Category Archives: Australia

Mosque group ‘in a line to jihad’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“The Islamic group accused of trying to seize control of Sydney’s Sefton mosque is part of a movement described as a recruiting ground for al-Qa’ida in a new terrorism intelligence report. The group attempting the takeover has members who follow the Tablighi Jamaat stream of Islam, described this week bythe private US intelligence group Stratfor as an ‘indirect line to terrorism‘. Members of the Tablighi movement have recently been linked to a terrorist cell in Spain that was planning a bomb attack in Barcelona.”

The Australian, 31 January 2008

Yes, it’s yet another dishonest attempt to associate the entirely peaceful proselytising movement Tablighi Jamaat with violent extremism. Predictably, this meets with the enthusiastic approval of Jihad Watch.

Muslims ‘lay siege to Australian hospital’?

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Damian Thompson 2At his Holy Smoke blog, Telegraph leader writer and Catholic Herald editor Damian Thompson recycles a story from Robert Spencer’s Dhimmi Watch site:

“After the death of a young Muslim man in a car crash in Sydney last month,” Thompson writes, “an Islamic crowd invaded a hospital in order to stop medical tests being carried out on the body in contravention of Sharia law, according to the Dhimmi Watch website. If the report is true, then this is another example of a global campaign by fundamentalist Muslims to replace civil law by Sharia – a process that has already taken root in British cities.”

Thompson goes on to quote the report from Spencer’s site: “The antecedent to the Muslim incursion on the Hospital came about on Monday the 17 December last, when a young Muslim male was airlifted to the Liverpool Hospital’s emergency ward by helicopter. The 19-year-old had been in a serious car accident, his car left the road and crashed into a tree … he died of his injuries, and it seems he and his hijab-wearing girl friend had been celebrating the end of Ramadan.”

The Australian blog Austrolabe comments: “If the victim and his ‘hijab-wearing girl friend’ were, as the anonymous author claims, celebrating the end of Ramadan when they had a serious car accident, why did this obviously critically injured young man wait two months before he was admitted into a hospital? In 2007, Eid ul-Fitr (the celebration marking the end of Ramadan) was on the 11th of October. This man was supposedly admitted into Liverpool Hospital on 17th December, 2007. We know that waiting lists at Liverpool Hospital are long, but that long?”

Update:  Thompson has recanted. See Austrolabe, 31 January 2008

Race thugs to hijack Australia Day

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A group of white supremacists is planning to hijack Australia Day celebrations in Camden – as part of a protest against a proposed new mosque in the area. The Daily Telegraph has learnt that the far-right Australia First Party, whose Sydney secretary is convicted race hate criminal Jim Saleam, is organising the rally.

The white nationalist party this week issued a call to supporters to attend the rally and distribute anti-Islamic material. “There is a public rally in Camden on the Moslem (sic) school question,” the bulletin stated. “We will need volunteers in the general south-western part of Sydney to attend and distribute materials.”

Typical of much material issued by the far-right lunatic fringe, it contained no further details because of fears of being confronted by anti-racism protesters.

Daily Telegraph, 9 January 2008

Protest against Muslim school in Sydney

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Fred Nile (2)Two New South Wales Members of Parliament have called for the scrapping of a 1,200-student Islamic school in Sydney’s southwest.

Joining hundreds of residents outside the Camden Civic Centre, Upper house Christian Democrat MP Fred Nile and Liberal Party MP Charlie Lynn highlighted Islam’s opposition to Christianity, as a good enough reason to stop the building of the school.

Nile told ABC Radio after the meeting: “… all the Aussies that are celebrating carols by candlelight this week all over Australia, millions of Australians, are condemned by the Koran. And sincere Muslims are supposed to believe this book – the Koran is the word of God, the word of their god, Allah.” Lynn said only 100 Muslim families lived in Camden, and added, “This is an attempt by social engineers to inflict culture shock, if you like on Camden.”

