Media Release - March 22nd, 2007

Australian Catch the Fire Ministries president Danny Nalliah has waged a successful campaign in the United States against a Hate Crimes Bill designed to curb legitimate expressions of religious freedom which could lead to life imprisonment.

Using the contentious Victorian court case between the Islamic Council of Victoria and Catch the Fire Ministries as an example, the anomalies shown in the Australian (Victorian) law became a point of discussion to discredit the HR 254 US law.

Currently, Pastor Danny and an Australian team have just left the U.S. where he addressed members of Congress to discredit HR 254, which is similar to the problematic Australian Vilification laws.

Pastor Nalliah and the Australian team has visited five US states in one week to speak at meetings before heading on to Canada to raise awareness of the risks to freedom of speech and religion as a result of hate bills.

“The problems with these kinds of laws are that there is often no clear definition of what is considered criminal hatred. There is ambiguity as to what public statements will constitute a criminal offence,” Pastor Danny said.

“Of course I and Catch the Fire Ministries stand deeply opposed to the promotion of hatred against anyone however I’m deeply concerned at the ramifications this legislation would have on legitimate expressions of religious belief,” he said.

“It has chilling implications for all types of democratic freedoms. The proposed US legislation violates the popular notion of equal protection under the law by classifying which classes of people would receive more Government protection than others.

“It also constitutes an overreach of Federal Government powers by allowing Federal Government intervention into local and state affairs.”

While in the U.S. Pastor Danny was interviewed by a range of Media who were very interested in the developments of the Australian court case he is currently involved in. He was also interviewed by well known Christian TV presenter Pat Robertson who is a former US presidential candidate.

“This law has come as quite a shock to many Americans. Most of them were not aware of this law, until we exposed it,” Pastor Danny said.

Pastor Danny said as a result of the increased awareness throughout the Christian constituency and beyond, he is very confident this US hate law will now not pass.

Besides meeting with a select committee from Congress, Pastor Danny spoke at ‘Reclaim America’ Conference featuring to 1300+ Christian leaders from across the US in Fort Lauderdale and received standing applause as he finished.

*(Pastor Danny has DVD footage available at above meetings including TV interviews).

Pastor Danny Nalliah is available for interview.