Posted on 10/30/2006 7:18:36 PM PST by Fred Nerks
Muslims leaving 'Hilaly fan club'
MUSLIMS were beginning to break free from the "Sheik Hilaly fan club" since the senior cleric's fall from grace, Federal Health Minister Tony Abbott said today.
The controversy surrounding Sheik Taj al-Din al-Hilaly was an opportunity for other Australian Muslims to represent their community, Mr Abbott said.
The controversy started last week when it was revealed the mufti compared immodestly-dressed women to uncovered meat open to predators in a speech at Sydney's Lakemba mosque last month.
"I certainly think that it's about time that we started to hear diverse voices in the Islamic community and perhaps one of the good things to come out of the recent controversy is the range of Islamic people here in Australia who are now starting to break ranks, so to speak, from the Sheik Hilaly fan club," Mr Abbott said on ABC radio.
"He certainly has form. He has been an extremist on just about every issue where he's been in the media over the last couple of decades."
Treasurer Peter Costello said Sheik Hilaly's comments about women were just the tip of the iceberg of extreme views that could have damaged Australian society over the past decade.
Mr Costello said the sheik had a history of making inflammatory comments, dating back to the late 1980s when he made public anti-semitic remarks.
"The latest episode is just the latest in a long tradition. I congratulate the muslim community for dealing with it now, but my point is, a lot of damage could have been done in the last decade," Mr Costello said on Macquarie Radio.
"You go right through the decade, the sheik has been anti-semitic, he has supported jihadists, he has made statements that are absolutely offensive to women, such as the uncovered meat one...
(Excerpt) Read more at news.com.au ...
Probably there's a great deal of money flowing in from around the world to support him.
Quite possible. If so, more reason why the Australian Government would need to get very closely involved and stop it.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1728334/posts?page=8#8
FYI - if you haven't read it before...
The Lakemba connection:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1728417/posts?page=25#25
how he got to where he's at: (for the record.)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1728417/posts?page=26#26
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1728417/posts?page=24#24
more Lakemba connection
+from Novermber, 2004.
Australia: A push for more responsible moderate leadership of Australia's Muslim community:
"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 southwestern 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...
"A spokesman for the new council, Mahmoud Krayem, said yesterday that 20 Muslim organisations had joined the council from different ethnic backgrounds around the country, including Afghan, Indonesian, Pakistani and Lebanese...
"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."
According to Sheikh Alwan, "In looking at the current state of the Muslim leadership in Australia, we can confidently say there is an urgent need for the unity of all the moderate sheikhs, sincere scholars and the highly qualified and educated members of the community." In a dig at the perceived influence of Saudi Wahhabi money, Sheikh added that "Darul-Fatwa Islamic High Council of Australia [as the new group is known] is not a tool serving the interests of any foreign government nor does it accept or receive funds from any overseas sources." His final words offer encouragement for all those who hope to see the Muslim community taking a strong stance against the Islamist cancer: "Darul-Fatwa totally refuses all kinds of extremism as it refuses its elements from any group or individual and declares all acts of extremism unrelated to Islam, as Islam is not related to them in spite of those who claim otherwise."
http://www.inblogs.net/chrenkoff/2004/11/good-news-from-islamic-world-part-2.html
http://jihadwatch.org/dhimmiwatch/archives/006737.php
Ransom, anyone?
November 24, 2005
Australia: Mufti Miffed With Muslim Charity Group Al-Ahbash
Reports now coming out from Australia's abc.net.au, from Radio Australia, and News.com state that a large consortium of Muslim leaders has condemned a Muslim charity which operates in Australia as "fanatical" and encouraging extremism.
A decree which has been signed by 36 Australian Muslim organisations has condemned the Islamic Charitable Projects Association or al-Ahbash as holding "deviant and perverse views".
The decree is signed by, among others, Dr Ameer Ali, who earlier stated that it would be difficult for Muslims to "dob in" another Muslim to the authorities, and also the self-appointed "Mufti" of Australia, the highly controversial Sheikh Taj al-Din al-Hilaly (pictured), who is imam at Sydney's Lakemba Mosque.
The head of al-Ahbash in Australia, one Ghayath al-Shelh, has denied the allegations, and claims that some people signed the statement after being misled by the office of the self-appointed "Mufti". The spokesperson for Taj al-Din al-Hilaly is Keysar Trad.
There appears to be bad blood between the "Mufti" and Ghayath al-Shelh. Both come from Lebanon (though the "Mufti" is Egyptian-born), and therefore know more about each other's background and community than most Australians. But there is more, much more to this story than I first realised when I scanned through newsfeeds.
