Posted on 09/03/2006 3:03:07 PM PDT by Pikamax
MUSLIM leaders have lashed out at Peter Costello, after the federal Treasurer called on them to condemn terrorism "unequivocally", and speak out plainly and clearly against radicals in their community.
Mr Costello said they should "make it clear to would-be converts that when you join this religion you do not join a radical political ideology".
But Muslim representatives said last night Mr Costello had not taken notice of what had already been said, and did not communicate with them.
Yasser Soliman, president of the Islamic Family and Childcare Agency in Victoria, said the Government's Muslim Community Reference Group had "pledged loyalty to this country and condemned extremism and terrorism". The Muslim leadership had done this repeatedly.
"Obviously Mr Costello is not in touch with the people he's talking about — he's never bothered to talk with them," he said.
Waleed Aly, board member of the Islamic Council of Victoria, said Muslim community leaders had been "speaking out unequivocally against terrorism pretty loudly and continuously for five years. If the Treasurer hasn't heard that yet, I'm not sure what it will take."
The chairman of the Muslim Community Reference Group, Ameer Ali, said Mr Costello's remarks were "provocative, divisive and mischievous".
Malcolm Thomas, president of the Islamic Council of Victoria, said Muslim leaders did condemn terrorism all the time. The Muslim leadership would like Mr Costello to meet with them. "He's been quite critical of the Muslim community but noticeable by his absence in any engagement," Mr Thomas said.
This is not the first time Muslim leaders have clashed with Mr Costello. They were angered by remarks he made earlier this year about Sharia law and other matters.
The latest Government pressure on Muslim leaders to step up their efforts against radicals comes after Prime Minister John Howard last week drew a sharp reaction from some Muslim leaders when he said a small section of the Islamic population in Australia "is very resistant to integration".
Fully integrating included learning English and treating women as equals.
Mr Costello said he agreed with Mr Howard.
Foreign Minister Alexander Downer, when asked about Mr Costello's comments, said that "if people choose not to denounce terrorism … that draws attention to them and people wonder why would somebody not renounce terrorism".
Mr Costello told Channel Nine a minority of Muslims had been radicalised, and sought to prey on young people "with a very radical and dangerous ideology".
"It is very, very important that the leadership in Australia are very clear and very precise that this is not really Islam … and that terrorists are always to be condemned."
Some radicals tried to "disassimilate" even those born in Australia, Mr Costello said. "We have seen in this country that would-be terrorists can be born in this country … and can fall under the influence of radicals, be disassimilated and turned to terrorist purposes. This is where we really need the Islamic leadership to stand up and … make it clear that terrorism is never justified under the cover of religion."
Andrew Robb, parliamentary secretary to the Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs said some Muslim leaders were their community's "worst enemies" because they fostered a "victim" mentality.
Mr Robb told The Age that the reaction of some Muslim leaders against the PM's comments was "reinforcing" that mentality.
"You for the "Religion of Perpetual Outrage" Alert.:)"
LMAO
Here's a thought.......just suppose that Todd Beamer and his pardners on United 93 were unable to deter the hijackers and that plane would have hit the intended target.....
Would we even be having this discussion today?
I have often wondered about that.
IF there is another attack on our soil in the near future, I will hold the appeasers and the traitors personally responsible.
They don't dare. Their own children are sometime implicated in this. So the entire Muslim leadership are fellow-travelers evn though they themselves would never commit violence.
Awesome / Great question!!! I believe NO would be the answer.
The entire world is waking up daily.
PM's Howard and Blair have both expressed deep frustration with the letters to Blair from Oz and the U.K. telling him that the U.K.'s foreign policy increases terrorism...and W has taken to calling the enemy islamic fascism. And just today on FR there was an article pointing to a British film promising beheadings of muslims if they don't leave the British Isles.
Islam is getting ready to hit the fan.
Yep! And their lack of response sends exactly that message.
Sadly, uou undersestimate the level of stupidity and self-loathing of the American Left.
Even 98 had hit, there would be no change in their stance: Hate America First.
'mischievous'
Aussie Dasher will not approve of this profile labeling.
Yes it is.
Great question. Wish I knew the answer.
"Muslim anger errupts" is a macro on every headline writer's word processor.
slowly, the american public is, even if the gov't isn't..witness people demanding "middle eastern men acting in a strange fashion" being taken off planes recently because they scared the other passengers..
also, it's one thing for someone in australia to condemn muslim terrorists..I'll believe they're serious when they condemn them, IN ARABIC, and they demand al-jazeera carry it..
I hope you're right.
Nailed It!
I too have often thought that very thing. I've come up with
a couple of different ideas:
1.) The appeasers would want to know why we weren't ahead
of the game to stop it.
2.) They would complain and whine that it's because of us
we were attacked again.
I don't see any other reaction from the leftie libs on this one.
The idiots in the Congress just make me so angry!
I like you meet my daughter youngest, Aisha Pinkdust.
Oh, Truth Hurts.
LOL! How about just Dust!
Good point, in their eyes, we would have deserved it.
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