Calls to ban controversial singer
THERE are calls for a US singer who once gave a Nazi salute and shouted “white power” to be banned from performing in Australia.
THERE are calls for a US heavy metal singer who once gave a Nazi salute and shouted “white power” to be banned from performing in Australia.
Former Pantera frontman Philip Anselmo, who was filmed making the remark and gesture in 2016, is due to appear at a concert in Canberra tonight (Thursday).
Anselmo, along with his band The Illegals, is then set to perform at a sold-out show in Melbourne tomorrow night, before playing in Perth, Adelaide, Brisbane, Sydney, Newcastle and Hobart.
They were also scheduled to perform two shows in New Zealand, but in the wake of the terror attacks on two mosques, those performances were called off.
Calling on organisers to “immediately” cancel his Australian concerts, Anti-Defamation Commission chair Dvir Abramovich said Anselmo should not be performing here.
“Anselmo has a track record in making racially charged remarks during performances such as, ‘tonight is a white thing’ as well as including lyrics on his records that stated, ‘no more of the coward Muhammad’ and ‘taking no pity on the Jewish elitists’,” Abramovich said.
“At a time when we are all grieving and mourning for the lives lost in Christchurch, it would be profoundly hurtful and simply unacceptable to host a singer in our country who has expressed neo-Nazi and antisemitic sentiments by using the abominable white supremacist gesture.”
He added, “Such abhorrent and divisive behaviour has no place here, not now, and not ever.”
AJN STAFF
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