And the next round:
(My many and wordy comments in purple.)
http://au.news.yahoo.com/070111/2/121be.html
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Friday April 13, 10:12 AM
<b>Sheik says he's more Aussie than the PM</b>
Controversial Muslim cleric Sheik Taj Aldin Alhilali has declared himself more Australian than Prime Minister John Howard.
Speaking to The Australian newspaper from Istanbul, the mufti also vowed to return to Sydney next week to weed out the "foxes" who had accused him of using donations raised by Australians to support proscribed terror groups in Lebanon, such as Hezbollah.
The Australian Federal Police is investigating $70,000 raised by the Sydney-based Lebanese Muslim Association (LMA) and handed out in Lebanon by Sheik Alhilali.
LMA president Tom Zreika has said allegations have been made in the Muslim community that Sheik Alhilali gave some of the money to Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.
"When I get back to Sydney, I will be asking how this money was accounted for," Sheik Alhilali told the newspaper.
"I get accused in the media of spending the money, but at the end of the day I don't know how the money was spent.
"I was just writing down the names on a piece of paper."
(And the Lame Excuse award goes to...)
<b>Sheik Alhilali said his widely criticised remarks supporting the hardline Iranian regime were meant to encourage world peace.</b>
Both the government and opposition called for the sheik to be sacked and to leave the country after he called on Australian Muslims to back Iran's hardline regime.
Sheik Alhilali told the newspaper he had <b>spent 50 years promoting peace</b> and accused the prime minister of running a dictatorship.
(Who writes Hilaly's public addresses anyway - Indian communists? It's so full of double-speak... Islamics in the west are really playing the liberals using the much-appreciated vocabulary of friendly words. All the right and proper words. But they're just words - the faithful are allowed to lie for allah's grand purpose.)
"It's a disgrace for the leader of a democratic country to be picking on religious people, especially one who is practicing a form of dictatorship that could almost be Saddam Hussein-like," Sheik Alhilali said.
(Cut the drama, queen Hilaly.)
<b>"I respect Australian values more than he does.</b>Â <!--emo&:roll--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/ROTFL.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='ROTFL.gif' /><!--endemo-->
"Australian people like peace and they like humanitarian welfare and they are attracted to just causes."
(And again, he's playing the Australians like a fiddle, talking down their natural fears through liberal use of placating words. Western people like to think everyone in the world just wants 'peace' and 'love' and to 'get along'. And his soothing statements seem to confirm that. How lovely, how reaffirming.
But just 'cause you want everyone to, doesn't mean others want to as well. Sometimes, people just need to face the facts: some ideologies want you either assimilated or dead. The dream is pretty and reality is not. But waking up to reality might just save you from a really ugly nightmare that can only end in death.)
<b>The sheik's comments saw Labor leader Kevin Rudd mount an uncharacteristic defence of the prime minister.
Mr Rudd blasted the controversial Islamic cleric, saying: "As you know, I'm not a natural supporter of the prime minister, but Mr Howard is as Australian as I am".</b>
"The sheik is out there, I think, just seeking crazy publicity, as he seems to do on a daily basis."
<b>Earlier this week, Iranian media quoted the mufti as urging Australian Muslims "to stand in the trenches with the Islamic Republic of Iran which possesses the might and the power".</b> <!--emo&:o--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/ohmy.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='ohmy.gif' /><!--endemo-->
Mr Rudd said the comments bordered on violating Australia's counter-terrorism laws because Iran supports the "global terrorist organisation" Hezbollah.
(Which Hilaly just donated money to.)
Both Mr Rudd and federal Industrial Relations Minister Joe Hockey called on Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock to review the mufti's Australian citizenship.
"My call to Mr Ruddock is to formally review whether or not Australia's counter-terrorism laws are in any way violated by these sorts of statements by the sheik," said Mr Rudd.
Mr Hockey said the mufti was using his position to turn Australian Muslims against the non-Muslim community.
"Yet again, he's trying to make a headline by saying something outrageous," he said.
