On Sunday, Australian TV personality and host of country’s popular The Project show, Waleed Aly, defied Muslim haters to become country’s first Muslim winner of Gold Logie. Aly beat out his The Project co-host and last year’s Gold Logie winner Carrie Bickmore. Watch the award ceremony below.
“Do not adjust your sets,” Aly joked. “There’s nothing wrong with the picture. I’m sure there’s an Instagram filter you can use to return things to normal, you’ll be fine. This is happening. It’s true. Finally a male presenter on commercial TV has won the Gold Logie.”
Earlier in the evening, Waleed also took home the Silver Logie for Best Presenter.
During the acceptance speech Aly thanked his wife Susan Carland, PhD, a Baptist convert to Islam at age 19 – before she married to Aly (see photo below with their two children), saying: “It’s a privilege to be able to share my life with you.”
Read Carland’s interview with Mamamia on the award night.
Aly irked the Jewish lobby groups last November when he delivered a four-minute monologue titled ISIS is weak, written with producer Tom Whitty) saying that ISIS had nothing to do with Islamic teachings and that the terrorist group is condemned by the Muslim majority.
The Hizb ut-Tahrir, an Australian Muslim d’awa group posted its displeasure with Aly’s winning of the 2016 Gold Logie award calling it as a PR by the government that has long history of anti-Muslim policy. “To Waleed, for being a victim of the government’s self-serving identity politics, and for the Muslim community, in failing people like Waleed by making secular politics look more appealing than Islamic politics,” posted Wassim Doureihi on his Facebook page.
Waleed, 37, born into an Egyptian Muslim immigrant family, faced anti-Muslim racism on daily basis growing-up. His experience was no different than other young Australian Muslims, such as, Mariam Veiszadeh, a lawyer and human-right activists.
Australia is practically a Jewish colony with a Jewish prime minister Moishe Turnbull.
