Two Christian pastors found to have vilified Muslims stood on the steps of the Court of Appeal yesterday after the ruling was overturned and vowed to keep telling “the truth” about Islam.
Pastor Daniel Scot, who conducted the 2002 seminar on jihad that led to the case under Victoria’s religious hatred laws, said: “Some Muslims have got the idea they have to hide the truth, and that’s very sad.” Insisting that he would continue his seminars on the Koran and Hadiths (Islam’s sacred texts), he said: “People should know it from the primary sources, and not be misled by politically correct teachers who don’t know the reality of Islam and want to glorify it with false pretensions and assumptions.”
Uniting Church justice spokesman Mark Zirnsak said he hoped the judgement would not be seen as a green light for groups to incite racial or religious hatred, believing that the law had been watered down. “There are groups who may be emboldened to test what they can get away with. People might be assaulted or insulted or mistreated because of their race or religion – that’s been our key concern.”
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