Good news from Australia: A push for more responsible leadership of Australia's Muslim community. ( Excerpt.)
'The controversial head of Australia's Muslims, Sheikh Taj Din al-Hilali, is under threat from a new Islamic council that is trying to gather support for an alternative leader. The Islamic High Council of Australia was formed in soutwestern Sydney this month with plans to become the leading organisation of the country's 400,000 Muslims.
' Members of the council said their goal was to appoint a mufti of their own, in a direct challenge to Sheikh Hilali, the current mufti of Australia. The council is hoping to tap into disenchantment in some Muslim communities with Sheikh Hilali over his controversial speeches, in which he reportedly attacked Jews and supported suicide bombers...
'The spiritual leader of the new council, Sheikh Salim Alwan Al-Hasani, said there was a need for a moderate umbrella organisation that 'totally refuses all kinds of extremism' and rejects interference from overseas.
http://chrenkoff.blogspot.com/2004/11/good-news-from-islamic-world-part-2.html
'In a dig at the perceived influence of Saudi Wahhabi money the Sheikh added...the new group is not a tool serving the interests of any foreign government nor does it accept or receive funds from any overseas sources...'
There's a movement within the islamic community to rid themselves of imported clerics who preach the wahhabi doctrine. Clerics whose intention is nothing but recruitment for jihad, clerics who use stand-over tactics and terrorise the members of their congregations. Clerics such as the imam in NJ, who can declare the murder of a family of four as halal.
Well, it looks like that great storm of Islam has blown over and we can all relax. "Cocktails, anyone?"