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. A day after a group of mainstream Muslim leaders pledged loyalty to Australia at a special meeting with Prime Minister John Howard, he and his ministers made it clear that extremists would face a crackdown.
Treasurer Peter Costello 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 Australia 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, the Islamic law, that this is false. If you can't agree wit h 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 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 they 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 spies monitoring the nation's mosques.
15 comments:
"Imagine the outcry from the likes of La Toynbee if a British politicians uttered these words..." - Apoplexy.
http://www.treasurer.gov.au/tsr/content
/transcripts/2005/151.asp
One of the Sharia Law interviews in full, Peter Costello is going to make a great PM when Howard retires.
Guillottene La Toynbee.
I like John Howard - he's made Australia look much more important in the world and is a much more solid individual than Britain can muster
Aussies can be a bit of a pain at times. All that sunshine and sport and so on seems to go to their heads. But then out of the blue something like this happens and suddenly I find myself thinking they are top notch fellows once again.
RM
Perhaps you refer to a differet Toynbee from the one voted as the worst Islamophobe in Britain by the Islamic Human Rights Commission for her staunchly secular values. Madeline Bunting on the other hand...
Imagine having a Government Minister with the guts and the foresight to say the same thing in England.
It's all about vote rigging in England, though. If they didn't invariably vote Labour, restrictions would be much tighter.
Can you imagine Labour allowing them all in if they voted Conservative?
Yes, we may not be paid up members in Westminster, but us common working class voters do notice these things, you know.
Not so much Toynbee, more the dreadful Madeleine Bunting (now at Demos) or/and Seumas Milne.
Still, the Australians are absolutely right. As a Labour activist, I only wish my government would show such unequivocal and plain-speaking resolve. Most Labout voters (if not most Labour activists) would welcome such a move.
In fact if one reads the words spoken by these Australians there's actually nothing that harmful about them. All they are saying is that people who don't like Australia the way it is might find themselves happier if they bought a one way ticket from Sidney Int'l to some place more congenial.
I thought the lefties were be all in favour of people moving to countries they prefered. Or does that positive thinking only work if the people are heading for Heathrow?
I know politicians can be hypocrites and liars but it's the blatant way in which the socialists do it that really grates.
RM
In fact, the Oz govt. is protecting no-one other than the muslim women and children with this robust retort at the outrageous suggestion that any modern society should allow any group to apply their own stoneage laws to 'their' people.
The actual thing being fought for here by the clerics is the right of muslim males to legally and openly subjugate their womenfolk.
So, I am very pleased to find that we have some unlikely feminists with real balls on our side in Oz. Atta boys!
(are you as confused as me how sides seem to twist and switch as of late? We have the case of the right standing up for human rights and equality and the left defending the oppression of people. Well, I don't know what changed or why, but, on balance, I have become really 'rightwing' by simply not changing my opinion. Hmmmm.)
Ps.: Whatever happened to the professional feminists that were so popular all those years? Did they retire already?
Whatever happened to the professional feminists that were so popular all those years?
Menopause.
a psychiatrist said: "Whatever happened to the professional feminists that were so popular all those years?
"Menopause."
I leave with no comment and the sadness of men.
From Harry's Place, a comment I cannot verify to be true, but it seems to be very on topic. Anyone know who was the A-list candidate involved here?
"Those that think our society is fundamentally immoral, or would be improved by sharia law, should certainly fuck off. One of David Cameron's "A-list" candidates is an muslim woman (can't remember her name, she was on Question Time). Anyway, when she appeared on Newsnight, a British Asian fundamentalist told she wasn't a proper muslim because she wasn't wearing the hijab. She replied that people like him should leave Britain. He was shocked and asked where he was supposed to go. I enjoyed hearing her say that.
Posted by: Apostate at June 23, 2006 11:21 PM "
Source: http://hurryupharry.bloghouse.net/archives/2006/06/23/what_british_muslims_think.php
If only the Tories would say something as sensible and vote winning as this. Practise any religion that you want, b ut if you want to live in the UK, abide by our laws or go somewhere else.
I see a huge similarity between the Sharia Law advocates and the stereotypical Scot - will do ANYTHING for their home country, oh, except of course live there.
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