Opposition Leader Tony Abbott has been forced to dissociate himself from controversial remarks by his shadow parliamentary secretary Cory Bernardi, who said he was ”against Islam”.
Senator Bernardi, one of the party’s most prominent rightwingers, said on radio that, in the past decade or two, there had been ”an increasing indulgence of people who are pursuing an ideology and a values system that is at complete odds with Western society and with Western culture”. If he said he was against Islam, Senator Bernardi said, ”I’m called a racist or a bigot.”
Asked whether Mr Abbott had tried to stop him from expressing his views, Senator Bernardi said: “He certainly hasn’t”.
He said that “Islam is the problem – it’s not Muslims. Muslims are individuals that practise their faith in their own way. But Islam is a totalitarian political and religious ideology. It tells people everything about how they need to conduct themselves, who they are allowed to marry and how they are allowed to treat other people.”
Mr Abbott said last night: ”There are Islamic extremists just as there are other extremists that are a problem in a tolerant and pluralistic society. In suggesting that Islam itself is the problem, Cory does not represent my views.”
The latest embarrassment follows a damaging week for the opposition, which started with a furore over comments from its immigration spokesman Scott Morrison objecting to the government flying relatives from Christmas Island to Sydney for the funerals of asylum seekers who drowned late last year.
This was followed by a leak alleging Mr Morrison had suggested at a shadow cabinet meeting that the opposition capitalise on public sentiment against Muslim immigration.
Update: See the Sydney Morning Herald, 20 February 2011