Free Republic

THE Australian Greens have described as "despicable'' a suggestion that Australia needs to have a serious discussion about the growth of its Muslim population. At least one Liberal frontbencher has distanced the party from the views of the last immigration minister in the previous Howard government, Kevin Andrews. Mr Andrews says the issue of a growing Muslim population is a topic that has to be discussed. "To have a concentration of one ethnic or one particular group that remains in an enclave for a long period of time is not good,'' the Liberal backbencher told Macquarie Radio Network today. "You...

A WOMAN suspected of recruiting more than 80 female suicide bombers has confessed to organising their rapes so she could later convince them that martyrdom was the only way to escape the shame. Samira Jassam, 51, was arrested by Iraqi police and confessed to recruiting the women and orchestrating dozens of attacks. In a video confession, she explained how she had mentally prepared the women for martyrdom operations, passed them on to terrorists who provided explosives, and then took the bombers to their targets. "We arrested Samira Jassim, known as 'Um al-Mumenin', the mother of the believers, who was responsible...

MOVES to build a Catholic school in Camden, in Sydney's south-west, have been welcomed by the same community group which vocally opposed plans for a Muslim school. The president of the Camden/Macarthur Residents Group, Emil Sremchevich, told Fairfax the Catholic plan "ticks all the right boxes", even though he was yet to see its development application. "Catholics are part of our community so we should be supporting it on this basis alone," Mr Sremchevich told Fairfax. "To become part of the community, you need to live in the community. You can't just turn up." Mr Sremchevich said he was not...

AUSSIES who find themselves under threat are more likely to shoot at Muslims, especially if they're in a good mood, a study claims. Researchers at the University of New South Wales have found that Australians perceive Muslim-style headgear as a threat, even if they don't realise they hold any prejudice. The study, published in The Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, involved 66 uni students playing a computer game in which different male and female figures appeared on a balcony. Some figures were wearing Muslim-style turbans or hijabs while others were bareheaded. Participants were asked to shoot at the targets carrying...

A MAN purporting to be a Muslim cleric wrote to the father of slain Australian soldier Luke Worsley telling him he "can't be proud" of his son who "died for nothing" - then posted the letter online. John Worsley, father of 26-year-old commando Private Luke Worsley who was killed by the Taliban in Afghanistan last month, received the letter from “Sheikh Haron” just days after news broke of his son’s death. “We were hurt (by the letter),” Mr Worsley told NEWS.com.au. “We’re very proud of our boy.” The letter – topped with Mr Worsley’s home address – has been posted...

PRIME Minister John Howard is leading condemnation against the decision to include two entries in a prestigious art competition that ridicule the Christian faith. A statue of the Virgin Mary shrouded by a Muslim burqa and a holographic image of Osama bin Laden that morphs into Jesus Christ when moved on an angle have sparked outrage from politicians and church leaders. The "artworks" were submitted as entries for the Blake Prize - Australia's top religious art competition. Yesterday, Mr Howard said the pieces were insulting and lacked any artistic merit. "The choice of such artwork is gratuitously offensive to the...

A prominent member of the Islamic community says he is disappointed Sheikh Taj el-Din Al Hilali decided to step aside as mufti. The decision was announced yesterday after a meeting of the Australian National Imams Council in Melbourne. Sheikh Al Hilali was re-elected Mufti of Australia at the meeting but he declined the position, and Sheikh Fehmi El-Imam was appointed the new head cleric in Australia. The new Mufti, who is from Melbourne's Preston Mosque, is described as a moderate and says he hopes to foster good relations with the rest of the Australian community. But Keysar Trad from the...

PRIME Minister John Howard said today he unapologetically used the word "assimilate" when it came to absorbing Muslim citizens into the community. Mr Howard said assimilating new citizens into the wider community helped tackle radicalism among a minority of Muslims. In Tuesday's Budget, Treasurer Peter Costello allocated $461,000 to programs that help Muslim communities integrate. "I think it's in the interests of everybody," Mr Howard said on Southern Cross radio. "There's every reason to try and assimilate - and I unapologetically use that word 'assimilate' - a section of the community, a tiny minority of whose members have caused concern....

AUSTRALIA'S high-ranking Islamic clerics have shown they are out of touch with the mainstream by allowing Sheik Taj al-Din al-Hilali to remain as spiritual leader, says Prime Minister John Howard. Mr Howard said today that while the imams had the right to appoint whoever they wanted as mufti, they had shown they were out of touch with mainstream Australia by re-endorsing a man who compared women to uncovered meat. "They're exercising their right, it's not our power or right to appoint religious leaders. But I think they're doing their community damage," Mr Howard said on Sky News. "I remain very...

Five men affiliated with a Missouri Islamic charity, which authorities claim has links to al-Qaida, have been indicted on charges that they illegally sent money to Iraq, federal prosecutors announced Wednesday. The five men associated with the Columbia, Mo.-based Islamic American Relief Agency-USA are charged in a 33-count indictment that alleges they stole government money and falsely represented their fundraising goals to the public. A federal grand jury returned the indictment Tuesday and it was unsealed Wednesday. The men charged are Mubarak Hamed, 50, who served as executive director of the agency; Ali Mohamed Bagegni, 53, a former board member;...

