Don Quixote imagined himself to be a knight and charged into a wind mill (which to him was a giant deserving to be destroyed) to impress his lady love, and ultimately returned with injuries caused by the rotating blades of the mill. Like him the Australian government has now found a scape goat in Dr. Haneef, since some one has to be pinned down in its holy war on terror. Even contempt of court seemed to be justified. It will not be a surprise if government agents now resort to manufacturing evidence to prove their case. At one time the Jews were treated with suspicion and ridiculed even by great writers of yester years. The suspicion turned into hatred culminating in concentration camps and mass exterminations. Now it is the turn of Muslims whose misery has begun with suspicion with the possibility of devastating consequences as time passes by and prejudices get reinforced. Discrimination against applicants for immigration on the basis of skin colour was legal in Australia not long ago and ended only out of sheer economic necessity. Though not on paper now, it is well known that discrimination is still practiced. Judging from history, the ultimate result will be quixotic at best and hitleric at worst. It is great that several intellectuals of Australia condemned the action of their minister and stemmed the rapid regression towards a kingdom of barbarians.