<b>"But, of course, he's trying to elevate his position to create an 'us-versus-them mentality' in the Islamic community.
"That won't work.
"The great bulk of members of the Islamic community want to get rid of him.</b>
(The Ostrich Reflex. Why do western people think they know islam and its ummah better than sheikh Alhilaly and other muftis? Let's just forget the exhortions to j-had that mullahs keep making shall we, and forget the large gathering of islamic supporters. Australians know better.
It's only misguided westerners who say: 'muslims don't really want fundamentalism. They don't want sharia. They don't want hezbullah/AQ. They just want peace and love and to get along'. Meanwhile islamics make their position rather clear I thought by carrying placards reading 'allah will help us destroy america/uk/some other country'. True, some islamics after having been chastised for previous islamic outbursts learn their lesson and, like Hilaly, mouth Words of Peace afterwards just to throw people off guard.
The west needs to wake up. Or else I might actually be witnessing history in the making. Act 3: the end of the west, being acted out before my eyes.)
"I'm absolutely confident that Philip Ruddock will be looking at every comment made by the mufti," said Mr Hockey.
<b>Meanwhile, Sheik Alhilali's spokesman Keysar Trad has said the mufti's comments were born of frustration.</b>
(Not the famed apologist again. Is Trad getting paid enough for repeatedly bailing his islamic holy men out of the ditch they keep flinging themselves into?)
"To make these comments about John Howard, I think, indicates nothing more than the <b>frustration that many people in the (Muslim) community are feeling about the way we were regularly placed in the spotlight</b>," he told Southern Cross Broadcasting.
(Oh, it's 'cause of <i>frustration</i>! That explains it. Then it's okay; okay to support hezbollah, AQ, hitler, stalin - well, Indian reds already proudly support stalin without recourse to lame excuses like frustration/constipation/indigestion.
'Boohoo', goes the Australian ummah. 'Boohoo, we've been victimised.'
It couldn't <i>possibly</i> be because of something they said or did.)<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->Is it a comedy or a tragedy. I think it may be the latter by the time the curtain falls.
(My many and wordy comments in purple.)
http://au.news.yahoo.com/070111/2/121be.html
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Friday April 13, 10:12 AM
<b>Sheik says he's more Aussie than the PM</b>
Controversial Muslim cleric Sheik Taj Aldin Alhilali has declared himself more Australian than Prime Minister John Howard.
Speaking to The Australian newspaper from Istanbul, the mufti also vowed to return to Sydney next week to weed out the "foxes" who had accused him of using donations raised by Australians to support proscribed terror groups in Lebanon, such as Hezbollah.
The Australian Federal Police is investigating $70,000 raised by the Sydney-based Lebanese Muslim Association (LMA) and handed out in Lebanon by Sheik Alhilali.
LMA president Tom Zreika has said allegations have been made in the Muslim community that Sheik Alhilali gave some of the money to Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.
"When I get back to Sydney, I will be asking how this money was accounted for," Sheik Alhilali told the newspaper.
"I get accused in the media of spending the money, but at the end of the day I don't know how the money was spent.
"I was just writing down the names on a piece of paper."
(And the Lame Excuse award goes to...)
<b>Sheik Alhilali said his widely criticised remarks supporting the hardline Iranian regime were meant to encourage world peace.</b>
Both the government and opposition called for the sheik to be sacked and to leave the country after he called on Australian Muslims to back Iran's hardline regime.
Sheik Alhilali told the newspaper he had <b>spent 50 years promoting peace</b> and accused the prime minister of running a dictatorship.
(Who writes Hilaly's public addresses anyway - Indian communists? It's so full of double-speak... Islamics in the west are really playing the liberals using the much-appreciated vocabulary of friendly words. All the right and proper words. But they're just words - the faithful are allowed to lie for allah's grand purpose.)
"It's a disgrace for the leader of a democratic country to be picking on religious people, especially one who is practicing a form of dictatorship that could almost be Saddam Hussein-like," Sheik Alhilali said.
(Cut the drama, queen Hilaly.)
