Category Archives: Australia

Australians’ fear of Muslims is ‘common sense’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“No one should be surprised to learn that Australians want a tougher response to global terror for one simple reason – the Islamofascists who started this war show no sign of bringing their attacks on the civilised world to an end….

“Many believe that members of the Islamic community make no attempt to share those values which are identified as Australian. They see Muslim girls wearing clothing that has little do with their religion but a lot to do with political protest. They see weak state governments bowing before Islamic groups and exploiting their voting power.

“Australians are a tolerant people but they are tired of being told that their natural concerns about young Muslims who invoke their religion as they commit gang rape are demonstrations of Islamophobia, racism and paranoia.”

Piers Akerman in the Daily Telegraph (Australia), 28 August 2006

‘It is Islamic fascism’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“By now it should be patently clear that we in the West are at war with a hydra-headed and barbaric enemy that has not a shred of humanity and relishes the bloodletting of tens of thousands of innocents, including other Muslims. It is at least as brutal as the Nazis and communist enemies we have faced in the past. Although radical Islam is not militarily as powerful as Nazi Germany or the Soviet Union, it has the huge strategic advantage of suicide bombing, which is immune to deterrence. Should any of its constituent elements – the Iranian Government or al-Qa’ida – acquire nuclear weapons, it will likely attempt genocide against Israel and create devastation in the West of an unprecedented kind.”

Stephen Morris in The Australian, 14 August 2005

Murdoch warns on Muslims

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Media mogul Rupert Murdoch has sounded a warning by saying Muslims would always identify themselves by religion before nationality. Australian Federation of Islamic Councils president Rahim Ghauri questioned the media mogul’s knowledge of Islam. “I don’t know how much experience Mr Murdoch has in dealing with Muslims, apart from the things that his reporters write about Muslims,” he said.

The Age, 27 June 2006

Pell ‘provocative’ over Islam

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Australia’s most senior Catholic, Cardinal George Pell, would rather provoke debate than have sensible discussions about Muslims, the Islamic Council of New South Wales (ICNSW) said. ICNSW spokesman Ali Roude today said Dr Pell admitted he knew little about his subject matter.

In an interview with a US Catholic newspaper, Dr Pell again declared Islam was more warlike than Christianity. The Catholic Archbishop of Sydney told the National Catholic Reporter (NCR) Australia hadn’t been affected much by Islamic threats following the September 11 terrorist attacks in the US. But he said this could change depending “on how many terrorist attacks” Muslim fundamentalists could “bring off successfully”, Fairfax newspapers reported today.

ICNSW spokesman Ali Roude today said Dr Pell admitted he knew little about his subject matter. “However, as a forceful speaker and thinker, sometimes he seems tempted to put a position forward to provoke debate rather than wait for sensible discussion,” Mr Roude said.

In the NCR interview conducted in Rome, Dr Pell said “the million-dollar question” was whether intolerance was a modern distortion of Islam or arose out of internal logic. “It’s difficult to find periods of tolerance in Islam,” he was quoted as saying. “I’m not saying that they’re not there, but a good deal of what is asserted is mythical.”

Continue reading →

Islam is a warlike religion Australian cardinal claims

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Remember Cardinal George Pell, Catholic Archbishop of Sydney, who was recently condemned for arguing that Islam is an inherently violent religion that poses a threat to Western democracies? Well, he’s at it again, telling an interviewer that “Islam is a much more war-like culture than Christianity”. Well, who could disagree? We can only be thankful that the West is governed by peace-loving Christians like George Bush and Tony Blair.

Australian Muslims reject attack by Cardinal Pell

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The Islamic Council of Victoria have put out a media release in response to an article on Islam by Cardinal George Pell, Catholic Archbishop of Sydney, which drew on such writers as Daniel Pipes, Andrew Bostom and William Dalrymple to portray Islam as an inherently violent religion that poses a threat to Western democracies.

Dervish weblog, 5 May 2006

Predictably, Robert Spencer rallies to Pell’s defence: Dhimmi Watch, 5 May 2006

See also “Aussie Muslims slam priest for ‘ignorant’ Qur’an remarks”, Islam Online, 5 May 2006

Australian poll shows ignorance of Islam

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A poll of 1,300 Australians has found high levels of ignorance about Islam. One third of Australians admitted to knowing nothing about the world’s second largest religion, while about a quarter also believed it to be either a fundamentalist or intolerant faith. More than half of the poll respondents also said they felt threatened by Islam.

One of the researchers behind the study, New South Wales University’s Kevin Dunn, said people tended to feel less threatened by Islam when they had direct contact with its followers. “That varies according to the extent of knowledge someone has and also, fundamentally, the extent of daily contact someone has with Muslims,” he said. “If you know a few Muslims, you’re much less likely to perceive a threat from them.”

The Islamic Council’s Nade Roude said that with 7 per cent of Australia’s population identifying as Muslim, it shows a lot of work needed to be done.

ABC News, 20 March 2006

Muslim garb ‘confronting’, says Aussie PM

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Most Australians found the full traditional garb of Muslim women confronting, Australian prime minister John Howard said today.

“I don’t mind the headscarf but it’s really the whole outfit, I think most Australians would find it confronting. I don’t believe that you should ban wearing headscarfs but I do think the full garb is confronting and that is how most people feel. Now, that is not meant disrespectfully to Muslims because most Muslim women, a great majority of them in Australia, don’t even wear headscarfs and very few of them wear the full garb.”

News.com, 27 February 2006

Note that while Howard is reported as ruling out a change in the law regarding any form of Islamic dress, in the actual quotes he only rules out a ban on the headscarf.

Jihad Watch applauds Trevor Phillips

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Robert Spencer gives his seal of approval to CRE chair Trevor Phillips’ suggestion, following that of Australian deputy PM Peter Costello, to the effect that Muslims who want sharia law should go back where they came from. Under the heading “Anti-dhimmitude in the UK: Muslims who want sharia law ‘should leave'”, Spencer applauds “A welcome statement in the UK, echoing one that has already been made in Australia. Other non-Muslim states should follow suit.”

Dhimmi Watch, 27 February 2006