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Down Under

Australian terror case triggers Muslim summit

2010-02-19

Dozens of senior figures from the Muslim community will attend a crisis meeting tomorrow night in the wake of the sentences handed down this week to five NSW men convicted of terrorism offences. The meeting will be held at the nation's largest mosque, in Lakemba in Sydney's southwest, and will be hosted by Sheik Taj Din al-Hilali -- formerly Australia's most senior cleric. Several other senior imams are expected to attend. The extraordinary meeting was called following an outcry within Sydney's Muslim community about the five offenders being sentenced on Monday to maximum jail terms of between 23 and 28 years for plotting violent jihad on Australian soil. NSW Supreme Court judge Anthony Whealy said that, although there was no evidence that the men had identified a specific target for their crime, the fact that they had stockpiled vast amounts of ammunition and weapons, and were found to be in possession of extremist material, indicated that "each conspirator intended that the ultimate act or terrorist act Sheik Hilali said the case had the "scent of hysteria" and argued that the men should not have been found guilty when there was no evidence of the group's "true intentions". Islamic Friendship Association of Australia president Keysar Trad said yesterday that the Muslim community "detested terrorism in all its forms". "If we thought somebody in the community was plotting something, we would be the first to knock down their door and stop it happening," Mr Trad said. He said the feeling in the community was that the five men, who were convicted of conspiring to do an act in preparation for a terrorist act, had been "victimised". "It's human nature -- sometimes we all think about doing stupid things," Mr Trad said. "That doesn't necessarily mean we are always going to go through with it." It is understood that senior law professor Ben Saul, from the University of Sydney, has been invited by Sheik Hilali to host a "question and answer" session on Australia's terrorism laws at Lakemba mosque next week.

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Olde Tyme Religion

Counterpoint: Setting Themselves Apart

2006-11-23

This is no 'personal' decision. The fundamentals of modern civil society are at stake. By Ayaan Hirsi Ali British Prime Minister Tony Blair says the Muslim veil is a mark of separation, which makes the integration of Muslim women into society more difficult. He's right. Those who wear the veil deliberately set themselves apart. Many are coerced into shrouding their bodies. The veil is the visible symptom of their more comprehensive subjection. They are required to be obedient, to ask permission of their male guardians when they leave the house, often with a chaperone. These victims of force, whether they live in England or in Saudi Arabia, almost always have very limited education. They are married young, through arranged or forced marriages, and are groomed for docility. They do not appear in unemployment statistics, or any statistics at all. As ordained by their faith, they are invisible. Those women who voluntarily choose the veil are different. Often they are literate, verbally forthright and independent. Many are recent converts—"born again" Muslims and Islamic activists who may be well integrated into society. Yet they have made a clear choice. They reject the Western lifestyle. The veil is an expression of the moral philosophy they hold and wish to impose upon others. They seek to provoke, to intimidate. In many European cities it is increasingly common to see girls, sometimes as young as 5, with headscarves tied tightly around their necks, or even little veils. They are taught to keep away from boys, from unbelievers and from Muslims who are weak in the faith—in other words, other, unveiled Muslim little girls. That is precisely the purpose of the veil. The veil also manifests division of the sexes. Women must veil; men do not. Underlying this simple dogma is a sexual morality that holds women responsible for the sexual conduct of men. Men may become aroused to sinful thoughts at the sight of a woman. For that, the unveiled woman will be punished in hell by Allah. Australia's most senior Muslim cleric, Sheik Taj Din al-Hilali, recently spoke about a group of Muslim men jailed for many years for gang rapes: "If you take uncovered meat and place it outside on the street ... and the cats come and eat it ... whose fault is it—the cats' or the uncovered meat? The uncovered meat is the problem." He went on: "If she was in her room, in her home, in her higab, no problem would have occurred." The most wicked aspect of this "morality" is the complete lack of male responsibility for male conduct. And this sexual morality clashes deeply with that of the West, which emphasizes female eroticism in fashion, music, films, advertising. Feminists may argue the merits of all this, but one distinction remains important. In the West, there exists an assumption that men are capable of sexual restraint. It is this presumption that makes it possible for us women to freely take part in public life and make our own private choices. The victim of rape in a miniskirt did not ask for it, and the husband who rapes his wife is guilty of a felony. And what of the debate over the separation of church and state, as waged in France? No single religion may dominate the public space. Everyone may freely exercise their religion—a right not enjoyed in Saudi Arabia, Iran or Pakistan—but they may not seek to impose it on others. They may not wear "ostentatiously visible" insignia of religion in schools. Muslim women who veil in Western societies violate all these norms. They are being immodest and invasive. They will succeed only in creating hostility. To every woman who decides to walk out the door looking like Batman and then complains of being ridiculed, I say, you are inviting it. Bear it or shed it. Hirsi Ali, a former member of the Dutch Parliament, is author of "The Caged Virgin" and a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington. I'm hoping that this will be posted under the nick "ryuge" and that my cookies can be reset to that. If it doesn't work, maybe a moderator can help me get it reset sometime in the future. Thanks. Changed the nick but I can't fix the cookie issue. E-mail Fred. AoS.

