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Afghan terror in Australia


Guest Bill Woerlee

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Guest Bill Woerlee

Mates

Gareth aka Dolphin raised this topic in another area of the GWF. Here is the reference:

http://1914-1918.invisionzone.com/forums/i...showtopic=49561

As I was going through the Sydney Mail, I came across a rather unique photo spread on this very episode. In the 13 January 1915 edition, the Sydney Mail gave full and graphic details of the incident.

post-7100-1165554046.jpg

post-7100-1165554157.jpg

The full picture spread will follow.

Cheers

Bill

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Hope you all enjoyed it as much as I did in finding posting it.

Certainly did, Bill — thanks for posting the story. I'm a bit puzzled by the 'Afghan' title of the thread, though, as the two desperadoes seem to have been Turkish. :blink:

Par for the course, too, I suppose, that the mob decided the Germans also had to be involved. Someone concerned citizen probably saw Germans eating ice cream and put two and two together ....

Cheers

Mick

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I'm a bit puzzled by the 'Afghan' title of the thread, though, as the two desperadoes seem to have been Turkish.

Mick

'Afghans' meaning men from the northern parts of [then] India and Afghanistan played a significant part in opening up Central Australia as drivers of camel trains. Camels could cope with the hot dry conditions in the Centre and were a major form of transport. There are still herds of feral camels out there, and the memory of their drivers is perpetuated in the name of the train that runs from Adelaide to Darwin: The Ghan.

In 1914 parlance, I think that anyone of "Middle Eastern" appearance in western NSW, SA, NT or eastern WA would have been tagged as being an Afghan.

Cheers

Gareth

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'Afghans' meaning men from the northern parts of [then] India and Afghanistan played a significant part in opening up Central Australia as drivers of camel trains. Camels could cope with the hot dry conditions in the Centre and were a major form of transport. There are still herds of feral camels out there, and the memory of their drivers is perpetuated in the name of the train that runs from Adelaide to Darwin: The Ghan.

In 1914 parlance, I think that anyone of "Middle Eastern" appearance in western NSW, SA, NT or eastern WA would have been tagged as being an Afghan.

Thanks for that Gareth. My point, though, was that the Sydney Mail article doesn't use the word 'Afghan' at all and consistently refers to the men as 'Turks'.

Mick

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Guest Bill Woerlee

Mick

G'day mate

Interesting question which requires quite a bit of background to get to the topic title. It goes to show that the assumptions one uses are not necessarily recognised on a universal basis - clearly a cultural assumption on my side that was not evident.

One of the men, Mohamed Gool was a Turk. The other man, Mulla Abdulla was a Moslem, but not a Turk. When Turkey entered the war, the Turkish religious authorities as keepers of Mecca, issued a general jihad notice directing all Moslems to fight against Christians except for German Christians who were exempt. Thus as a religious man, but not a very bright man, Mulla Abdulla was able to be convinced of the cause. He was formerly a cameleer and well known around the Afghan camp and in town at Broken Hill. When he was no longer able to drive camels, he took up hallal butchering which is where he came into strife with the authorities.

Garath has given a pretty good summary of the role of Afghans within Australia so there si no need for me to iterate this - so as a consequence I chose contemporary iconic figures to headline the topic illustrating the irony that terrorism originating in Afghanistan was not new to Australia. So please Mick, go with the irony rather than being too literal.

Cheers

Bill

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Are we all happy that we are getting bogged down in Afghanistan?

I think that the last outsiders that did OK there was Alexander the Great, and I think (I don't know the details) that he made a few alliances, did a bit of inter-marrying, and got the Hell out of there. The Brits sent an army of about 16,000 in about 1860, and the Afgahnistans killed every last one, except for one guy, who they let leave to spread the happy news.

I saw one of our brain-dead newsmen broadcasting from there in 2001, he was in a location with a bunch of armed Afghanis, and he said: "Well, these guys really aren't soldiers, as they don't have uniforms." Good luck!

Bob Lembke

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Bob, you have yet again hijacked a thread with your last post. Not only is it nothing at all to do with the Great War, it is wildly inaccurate.

Having spent some time in the region, I can assure you that ;

1. "The Brits sent an army of about 16,000 in about 1860, and the Afgahnistans (sic) killed every last one, except for one guy, who they let leave to spread the happy news.",

is probably something to do with the Retreat from Kabul about 20 years earlier, and

2. an 'Afghani' is a unit of currency, not a person or race.

Surely there is another forum where you discuss current politics.

Chris Henschke

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Are we all happy that we are getting bogged down in Afghanistan?

Bob Lembke

Bob,

I'm not sure where your post is taking us?? :blink:

If your quote refers to this thread getting bogged down in Afganistan - it's not and never has been about Afganistan.

However, if your quote refers to the current day events in that country then perhaps you're starting to venture into modern politics which is not allowed on the forum for obvious reasons.

Either way, I'm not too sure what it has to do with the topic at hand.

Tim L.

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