Green Energy
Australia has put Muslim clerics on notice:
A day after a group of mainstream Muslim leaders pledged loyalty to Australia and her Queen 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, 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 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 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. I am tired of this nation worrying about whether we are offending some individual or their culture.''
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Green Energy
Australia Lays Down The Law
Australia has put Muslim clerics on notice:
A day after a group of mainstream Muslim leaders pledged loyalty to Australia and her Queen 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, 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 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 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. I am tired of this nation worrying about whether we are offending some individual or their culture.''
- America Needs A John Howard
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...
- And A Standing O For John Howard...we Need To Get Him Back Out Of The Dugout After This Homer
PRIME Minister John Howard has launched a scathing attack on Australia's left-wing intelligentsia, questioning its loyalty to the nation over the past decades. In a speech delivered last night for the 50th anniversary of the conservative magazine...
- Religion Of Thinly Veiled Threats
Pleas for integration from Australia's Prime Minister naturally lead to thinly veiled threats from Muslim communities leaders: PRIME Minister John Howard has denied he was singling Muslims out for criticism over the way some immigrants fail to integrate...
- Storm Track Appeasement: Hope Over Experience
From The Gathering Storm The saying goes that a second marriage is the conquest of hope over experience. That adage applies 100 percent to the following story out of Australia. Here's the experience. Several hardcore Islamists have been invited...
- Honesty In Australia
From Crikey 6. It's time to think seriously about Islamic profiling Barrister and media commentator Peter Faris QC writes: Islamic terrorists have been prevented from committing mass murder and destruction by the excellent work of the British police...