According to the Australian from November 5, around the end of Ramadan, there has been a feud going on between the "Mufti" and al-Ahbash. The report describes an Eid ul-Fitr party being held by Muslim Community Radio, and it was at this time that a United Nations report was just coming out, which had accused two Lebanese members of al-Ahbash of complicity in the murder of the Lebanese former Prime Minister, Rafiq al-Hariri.
Al-Hariri died when a truck bomb blew him up, with 20 others in February. The UN account said the assassination was carried out under the aegis of Syrian authorities. It also named two members of al-Ahbash from Lebanon as being involved, in particular an individual named Ahmad Abdel-Al, and his brother Mahmoud Abdel-Al.
The UN report was compiled by Detlev Mehlis, a German prosecutor. He implicated Lebanese and Syrian agents in the truck-bombing plot. According to Ya Libnan.com:
It said a member of al-Ahbash identified as Ahmed Abdel Aal made several phone calls the day of the assassination and two days after with Lebanese security officials. It also said Abdel Aal telephoned President Emile Lahoud minutes before the blast that killed Hariri...
http://www.westernresistance.com/blog/archives/001047.html
from the murky depths it slithers...this multi-headed viper.
November 24, 2005
Australia: Mufti Miffed With Muslim Charity Group Al-Ahbash
Reports now coming out from Australia's abc.net.au, from Radio Australia, and News.com state that a large consortium of Muslim leaders has condemned a Muslim charity which operates in Australia as "fanatical" and encouraging extremism.
A decree which has been signed by 36 Australian Muslim organisations has condemned the Islamic Charitable Projects Association or al-Ahbash as holding "deviant and perverse views".
The decree is signed by, among others, Dr Ameer Ali, who earlier stated that it would be difficult for Muslims to "dob in" another Muslim to the authorities, and also the self-appointed "Mufti" of Australia, the highly controversial Sheikh Taj al-Din al-Hilaly (pictured), who is imam at Sydney's Lakemba Mosque.
The head of al-Ahbash in Australia, one Ghayath al-Shelh, has denied the allegations, and claims that some people signed the statement after being misled by the office of the self-appointed "Mufti". The spokesperson for Taj al-Din al-Hilaly is Keysar Trad.
There appears to be bad blood between the "Mufti" and Ghayath al-Shelh. Both come from Lebanon (though the "Mufti" is Egyptian-born), and therefore know more about each other's background and community than most Australians. But there is more, much more to this story than I first realised when I scanned through newsfeeds.
According to the Australian from November 5, around the end of Ramadan, there has been a feud going on between the "Mufti" and al-Ahbash. The report describes an Eid ul-Fitr party being held by Muslim Community Radio, and it was at this time that a United Nations report was just coming out, which had accused two Lebanese members of al-Ahbash of complicity in the murder of the Lebanese former Prime Minister, Rafiq al-Hariri.
Al-Hariri died when a truck bomb blew him up, with 20 others in February. The UN account said the assassination was carried out under the aegis of Syrian authorities. It also named two members of al-Ahbash from Lebanon as being involved, in particular an individual named Ahmad Abdel-Al, and his brother Mahmoud Abdel-Al.
The UN report was compiled by Detlev Mehlis, a German prosecutor. He implicated Lebanese and Syrian agents in the truck-bombing plot. According to Ya Libnan.com:
It said a member of al-Ahbash identified as Ahmed Abdel Aal made several phone calls the day of the assassination and two days after with Lebanese security officials. It also said Abdel Aal telephoned President Emile Lahoud minutes before the blast that killed Hariri...
http://www.westernresistance.com/blog/archives/001047.html
from the murky depths it slithers...this multi-headed viper.
whoops! sorry about the double post...
Thanks for all the links & info. Certainly an eye opener.
In the short term it may be enjoyable to sit down with some popcorn and watch the infighting, one has to take into consideration the implications of 36 RoP organizations uniting under informal or formal ties to present a "common front."
I hope someone's watching and learning enough about their major players, funding, zakat collection/distribution and objectives to play on their internal friction and fault lines to keep them infighting once the present situation has been contained. Divide and conquer (even the EUrabians have had a certain degree of success at this)... don't get into the kind of scenario in the US where one group like CAIR is often considered the mouthpiece of all the nations RoPers simply by default.
Heh... there's enough "bad blood" between RoP factions to keep them both competing and fighting each other for another 1400 years.
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Muslims in Oz, I read somewhere, come from 70 (!) different countries...each with their own particular political and religious baggage.
Mohammad's legacy of hate works a treat...they hate each other!
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