SYDNEY'S most influential radical Muslim cleric has been caught on film calling Jews pigs and urging children to die for Allah. Sheikh Feiz Mohammed, head of the Global Islamic Youth Centre in Liverpool, delivers the hateful rants on a collection of DVDs called the Death Series, sold in Australia and overseas, News Limited newspapers report. An Australian citizen born in Sydney, he has spent the past year living in Lebanon. Sheikh Feiz was exposed this week in the British documentary, Undercover Mosque. “Today many parents, they prevent their children from attending lessons,” he says in the video. “Why? They fear...

MORE than 1.5 million Muslims have arrived in Saudi Arabia for the annual hajj pilgrimage to Mecca which begins on Thursday. The official SPA news agency quoted the Hajj Commission as saying 1,526,603 people had arrived in the kingdom by yesterday to take part in this year's pilgrimage. As well as expected further arrivals from abroad, Saudis and other Muslims resident in the country will swell the number of the faithful undertaking the hajj to some two million. The Hajj Supreme Committee said 202 pilgrims have died since arriving in the kingdom, mainly the elderly or infirm and generally from...

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Virginia lawmaker criticized for writing an "Islamophobic" letter to his constituents would be wise to learn more about Islam, the first Muslim elected to Congress said Thursday. Minnesota Rep.-elect Keith Ellison told CNN that he is not angry about a letter Virginia Rep. Virgil Goode wrote that said Ellison should not be allowed to place his hand on the Quran during his unofficial swearing in ceremony. "I think the diversity of our country is a great strength," Ellison told CNN's Wolf Blitzer. "It's a good thing that we have people from all faiths and all cultures...

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A Virginia congressman will not apologize for writing that without immigration reform "there will be many more Muslims elected to office demanding the use of the Quran," his spokesman said. Republican Rep. Virgil Goode's letter to constituents also warns that without immigration reform "we will have many more Muslims in the United States." Spokesman Linwood Duncan said Goode's letter was written in response to complaints his office received about Minnesota Rep.-elect Keith Ellison's request to be sworn in using the Quran. Ellison is the first Muslim to be elected to Congress. Goode's office released the letter to...

PALESTINIAN President Mahmoud Abbas today called for a political solution to resolve a Palestinian crisis but made clear he had the right to sack the Hamas Government. Mr Abbas, making a much anticipated and lengthy speech on Palestine TV, blamed the governing Hamas movement for a crisis that has renewed fears of civil war. He has yet to comment on whether he would call early elections, a step his aides said he might threaten to take in the speech. Internal tensions are at their worst in a decade after months of talks between Hamas and Abbas's Fatah on forging a...

MUSLIMS, socialists, unions and other groups will conduct a counter-rally against bikini protesters who plan to march on a Brunswick mosque on Saturday. Police will monitor the demonstrations, with white supremacists claiming to have infiltrated bikini protest ranks, increasing the potential for confrontation. Organisers of the "Great Australian Bikini March" had planned to march against the Michael St mosque last Saturday, anniversary of the Cronulla riots in NSW. Though the bikini march has been postponed until Australia Day next year, some supporters say they will still hold the rally on Saturday. The march has been promoted on white supremacist websites....

PRIME Minister Ehud Olmert warned today that Israel would react if Palestinian militants continued rocket attacks in violation of a Gaza Strip ceasefire. Mr Olmert, at a meeting with European Union ambassadors, "let it be known that Israel will continue to show restraint for the time being. But if the rocket attacks continue, Israel will react'', spokesman Miri Eisin said. He said 12 rockets fired from the Gaza Strip had exploded on Israeli territory since the ceasefire took effect on Sunday morning. "It's miracle that no civilian has been hurt. If it had been the case, the situation would be...

A GEORGIA court today found a man guilty of sexually mutilating his two-year-old daughter with a pair of scissors, the first proven case of female genital mutilation in the US. AKhalid Adem, a 31-year-old Ethiopian immigrant, was sentenced to 10 years in prison for aggravated battery and cruelty to children for the 2001 crime, which the mother said she did not discover until two years later when she took her daughter to the doctor. Adem had faced a maximum sentence of 40 years in prison. Before the sentencing, Fortunate Adem, the mother of the girl who now is seven years...

THE French government is to hold an emergency meeting on boosting transport security, after an arson attack on a bus left a woman on the verge of death, the prime minister's office said today. The attack by youths in the southern city of Marseille was the worst incident in an upsurge of urban violence during the weekend, on the anniversary of the riots that shook France last year. Bus drivers in the city refused to return to work today until security was reinforced, prompting Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy to double the number of riot police in Marseille to more than...

THE United Muslim Women Association (MWA) today condemned comments by a senior Islamic cleric that women who wore revealing clothes invited sexual assault. Sheik Taj al-Din al-Hilaly compared skimpily-dressed women to "uncovered meat" and suggested they were "the problem" that caused sexual attacks, The Australian reported today. Maha Abdo, manager of the association, said she was shocked by the comments, which they did not reflect mainstream Muslim beliefs. "From what I know of the imam, he's always been very supportive of women's rights and women's issues, and advocate of women," she said. Speaking from the association's offices in Lakemba in...