Danny Nalliah

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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 a case brought against him under Victoria's Racial and Religious Tolerance Act by the Islamic Council of Victoria. In this landmark case, along with his colleague Daniel Scot, Nalliah was found to have incited hatred under Victoria's then-new religious vilification laws, a decision which has been overturned. He has also been a candidate for the Family First Party

1 Early years
2 Alleged Vilification of Muslims
3 Politics
4 Books
5 External links
6 References

[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] Alleged Vilification of Muslims

On March 9, 2002, Daniel Scot spoke at a seminar concerning Islam, sponsored by Catch the Fire Ministries. The seminar was attended by three Australian Muslims; two of them were asked to attend by May Helou who was an executive member of the Islamic Council of Victoria[ICV] and an employee of the Equal Opportunity Commission, Victoria. The third person was asked to attend by ICV members whilst he was at the ICV office. The three Muslims, along with the Islamic Council of Victoria, later launched action under the controversial Racial and Religious Tolerance Act, claiming that the intent of the speech had been to vilify Muslims, rather than to discuss Islam itself. After being considered by the Equal Opportunity Commission, the case was heard by the Victorian and Civil Administrative Tribunal, becoming the first real test case under the Act. The Christian community was split, with the Catholic (the Ecumenical and Interfaith Commission of the Catholic Archdiocese) and Uniting Churches (actually the Justice and International Mission Unit of the Uniting Church in Victoria and Tasmania) 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 Tribunal ruled that Nalliah, Scot and Catch the Fire Ministries had breached the law. Judge Higgins heard further submissions regarding 'remedies' 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 regarding remedies. He found that financial compensation would be inappropriate, but ordered Nalliah and Scot to take out newspaper advertisements to the value of $68,690 which summarised the findings in the case. 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 had previously appealed to the Supreme Court of Victoria, in an Originating Motion alleging both that Higgins showed signs of bias, that there were errors in the decision and that the Act itself was unconstitutional. Following the decision, a formal appeal was lodged with the Supreme Court - Court of Appeal - and the Originating Motion was dropped. The Appeal was heard in August 2006.

The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, an interfaith public interest law firm based in Washington DC, had intervened on Pastor Daniel Scot's behalf, engaging in a serious discussion with the Attorney General of Australia, providing legal representation with local counsel, and providing legal arguments employed for the legal appeal. On 14 December 2006, the Supreme Court of Victoria, acting as the Court of Appeal, upheld Nalliah's appeal (and that of Daniel Scot and Catch the Fire Ministries) and ordered that the matter be re-decided, without hearing new evidence, by a Judge (other than Higgins) of the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal. The Islamic Council of Victoria was ordered to pay half of Scot's and Nalliah's legal costs for the appeal.

[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 parishioners to pray that God would pull down "Satan's strongholds", which included brothels, gambling places, bottle shops, mosques and temples (including Freemason, Buddhist and Hindu temples)^{[citation needed]}.