ANI, 20 December 2007

See also ABC Online which reports that about 900 people attended the protest:

“There’s anger and frustration in Camden. And that was only compounded when the organisers of last night’s meeting underestimated the turnout, leaving more than 200 people locked outside. Among those shut out were young men sporting Australian flags. They vented their anger yelling,’Let us in Mohammed, you’re already dividing us up’ at the hired security guards, who happened to be of Middle Eastern appearance. Police promptly marched in and formed a line of protection across the front doors while police horses waited in the car park.”

One protestor is quoted as threatening: “If it does get approved, every ragger that walks up the street’s going to get smashed up the arse by about 30 Aussies.” Another local opposed to the protest said: “I’m actually all for the proposal of an Islamic school. I’m actually a regular church going Christian, and I just think that, you know, I do not believe that Jesus himself would be here…. And I just think that it’s really upsetting that, you know, people are motivated enough to come out here for no other reason than they seem to just be anti-Muslim and essentially racist.”

Pigs’ heads at Australian Islamic school site

Posted on by Bob Pitt

SYDNEY — Two pigs’ heads were found at the site of a proposed Islamic school on Sydney’s outskirts Wednesday, the school’s backers said. An Australian flag was draped between the two heads, said Jeremy Bingham, spokesman for the Quranic Society.

“Someone has put a couple of stakes in the ground with a pig’s head on the top of each stake and an Australian flag inside,” Bingham told AFP. “The police are treating it as a crime scene and making investigations.”

Earlier this month about 1,000 people attended a meeting to protest against the proposed school in Camden, in Sydney’s far southwest, while a cross was previously found on the grounds.

The state government’s Community Relations Commission condemned the latest protest as “a mindless act”. “This insult and display of hatred is not something any fair-minded Australian would approve of,” said commission head Stepan Kerkyasharian in a statement.

Muslim leaders condemned the incident, not the first in Sydney. “It’s just quite sad really, we don’t need this rubbish in Australia,” Australian Federation of Islamic Councils spokesman Haset Sali said.

In 2005 anti-Muslim sentiment boiled over into ugly riots on the Sydney beach of Cronulla, where rioters targeted people of Middle Eastern appearance. And in 2004, a severed pig’s head was similarly impaled in front of a Muslim prayer centre under construction in Sydney’s northwest.

AFP, 28 November 2007

Update:  See “Pig head protest over planned Islamic school”, ABC, 29 November 2007

One of the protestors demands: “Why would you want to come and open a school in this area, then an all purpose hall which will be used as a mosque, and don’t tell me it won’t be. If I wore a hijab now, I could have an M-16 under my hijab and you wouldn’t even know I had it there.”

Aussie Tories’ vile race tactics exposed

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Gary ClarkThe Liberal Party has been hugely embarrassed over a campaign team caught delivering fake letters linking Labor with the Bali bombers. The grubby night-time operation in St Marys, in the seat of Lindsay, was busted by a squad of ALP sleuths who conducted a stake-out.

The letter appeared to be from a Muslim organisation, the Islamic Australia Federation. But the organisation does not exist.

The fictitious group was said to be backing Kevin Rudd because Labor supported forgiveness for “our Muslim brothers who have been unjustly sentenced to death for the Bali bombings”. It also said Labor endorsed construction of a mosque in St Marys. “In the upcoming federal election we strongly support the ALP as our preferred party to govern this country and urge all other Muslims to do the same,” the letter read.

It was clumsily worded and ended with “Ala Akba”, a dismal attempt at the traditional Islamic salute of “God is Great” – “Allah Akbar”.

Daily Telegraph, 21 November 2007

See also “Fake flyer meant as a joke: Lib MP”, ABC News, 21 November 2007

Islamic Australia Federation bogus leaflet

Australia: far right targets Tablighi Jamaat

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Darrin Hodges“As the people of Camden rally to defend their rural paradise from the armies of Muslim school teachers and students amassing at their gates, they will undoubtedly be reassured that the cavalry has arrived.

“Darrin Hodges, head of the so-called Anglo-Australian National Community Council, has selflessly taken time out from his apparent involvement with the sex industry and posting on the neo-Nazi Stormfront website, to man the barricades of Western civilisation. Darrin, you see, is ‘dedicated to fighting the spread of Islam in Australia’.