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Down Under

Holocaust claims a Zionist lie: mufti

2006-07-14

THE nation's Islamic leader, Sheik Taj Din al-Hilali, has dismissed the Holocaust as a "Zionist lie" in a series of fiery sermons in which he also lashed out at the West and the US-led occupation of Iraq. And Sheik Hilali -- the Mufti of Australia and a member of John Howard's Muslim Community Reference Group -- also accuses the Government of being dishonest for claiming the anti-terrorism laws were not designed specifically for Muslims. "These laws are tailored to target us precisely," he said in a sermon recorded at Sydney's Lakemba Mosque in November - one of a number of recordings The Weekend Australian has of Sheik Hilali's religious addresses delivered in Arabic over the past eight months. Revelations that the nation's most senior Islamic cleric has been openly preaching extreme messages to his mainstream followers will be a major setback for the Howard Government. Sheik Hilali is a senior member of the Prime Minister's Muslim advisory board. Parliamentary Secretary for Multicultural Affairs Andrew Robb will tomorrow unveil details of federal funding for national projects to help address problems within the Islamic community. Mr Robb, who oversees the advisory group, told The Weekend Australian Sheik Hilali's reported comments were "inflammatory and unacceptable". Last night, the mufti stood by his sermons: "We are always saddened and always remember with great sorrow what Nazism did to the Jewish people," he said in a statement. However, we do not wish to see these crimes repeated by other hands. Some who see themselves as supporters of Israel do abuse the Holocaust whenever Israel is engaged in its indefensible wars and crimes against humanity. People, myself included, are within their legitimate right to question the morality of exploiting the memory of the Holocaust."

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Down Under

Mufti told 'line up for the dole'

