Muslims Out Of Australia

http://www.snopes.com/politics/religion/australia.asp ^ | Jan 31, 2007 | e-mail

[UScbass]

Muslims who want to live under Islamic Sharia law were told on Wednesday to get out of Australia, as the government targeted radicals in a bid to head off potential terror attacks. Treasurer Peter Costello, seen as heir apparent to Howard, hinted that some radical clerics could be asked to leave the country if they did not accept that Australia was a secular state, and its laws were made by parliament. "If those are not your values, if you want a country which has Sharia law or a theocratic state, then Austr alia is not for you", he said on National Television. "I'd be saying to clerics who are teaching that there are two laws governing people in Australia: one the Australian law and another Islamic law that is false. If you can't agree with parliamentary law, independent courts, democracy, and would prefer Sharia law and have the opportunity to go to another country, which practices it, perhaps, then, that's a better option", Costello said. Asked whether he meant radical clerics would be forced to leave, he said those with dual citizenship could possibly be asked to move to the other country. Education Minister Brendan Nelson later told reporters that Muslims who did not want to accept local values should "clear off. Basically people who don't want to be Australians, and who don't want, to live by Australian values and understand them, well then, they can basically clear off", he said. Separately, Howard angered some Australian Muslims on Wednesday by saying he supported spy agencies monitoring the nation's mosques. Quote: "IMMIGRANTS, NOT AUSTRALIANS, MUST ADAPT. Take It Or Leave It." "We speak mainly ENGLISH, not Spanish, Lebanese, Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Russian, or any other language. Therefore, if you wish to become part of our society .. Learn the language!"

[Eastbound]

We need to borrow their dead canary and put it on display here.

[fish hawk]

Aussies have balls! If only our leaders could find theirs.

[pacelvi]

>Well, I reiterated exactly word for word what was at the bottom of the link to snopes given as the source at the top of this thread: the email that was posted here today (& the quotes therein) are, word for word, from 2005 & the quotes here were taken verbatim from statements made in the days after the tube bombings. That's explained at the link to snopes given here

No kidding. Who disputed that?

>Some people (incl you?) seem to think that these quotes are of more recent vintage, that's all. It's an old email.

I said this:

Perhaps in 2005 the issue died down, but over the past 6 months it's very much in the news again in Australia. The clerics are only getting more brazen and the public knows about it.

Not sure what in there makes you think I think the quotes are recent when I dated them myself.

What is recent is that the Govt of Australia is making many statements very similar to those they made back then.

Your statement implied that this was old news and not quite relevant to today. It is relevant. And this story shows it is also not something new.

[leilani]

pacelvi, this is unbelievably stupid. I NEVER said that it isn't relevant to today in AUS. Anyone who's paid any attention at all to the news coming out of there for the last few months wouldn't.

(sigh) So allow me to R E P E A T for the last time: I was merely pointing out to readers that this is a retread of an old mass-circulated email from 2005 for those who might be confused & think it's more recent & I was doing so for the sake of accuracy on FR, because this forum's reputation gets slammed for stuff like that. That's all.

No one, least of all me, ever said anything consistent with the idea that Aussie-Muslim relations are hunky-dory in 2007.

Good grief, enough already.