Following a tumultuous 24 hours of relentless online criticism, TV personality Sonia Kruger has spoken out after sharing her “extreme” opinion to ban Muslim immigration due to terrorism concerns.
Speaking to viewers everywhere, the mother-of-one addressed the controversy for the first time, live on-air this morning.
“Before we start the show, I would like to say a few things about what happened yesterday on the Today Show,” she began.
“The discussion we had was centred around a newspaper article which measured the correlation of Muslim population in certain countries and the number of certain terrorist attacks.
“I thought the article made relevant points. We witnessed too many atrocities in the name of terrorism. Last week’s attack on men, women and children in Nice left me in utter disbelief,” she went on, her voice wavering slightly.
Watch Sonia’s full address in the video player below. Post continues…
“I saw the image of a baby covered in a plastic sheet with a doll lying beside her and it rocked me to the very core.
“I imagine what that must have been like for the people of Nice, for the friends of and families of the lost, and the thought that it could happen here terrifies me.
“This type of attack affects people from all walks of life, and I want to make it very clear that I have complete respect for people of all races and religions.
“I acknowledge my views yesterday may have been extreme.”
After her initial comments, Sonia took to Twitter to hit back at users who labelled her “racist”.
On Monday’s Mixed Grill segment, the 50-year-old and her co-hosts Lisa Wilkinson and David Campbell discussed a piece written by conservative columnist Andrew Bolt for the Herald Sun, titled ‘Muslim migration in France opens door to terror.’
The opinion piece claimed a direct correlation between the number of Muslim people living in any given country, and the amount of terrorist activity.
“Belgium’s capital, Brussels, is Europe’s biggest Islamic city, with 300,000 Muslims, and has paid terribly for it,” Andrew Bolt wrote.
Adding: “France has the most Muslims, and that is why four people were killed, three of them children, in an Islamist attack on a Jewish day school in Toulouse four years ago.”
“We are fools not to change our own immigration policies to protect ourselves.”
The Voice AU host received an influx of online backlash.
While David Campbell had the opinion that an article of this nature only “breeds hate”, the Dancing With The Stars host agreed with the comments made to stop Muslim immigration.
“Personally I think Andrew Bolt has a point here that there is a correlation between the number of Muslims in a country and the number of terrorist attacks,” she said.
“I would like to see it [the immigration of Muslims] stopped now for Australia because I would like to feel safe as all of our citizens do when they go out to celebrate Australia Day and I’d like to see freedom of speech,” she concluded.
Watch the tense discussion in the video player below. Post continues…
While her co-hosts made it clear that they disagree with Sonia’s views, they put on a united front for their colleague, defending the television personality against those who labelled her as “racist”.
“Sonia is not racist. She is a compassionate, intelligent, and thoughtful person. She spoke yesterday with brutal honesty on her emotions as a mother,” Sylvia Jeffreys said candidly.
“Like you said, Sylvia, Sonia she is not a racist, she is a nice person. I don’t agree with her opinions because most people know I come from a family of immigrants and that is how I got here,” echoed Peter Stefanovic.
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