**Ku Klux Klan** offshoot targets Australia*

By Simon Kearney

May 07, 2007 01:00am
Article from: The Australian

THREE Australian cities have been targeted by offshoots of the Ku Klux
Klan over recent months in an apparent recruiting drive by white
supremacists.

Toowoomba was targeted first by leaflets that asked people to become a
klansman or klanswoman in March.

Shortly afterwards, Cairns was targeted and then Rockhampton, last
month, by a different group, Storm Front.

In Toowoomba and Cairns the pamphlets promoted the US-based White Legion
Knights of the Ku Klux Klan.

Its website has an Australian page featuring propaganda presented as
fact about African and Asian immigration, Aboriginal crime, the
homosexuality agenda and - an old favourite - Jewish influence in the media.

Queensland Attorney-General Kerry Shine, a Toowoomba MP, referred the
pamphlets to the state's Anti-Discrimination Commissioner, Susan Booth.

"Toowoomba is a very tolerant city," Mr Shine told The Australian when
the KKK first struck.

"I believe any form of racial vilification is abhorrent."

B'nai B'rith Anti-Defamation Commission executive officer Manny Waks
said the Storm Front flyers in Rockhampton called for "real" Australians
to join white supremacist movements and to fight against crimes
allegedly committed by ethnic groups.

Mr Waks said the leaflet drops indicated a recruitment drive. "It is
outrageous that in this time and age the KKK and Storm Front are still
active in our tolerant and peaceful country," he said.

"No Australian should be affiliated in any way, shape or form with these
vile, racist groups. We must ensure that the impressionable youth does
not get influenced by these racists to join its minuscule ranks."

The Queensland Anti-Discrimination Commission said that the leaflets
incited hatred and provoked people to harm others. Queensland Police
have also investigated each of the leaflet drops.

"There is no doubt that the KKK and Storm Front are at best on the
fringe of Australian society, but it is always concerning to see any
activity coming from such quarters," Mr Waks said.

"It is a reminder that blatant racism still exists in our multicultural
Australia and that we must remain vigilant and be willing to take swift
action to combat such individuals and organisations when the need arises."