<b>"I respect Australian values more than he does.</b>Â <!--emo&:roll--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/ROTFL.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='ROTFL.gif' /><!--endemo-->
"Australian people like peace and they like humanitarian welfare and they are attracted to just causes."
(And again, he's playing the Australians like a fiddle, talking down their natural fears through liberal use of placating words. Western people like to think everyone in the world just wants 'peace' and 'love' and to 'get along'. And his soothing statements seem to confirm that. How lovely, how reaffirming.
But just 'cause you want everyone to, doesn't mean others want to as well. Sometimes, people just need to face the facts: some ideologies want you either assimilated or dead. The dream is pretty and reality is not. But waking up to reality might just save you from a really ugly nightmare that can only end in death.)
<b>The sheik's comments saw Labor leader Kevin Rudd mount an uncharacteristic defence of the prime minister.
Mr Rudd blasted the controversial Islamic cleric, saying: "As you know, I'm not a natural supporter of the prime minister, but Mr Howard is as Australian as I am".</b>
"The sheik is out there, I think, just seeking crazy publicity, as he seems to do on a daily basis."
<b>Earlier this week, Iranian media quoted the mufti as urging Australian Muslims "to stand in the trenches with the Islamic Republic of Iran which possesses the might and the power".</b> <!--emo&:o--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/ohmy.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='ohmy.gif' /><!--endemo-->
Mr Rudd said the comments bordered on violating Australia's counter-terrorism laws because Iran supports the "global terrorist organisation" Hezbollah.
(Which Hilaly just donated money to.)
Both Mr Rudd and federal Industrial Relations Minister Joe Hockey called on Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock to review the mufti's Australian citizenship.
"My call to Mr Ruddock is to formally review whether or not Australia's counter-terrorism laws are in any way violated by these sorts of statements by the sheik," said Mr Rudd.
Mr Hockey said the mufti was using his position to turn Australian Muslims against the non-Muslim community.
"Yet again, he's trying to make a headline by saying something outrageous," he said.
<b>"But, of course, he's trying to elevate his position to create an 'us-versus-them mentality' in the Islamic community.
"That won't work.
"The great bulk of members of the Islamic community want to get rid of him.</b>
(The Ostrich Reflex. Why do western people think they know islam and its ummah better than sheikh Alhilaly and other muftis? Let's just forget the exhortions to j-had that mullahs keep making shall we, and forget the large gathering of islamic supporters. Australians know better.
It's only misguided westerners who say: 'muslims don't really want fundamentalism. They don't want sharia. They don't want hezbullah/AQ. They just want peace and love and to get along'. Meanwhile islamics make their position rather clear I thought by carrying placards reading 'allah will help us destroy america/uk/some other country'. True, some islamics after having been chastised for previous islamic outbursts learn their lesson and, like Hilaly, mouth Words of Peace afterwards just to throw people off guard.
The west needs to wake up. Or else I might actually be witnessing history in the making. Act 3: the end of the west, being acted out before my eyes.)
"I'm absolutely confident that Philip Ruddock will be looking at every comment made by the mufti," said Mr Hockey.
<b>Meanwhile, Sheik Alhilali's spokesman Keysar Trad has said the mufti's comments were born of frustration.</b>
(Not the famed apologist again. Is Trad getting paid enough for repeatedly bailing his islamic holy men out of the ditch they keep flinging themselves into?)
"To make these comments about John Howard, I think, indicates nothing more than the <b>frustration that many people in the (Muslim) community are feeling about the way we were regularly placed in the spotlight</b>," he told Southern Cross Broadcasting.
(Oh, it's 'cause of <i>frustration</i>! That explains it. Then it's okay; okay to support hezbollah, AQ, hitler, stalin - well, Indian reds already proudly support stalin without recourse to lame excuses like frustration/constipation/indigestion.
'Boohoo', goes the Australian ummah. 'Boohoo, we've been victimised.'
It couldn't <i>possibly</i> be because of something they said or did.)<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->Is it a comedy or a tragedy. I think it may be the latter by the time the curtain falls.