“Sure, he might have trouble pronouncing the word ‘Tablighi’ (he calls it Tabliqi) and his claim that the Tablighi Jamaat are a ‘conveyor belt for terrorism’ funded by Saudis and promoting a Pakistani version of the ‘hardline Wahabiism founded in Saudi Arabia’ may be completely wrong but there is no doubting his steely resolve. There may be other errors too but now isn’t the time for facts because, as Darrin warns the people of Camden, Muslims are cunningly working to transform the town into an Islamic state by buying real estate and opening businesses.”

Austrolabe, 18 November 2007

No-Goh policy on mosques and Islamic immigration

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A 10-year ban on Islamic immigration to Australia and on the construction of any Islamic schools or mosques is the main election policy for one of Macarthur’s federal election candidates.

Christian Democratic Party (Fred Nile Group) candidate Godwin Goh said his party, if elected, would also lobby the NSW Government and Federal Government to change any anti-vilification or anti-discrimination laws that could make such a proposal illegal. Mr Goh said he wanted: “No Muslim immigration for 10 years, no setting up schools and mosques, too.”

The Liberal MP for Macarthur, Pat Farmer, rejected Mr Goh’s proposal. “Immigration requests need to be analysed on a case-by-case basis,” he said. “You can’t throw a blanket over the top of everybody and say they’re all terrorists and all incite violence. That’s wrong and that’s not the Australian way.”

When asked to respond to Mr Goh’s proposed 10-year ban on Muslim immigration, schools and mosques, the Labor candidate for Macarthur, Nick Bleasdale, said: “Let me make it clear. I’m totally opposed to the development of the new Islamic school and the community has my full support on the issue. Make no mistake, this issue has nothing to do with race.It’s based on the fact that such a large development will undoubtedly have an impact on our semi-rural way of life….”

Mr Goh is opposed to all Islamic schools because, he claims, they teach extreme versions of Islam. He cited as an example an Islamic school in Victoria. “The teacher asked the students who their hero was and they all said Osama binLaden,” he said. “The teachers are brainwashing. Can’t you see it’s brainwashing? What about Australian heroes? Sport heroes? Such brainwashing, this is when these children have been taught this kind of teaching in their formative years. When they grow up they’re going to idolise the greatest of all terrorists….”

Camden Advertiser, 14 November 2007

Suspend Muslim immigration: Hanson

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Pauline Hanson (2)Senate hopeful Pauline Hanson has accused the Federal Government of opening up the immigration floodgates to people “who have no intention of being Australian”.

Ms Hanson, who is running in the federal election under the banner of Pauline’s United Australia Party, was campaigning on similar policies to those that won her international notoriety a decade ago, including calling for a moratorium on Muslim immigration.

Campaigning in NSW, the right-wing firebrand told website www.federalelection.com.au she was worried about the loss of Australian values, particularly as a result of Muslim immigration.

“I’ve seen the destruction of our industry, manufacturing, our farmers, everything that is Aussie and to be proud of … that’s been lost,” she said. “They’ve just opened up the floodgates to allow people here that have no intention of being Australian or being proud Australians. I’ve actually now called for a moratorium on Muslim immigration because I believe it’s not for reasons of religious or any other reason. But I think it is a cultural difference to us as Australians and we must protect our own culture.”

The Australian, 4 November 2007

Via Austrolabe

Islamic scarfs face ban in Australia

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The Howard Government is considering banning Islamic scarfs at Australian airports, senior government sources have revealed. The security measure would see even the most inoffensive Muslim scarf, the hijab, which covers the hair and neck, banned, along with several other types.

Security officials were especially concerned by two other types of scarf, the niqab and burka. The niqab covers the face, but leaves the eyes exposed, while the burka covers the entire face, with only a mesh screen for the eyes.

The scarf policy is under active consideration in Immigration Minister Kevin Andrews’ office, which is consulting airport security officials over the policy.

Herald Sun, 14 October 2007

Update:  The Sydney Morning Herald quotes a spokeswoman for Andrews as saying: “I can say that the minister’s office is absolutely not considering any such plan.”