2006-07-05

AUSTRALIA'S Muslim spiritual leader, Sheik Taj Din al-Hilali, has lost his $40,000 cleric's allowance and been told to apply for the dole because the bitterly divided national Islamic council can no longer pay him. The high-profile sheik has been instructed to "contact your local Centrelink office" by the nation's peak Muslim body, the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils, which is locked in a legal dispute over its leadership and has been denied access to its bank accounts. "The Westpac Bank has informed us that we will not be able to draw any funds from the bank," AFIC's new president, Rahim Ghauri, told the mufti in a letter obtained by The Australian. "Due to this restriction we have to curtail or suspend our staff salaries." AFIC, which derives most of its income from rent on land that houses Muslim schools across the country, and the certification of halal food, is understood to have paid the salaries of about 10 imams in the country. But Westpac froze the organisation's accounts last month after The Australian revealed the ethnic brawling that unfolded following the council's April elections, when a group of Pakistanis took control of the organisation, which had for years been controlled by Fijian Indians. The Sydney-based Sheik Hilali was outraged by the instruction and sent a searing letter to the council's president. "I would prefer to die 100 times over than to stand in line seeking welfare payments from Centrelink," he says in the letter, dated June 27. "Does your dignity or Islamic manners permit you to direct such an insult to a spiritual leader who had spent his life in the service of the faith? "You are very much mistaken if you believe that you can insult me, my dignity will not accept for me to be held hostage to the mercy of AFIC or anyone else for that matter." The Egyptian-born cleric was receiving fortnightly payments from AFIC for his religious duties as Mufti - the nation's most senior imam - since his appointment to the position by the national council in 1989. The nation's 150 imams earn their living through community donations generally given to them when they officiate at weddings and funerals. Some also receive money from other Islamic societies. But the dispute comes as AFIC, the Islamic umbrella body, is in the middle of a fierce legal battle with members of the rebel executive board attempting to win the control of the organisation. It is understood the Mufti favours the rebel board over the new regime. The Australian understands that the new Pakistani-led AFIC executive has since redirected the council's earnings to a Commonwealth Bank account. But the letter from Mr Ghauri to Sheik Hilali, dated June 22, says: "Our records indicate that you have been on AFIC's payroll and your fortnightly salary is due on 30 June, 2006. "In view of our inability to draw funds from our accounts we shall not be able to transfer the money into your account on that day and furthermore, until such ... restrictions are removed from our accounts. "You may wish to contact your local Centrelink office to seek interim benefit ... However, any amounts received from Centrelink, until your payments from AFIC are reinstated, will be deducted from the accrued amount of salary that you will receive from AFIC subsequently."

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Down Under

Australian Lebanese kids being exported as brides

2005-08-01

AUSTRALIAN girls as young as 14 have been flown overseas and forced to marry older men in an attempt by their families to protect them from promiscuity and Western influences at home. The Australian embassy in Beirut has been approached by 12 women in the past two years - seven of them minors - seeking help to return to Australia to escape arranged marriages. Diplomats met Islamic clerics and Arabic community leaders in Sydney and Melbourne last year asking for their help to prevent women being taken abroad to marry against their will, The Australian has learned. Australian ambassador in Lebanon Stephanie Shwabsky said women were arriving at the embassy seeking help to return to Australia after fleeing their new husbands. "The cases that come to our attention are very serious," Ms Shwabsky said. "The young people involved are very upset and want our assistance and protection." In one case, a 14-year-old girl arrived alone at the embassy seeking consular assistance, saying she had effectively been imprisoned in the home of a man she had been forced to marry by her father, who had taken her to Lebanon promising her a holiday. Consular staff made contact with her mother in Australia and organised her flight home. Ms Shwabsky said it appeared that many of the teenagers were unaware they were going to be married when they travelled to Lebanon, where the legal age for marriage is 16. In most cases, the teenagers are married into families in northern Lebanon, were such marriage traditions are still strong. Australia's most prominent Islamic cleric, Sheik Taj Din al-Hilali, said he had heard about girls who had been taken to Lebanon for arranged marriages, a practice he condemned as "unfair for the children" and against religious teaching. "It's against Islam," he said. "This is cultural thinking, not religious. "They (the parents) want her (their daughter) to be safe, and to bring the families closer together, but these marriages are not true and are unfair for the children." He also expressed concern about marriages of convenience by overseas husbands wanting to live in Australia. He said Australian women of all ages were travelling to Lebanon so they could marry, but some men consented only so they could emigrate to Australia. The husband would then divorce his wife after living with her for two years and qualifying for a permanent resident's visa. Ms Shwabsky has written to Arabic media in Australia warning against forced marriages and meets regularly with religious leaders and politicians in Lebanon who oppose the practice. "The communities that have the highest number of these cases, I have spoken both publicly and privately with opinion-makers and local and senior clergy, including the chief judge of the Sunni Court in Tripoli," she said. "In addition, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade in Canberra has also spoken to religious and community leaders." She said the embassy worked with local government, legal officials and families to help the victims fly home to Australia. While teenagers rarely married before the Australian legal age of 18, many were facing pressure to get engaged as early as possible to avoid losing their religious and cultural identities and to protect themselves from Western lifestyles, including sex before marriage. "My cousin got married at 17 to a man around 28 years old," one teenage girl said. "She completed half of Year 11 and now she's having a baby. She always tells me that I am wasting my time studying." Rather than refuse, girls were eager to find a husband in their communities that placed the highest value on marriage and raising a family, welfare workers said. Others obliged because they felt unable to integrate into a society they think distrusts Muslims in the wake of the war on terrorism. The welfare workers fear these girls are reducing their employment options and financial independence and isolating themselves from mainstream society. They stress many arranged marriages are loving and successful but question whether young teenagers fully understand the responsibilities. "Because of the ongoing tensions after September 11, rightly or wrongly they think that whatever chances they had of integration prior to September 11 don't exist now," Islamic Women's Welfare Council of Victoria manager Joumanah El Matrah said. "And it's not a sense of blame or anger, it's being pragmatic. They are going to just live quietly and exist on the fringes. It's quite bleak." The council has repeatedly approached the Victorian Government for funding to address the issue, involving possibly several hundred girls, but have so far been refused. "It's just like a black hole," Ms El Matrah said. "You put your concerns forward and (government officials) are sympathetic but nothing evolves."

