Politician calmly handles confrontation with far-right 'racists'

"Everywhere I go, I get white nationalists following me."
 By 
Johnny Lieu
 on 

Again, some people are unkind.

Australian politician Sam Dastyari, who is of Iranian descent, was confronted by men at a Melbourne pub on Wednesday. The men claimed to be from a far-right group called Patriot Blue, and continually harassed Dastyari, all while captured on camera.

"You terrorist. You little monkey," one of the men can be heard saying in a video uploaded to Patriot Blue's Facebook page.

The men continually ask if Dastyari if he is a Muslim, and tells the politician to "go back to Iran you terrorist."

Dastyari tells the "racists" to go away, who respond by asking, "What race is Islam?" Eventually another politician, Labor MP Tim Watts, interjects by asking the men, "What race is dickhead?"

In a video uploaded by Dastyari, the two men continually harass the politician while he's seated at a table.

Dastyari spoke about the incident later on during a talk at Victoria University, blaming other right-wing politicians like U.S. President Donald Trump and Australian populist Pauline Hanson for empowering "white nationalists."

"Everywhere I go, I get white nationalists following me. They show up at events I do ... And all off this is the rise of the radical right in this country," he said.

"You dance so far to the right that it gives those a little bit further out a sense of entitlement, a sense of belonging."

One of the men appears to wear a work uniform for Toll, an Australian logistics company. Toll said it would be "investigating" the incident.

In a later interview on the matter on Sunrise, Dastyari said he would consider legal options against these men, but doesn't want to make "martyrs out these kinds of idiots and losers."

You'd have to say, Dastyari has handled it well.

Mashable Image
Johnny Lieu

Mashable Australia's Web Culture Reporter.Reach out to me on Twitter at @Johnny_Lieu or via email at jlieu [at] mashable.com

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