Danny Nalliah
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
Please see the discussion on the talk page. |
Danny Nalliah (born 1964) is an Australian Christian evangelist pastor. He is the leader of Rise Up Australia, a prayer organisation, and the President of the Assemblies of God-affiliated Catch the Fire Ministries. Nalliah is particularly known for his often provocative comments about Muslims. In a landmark case, along with his colleague Daniel Scot, Nalliah was found guilty of inciting hatred under Victoria's then-new religious vilification laws. He has also been a candidate for the Family First Party
Contents |
[edit] Early years
Nalliah was born in Colombo, Sri Lanka. He was raised in a strongly religious family, and rose through the church ranks from youth leader through to becoming a pastor. He married in 1987, and his two children were born soon after. He continued to preach in the more remote regions of Sri Lanka until 1995, when he and his wife moved to Saudi Arabia. He spent two years preaching Christianity and attempting to circumvent the official ban on the religion in the Muslim state. However, in 1997, he decided to move to Australia and found his own evangelical organisation.
After moving to Australia and founding Catch the Fire, Nalliah traveled extensively, preaching to congregations in a number of countries. He claims to have witnessed the healing of blind, deaf and crippled people at his prayer sessions, and claims that a dead girl was resurrected after he prayed for her. [1]
[edit] Nalliah, Islam, and the law
On March 9, 2002, Nalliah and Scot spoke at a seminar concerning Islam, sponsored by Catch the Fire Ministries. The seminar was attended by three Australian Muslims, who were invited to attend by May Helou of the Islamic Council of Victoria and the Equal Opportunities Commission, Victoria. They later launched action under the controversial Religious and Racial Tolerance Act, claiming that the intent of the speech had been to vilify Muslims, rather than to discuss Islam itself. The subsequent legal action became the first real test case under the Act, and the Christian community was split, with the Catholic and Uniting Churches supporting the Islamic Council, and Pentecostal and evangelical organisations alleging that the law inhibited free speech.
In a landmark ruling on December 17, 2004, the court ruled that Nalliah and Scot had breached the law. While prison terms are an option under the act, the judge declared that that would not be appropriate in this case, and reserved sentencing for early in 2005. Nalliah publicly blasted the verdict, and declared his intention to continue fighting the case, potentially as far as the High Court of Australia. The Age newspaper quoted him as stating "We may have lost the battle, but the war is not over. The law has to be removed, there is no question." [2]
On June 22, 2005, Judge Michael Higgins of the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal delivered his final verdict on the religious vilification issue. He found that financial compensation would be inappropriate, but ordered Nalliah and Scot to take out newspaper advertisements to the value of $68,690 in order to publicly apologise for the comments. Nalliah once again slammed the ruling, comparing the legislation to "sharia law by stealth". He also vowed that he would rather go to jail than comply with the ruling. Nalliah's lawyers have already appealed to the Supreme Court of Victoria, alleging both that Higgins showed signs of bias and that the Act itself was unconstitutional.
[edit] Politics
In November 2004, Nalliah campaigned for a seat in the Australian Senate, as a candidate of the Family First Party. However, as he was second on the ticket of five candidates in Victoria, and it is almost impossible for a minor party in Australia to win more than one Senate seat in each state at each election, he had little chance of winning the seat.
Nevertheless, his candidacy caused considerable controversy when conservative National Party Senate candidate Barnaby Joyce launched a heavily publicised attack on Family First and his own party's preference deal with them the day before the election. Joyce used some of Nalliah's statements to illustrate why, in his words, "these are not the sort of people you do preference deals with" - most notably a quote from one of Nalliah's brochures that asked parishoners to pray to their god in order that he might pull down "Satan's strongholds", which included brothels, gambling places, bottle shops, mosques and temples (including Freemason, Buddhist and Hindu temples).
[edit] Books
- Worship Under the Sword, Danny Nalliah