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Down Under

Al-Timmi preached jihad in Australia

2005-07-23

RADICAL Australian Muslims were exposed to the extremist teachings of an American cleric who has been jailed for life in the US for inciting his followers to commit jihad against the West. The cleric, Sheik Ali al-Timimi, was invited to speak in Australia by this country's most senior fundamentalist cleric, Sheik Mohammed Omran, and gave lectures in Melbourne and also at the controversial Sydney prayer hall in Haldon St, Lakemba, which is run by Sheik Abdul Salam Zoud. Senior Islamic sources say some of Sheik Timimi's sermons, given during a visit in 2000, were recorded and continue to be sold at the bookstore in Sheik Omran's prayer hall in Brunswick - one of several bookstores that have come under scrutiny this week for selling radical Islamic texts. A US court last week sentenced Sheik Timimi to life in prison for his actions in 2001 in inciting Muslims to jihad against the West and, in particular, against Western forces in Afghanistan - only months before Australian troops are scheduled to arrive in that country to help fight the Taliban. Sheik Timimi's call was heeded by a group of followers in the US, 11 of whom were charged with conducting paramilitary training to prepare for "holy war" abroad. The case resulted in nine convictions, the largest number in a US terror case since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Prosecutors described Sheik Timimi as a "purveyor of hate and war" for his role in inciting his followers, and his hefty sentence has sparked debate in the US about the limits of free speech in an era of terrorism. A similar debate has broken out in Australia this week following calls by Australia's best-known Islamic leader, Sheik Taj Din al-Hilali, for bans on extremist Islamic literature and for the deportation of Islamic clerics who incite their followers to commit violent acts. Sheik Omran has flatly rejected Sheik Hilali's proposals. Attorney-General Philip Ruddock told The Australian yesterday the Government already had in place measures to ensure potential visitors who might incite violence could be refused a visa. "If you look at the visa arrangements in relation to character testing, we have a lot of people who might euphemistically be described as sheiks who are denied entry to Australia because they might bring discordant messages," Mr Ruddock said. Sheik Timimi enjoys a broad global following among radical Muslims, including in Australia. In an internet message in 2003, he described the destruction of the space shuttle Columbia as a "good omen" for Muslims in an apocalyptic conflict with the West. Sheik Timimi called on his followers to commit jihad against the West only five days after the September 11 terror attacks. Several of them then travelled to Pakistan, where they received military training from Lashkar-i-Taiba, an organisation that has since been branded a terrorist group by the US and Australia. Mr Ruddock said Australia already had laws relating to incitement to commit a terrorist act, but retained an open mind about whether further changes were necessary. "If you are talking jihad, does that constitute incitement to commit a terrorist act? It probably doesn't. Everything depends on the facts," he said. "Do you start trying to define what aspects of a sermon might constitute a criminal offence?" He said he would take a close look at the British Government's plans to create a new offence of "indirect incitement" to commit terrorist acts. But he cautioned that Canberra would not necessarily follow Britain's example. Mr Ruddock said that in some of its proposed counter-terrorism measures, Britain was playing "catch-up" with Australia.

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