill Goffs office under the official information act - they have to tell you how they matched your wife and her religion.

Will be interesting to hear the outcome.

[jrandom]

Contact Phill Goffs office under the official information act - they have to tell you how they matched your wife and her religion.

They did. Surname profiling. When 90% of people with a given surname observe a certain religion, it's good politicking to send a letter to all of them wishing them a happy [whatever].

Most voters, you see, are dumber than Sanx and his partner.

[Usarka]

yeah and ask the fucker where my happy fucking jedi day card is.

[The Pastor]

becasuse labour relies on the immigrent (sp) workforce for votes, this kinda thing will continue.

Bit of a laugh, they would never do that for chirstianity. everyone with a last name would get a card!

[007XX]

It's a crass to show they aparently care...

Gawd, I profoundly dislike politics and their affiliates!

[Toaster]

Leftist wet-pants govt hugging all the minority and fringe groups as usual. Just political correctness gone mad. You wouldn't see them embrace any member of a christian white mens middle income worker group any time soon.

Or maybe it is info for the SIS and GCSB to play with... well shall never know.

[Flatcap]

What type of surnames do satanists have?

[idleidolidyll]

government SHOULD keep a close eye on organised religion INCLUDING christianity: religion is a curse and the cause of far too much human suffering

[Ewan Oozarmy]

government SHOULD keep a close eye on organised religion INCLUDING christianity: religion is a curse and the cause of far too much human suffering

I definitely agree but sending birthday greetings to one religion and not another could be deemed as racist. I didn't get a birthday card from them.

[The Pastor]

they actually tap all your phone calls and words like "musilm" "islam" and "ramadam" trigger a responce which gets you a nice letter informing you of a nice muslim tax cut, right on election year and that how your visa will be extened for 4 years from election year.................

[Sanx]

government SHOULD keep a close eye on organised religion INCLUDING christianity: religion is a curse and the cause of far too much human suffering

It really pains me to agree with something you say...

[idleidolidyll]

I definitely agree but sending birthday greetings to one religion and not another could be deemed as racist. I didn't get a birthday card from them.

it was a Ramadan greeting not a birthday greeting.

However, I too would be interested in hearing more about this one.

Some fools here think I'm a Labour supporter: ROTFLMFAO!