America Needs A John Howard

(All emphases by Always On Watch)

According to this January 24, 2007 article:

The Australian government, whose leaders have invited Muslims who believe religious law should trump the nation's secular constitution to leave, now has launched an investigation into recordings of messages urging Muslims to kill enemies of Islam.

[...]

Prime Minister John Howard has said he believes activities of those in Australia's mosques should be monitored, citing a need for the government to know if members of the Islamic community supported or taught violence.

"We have a right to know whether there is, within any section of the Islamic community, a preaching of the virtues of terrorism, whether any comfort or harbour is given to terrorism within that community," Howard told Australian radio earlier.

According to this January 20, 2007 article, police in Australia have seized a DVD, which was available at a Muslim youth center in Oz:

FIREBRAND cleric Sheik Feiz Mohamed's defence of his comments on a DVD calling children to jihad has been undermined by revelations, the video also urges Muslims to kill the enemies of Islam and praises martyrs with a violent interpretation of jihad.

In the DVD, which runs for almost four hours, Sheik Feiz describes inmates of Guantanamo Bay as better Muslims than those in Australia, who would would not forsake their lifestyles for martyrdom.

[...]

The sheik, who left Australia in 2005 to live in his father's homeland, Lebanon, exorts his followers to seek the honourable death of the believer, quoting from narrations about the prophet Mohammed.

The DVD was a recording of a series of passionate fire-and-brimstone sermons that told his audience over several weeks nearly four years ago his thoughts on the way to live their lives. "This is our intention that we want to have children and offer them as soldiers defending Islam, loving Islam," he said.

[...]

One of Sheik Feiz's former students, Zeky Mallah, who was acquitted of terrorism charges, said the sermon was normal. "That's something that's normal with any Islamic scholar. It's just a way of speaking about things," he said.

Sheik Feiz told The Australian on Thursday that his reference to jihad did not mean violence. He said he was against suicide bombing and violence against others.

However, the DVD is littered with references to violence and a call to arms - most of which is made using examples of historical warriors as an admonishment to modern Muslims for straying from their path.

"If you're a hardliner, you'll say these in lectures; if you're a moderate, you'll keep these views to yourself," Mr Mallah said. "It's not really inciting violence. It is saying to stand up for yourself, to defend yourself and defend your land."

Well, glad that Mr. Mallah cleared up that misunderstanding!

Returning now to the first article, the minister of education and the treasurer have also issued strong statements regarding some of the problems Australia has been having:

Education Minister Brendan Nelson said those members of the Islamic faith who do not support Australian values are welcome to leave. Treasurer Peter Costello, who is seen as heir apparent to Howard, also has made similar suggestions about those who do not accept Australia's Constitution and the laws created by its parliament.

"If those are not your values, if you want a country which has Sharia law or a theocratic state, then Australia is not for you," he said.

He continued: "I'd be saying to clerics who are teaching that there are two laws governing people in Australia, one the Australian law and another the Islamic law, that 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."

This October 26, 2006 article provides a few details as to why certain leaders in Australia are speaking. Excerpt:

Australia's top Muslim cleric rationalized a series of gang rapes by Arab men, blaming women who "sway suggestively," wear make-up and don't cover themselves in the tradition of Islam.

Sheik Taj el-Dene Elhilaly's comments in a Ramadan sermon in a Sydney mosque have stirred a furor in the country with even Prime Minister John Howard weighing in with condemnation.

The cleric also said the judge in the case, who sentenced the rapists, had "no mercy."

"But the problem, but the problem all began with who?" he said, referring to the women victims – whom he said were "weapons used by Satan."

[...]

"If you take out uncovered meat and place it outside on the street, or in the garden or in the park, or in the backyard without a cover, and the cats come and eat it ... whose fault is it, the cats or the uncovered meat?" the sheik said in his sermon. "The uncovered meat is the problem. If she was in her room, in her home, in her hijab, no problem would have occurred."

The sheik apologized when threatened with deportation, but added this qualification to his apology:

"I had only intended to protect women's honor."

And the sheik's definition of "women's honor" would be _______________?

A six-part series by Laura Mansfield, who is fluent in both English and Arabic, discusses her observations in mosques in the United States. Read it!

[Hat-tip to Ogre for the January 24, 2007 article]