Speaking out for Australia

The Australian ^ | 20th July 2005

[naturalman1975]

IT is time for tough-minded tolerance. As a nation of immigrants, Australians easily accept neighbours with different attitudes to matters of morals and their own ways of worship. It is the Australian way to accommodate new cultures. It is the Australian way to take people for who they are, not what they wear, or where they come from. But it is also the Australian way to abhor those who demand to live their lives as they wish and to practise their religion as they choose, but reject the right of everybody else to do the same. This is what a handful of Muslim zealots in Australia do. And it is time for them to stop. It is also time for Muslim clerics to stop skirting round the abject immorality of suicide bombing. They must heed the warnings of Sheik Taj Din al-Hilali, reported in The Australian this morning, that some young Muslims are being seduced by extremists. They should renounce the views of their Melbourne colleague, Sheik Mohammed Omran, who questions whether Muslims were responsible for the destruction of the twin towers and the London transport bombings. It is time for them to make clear they will not accept any excuses for the malevolent misogyny that claims the clothes women wear can make them responsible for rape. And it is time for them to accept that Muslims who argue non believers are fair game draft directives for terrorism.

Certainly, anybody who hates adherents of any, or no, religion, other than their own, can say what they like in Australia, while they stay within the law. No matter how much it sticks in our collective craw, religious zealots have the same rights as the rest of us – it is the price of living in a secular democracy where all religions are equal – and none are more equal than others. But the multicultural lobby's practice of sneering at any idea there are core Australian values worth defending must end. It only encourages our enemies. Islamists who believe in the universal validity of Sharia law cannot go unchallenged. It is no act of tolerance by any Australian to allow bigots to denounce the country they call home. It is an act of self-loathing. It is no act of tolerance to disguise the identity of criminals, as if any pretence to religion explains or excuses anybody's actions. It is time for community leaders whose faith is Islam and country is Australia to speak out against those who defile their religion by twisting it into homilies of hatred. And it is time for the rest of us to urge them on. It is the Australian way to tolerate all who obey the law and live in harmony with their neighbours. But it is also the Australian way to challenge those who seek to subvert our society from without – or within.

[Fred Nerks]

"They must heed the warnings of Sheik Taj Din al-Hilali, reported in The Australian this morning, that some young Muslims are being seduced by extremists"

THIS MUFTI?


The Mufti of Australia and New Zealand, Taj Al-Din Hamed Abdallah Al-Hilali, was born in Egypt's Suhag district in 1941. He graduated from Al-Azhar University and served as a preacher in Egypt, Libya, and Lebanon. In 1982 he came to Australia, and in 1988 he was appointed to his present position by the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils. The following is a collection of speeches and writings by Mufti Al-Hilali: (1)
A Call for Jihad from Lebanon

In a February 13, 2004 sermon at the Al-Quds mosque while on a visit to Sidon, Lebanon, the Mufti of Australia and New Zealand, Taj Al-Din Al-Hilali, called for Jihad against Israel, and added: "The war waged by the U.S. and Israel against the Muslims is a cruel war aimed at annihilating the [Islamic] nation."

Sheikh Al-Hilali expressed amazement that various Arab countries and leaders had avoided hosting the upcoming Arab summit, and added: "In any event, we have become accustomed to the fact that these summits produce nothing, neither cockroach nor mouse.(2)

"We are in dire need of real men these days in light of the situation in Jerusalem and Palestine... Your leaders are looking for a venue and no one dares address an invitation for the leaders of this stricken nation ... because we lack strong leadership. In the past, in Arab and Islamic history, we were governed by real men, but nowadays we are governed by semi-men."(3)

Following a meeting with Hizbullah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, Sheikh Al-Hilali said: "I blessed Hizbullah for liberating the prisoners and the bones of the Shahids and I praised it and its sacrifice. Hizbullah has become a model for all the Mujahideen in the world... Most of the Australian people do not support the policy of the Australian government, which has placed Hizbullah on the terror list out of submission to the U.S., and the Australian prime minister will pay the price for this in the next elections...."(4)

Anti-American and Anti-Western Sentiment

This is not the first time that Sheikh Al-Hilali expressed anti-American or anti-European sentiment. In a speech in March 2003, he likened "Bush Jr." to the son of Genghis Khan, calling him "the most ignorant president to lead the White House."(5) Sheikh Al-Hilali also declared that President Bush, Australian Prime Minister John Howard, and British Prime Minister Tony Blair are the "axis of evil."(6)

Sheikh Al-Hilali said on another occasion: "The media all over the world are controlled by Zionist fingers, particularly the Western media, and that includes Australia, in which the media are under Zionist hegemony. But in Australia, which unlike the West and the U.S. is multicultural, the media are less racist in their enmity to Muslims and Islam. This is evidenced by the fact that we won the last media battle in Australia and succeeded in forcing the Australian people to treat us with respect. We have not suffered from persecution or disrespect to the same extent that Islamic communities in Western countries and in America have suffered."(7)

However, Al-Hilali believes that "the Zionist Western attack on Islam" has become the best means of its propagation: "The Muslims are like a cotton [cushion] that the upholsterer's stick only makes bigger. When the cotton is worn out and can no longer be sat upon, the upholsterer comes along and attacks it ferociously with his stick. These blows clean the cotton, cause it to swell, expand, and grow.

"Thus are the Muslims. The stick of the Western media prompted the spread of Islam, and stimulated the Westerners to hasten to acquaint themselves with it...

"The Western media attacks Islam day and night. But they are unable to hide the sun at midday. The events of September 11th in the U.S. caused a revolutionary change in the military and defensive balance of power in the world, and all the world must reexamine their considerations in light of these developments...."(8)

Support for Hizbullah, Hamas, and Islamic Jihad

In one interview, Sheikh Al-Hilali accused the U.S. of terrorism and expressed support for martyrdom/suicide attacks: "There is no doubt that the U.S. is dealing with wholesale marketing of terrorism. The U.S. is the biggest agent for terrorism in the world, and Israel perpetrates terrorism, with funding and military and diplomatic support from the U.S.

"We are proud of the Islamic resistance in Palestine, Lebanon, Kashmir, and everywhere in the world that seeks to achieve its legitimate rights in accordance with the international resolutions, the human rights conventions, and the U.N. resolutions...

"We are also proud of the Islamic resistance that liberated southern Lebanon, led by Hizbullah, the legitimate Lebanese national movement, that forced the Israeli occupation army to withdraw from southern Lebanon, dragging trails of disappointment and shame behind it.

"We are also proud of what Hamas and the Islamic Jihad are both doing in the occupied territories. We support the resistance and support, with all our might, the martyrdom operations carried out by the Palestinian liberation movements, operations that are a legitimate act against the cruel occupation, according to all international norms and conventions.

"Also, whoever carries out a martyrdom [operation] is a pure Shahid and one of the men of Paradise. Moreover, he stands at the head of the Shahids."(9)


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