gz - you think mufti is inconsequential?, page-11

chuck - you think mufti is inconsequential Chuckie,

And you really would have us believe that you are Jewish?

You're as big a fraud as Hilaly.

Nothing Jewish about you....nothing at all.....you're about as Jewish as Hilaly.

Here is my source Benedict......and I have plenty more.


http://www.ci-ce-ct.com/Feature%20articles/12-04-2004.asp

And here is another one...that I haven't posted yet.

http://www.thesydneyinstitute.com.au/090304.htm

Gerard Henderson's Column: 9 March 2004

Think murder and then call it poetry

Let’s all junk such defences/excuses of the-dog-ate-my-homework and the-cheque’s-in-the-mail genre. And let’s acknowledge the entry into the language of a brand new rationalisation. Namely, that a speech does not mean what it appears to mean when read as, wait for it, poetry.

On February 13 this year Sheikh Taj El-Din Al-Hilaly, perhaps the best known Muslim religious leader in Australia, spoke at the Sidon Mosque in Lebanon. His speech was taped and a transcript prepared by the Australian Embassy in Beirut. A careful reading of the transcript indicates that it is not clear that the Sheik supported terrorist attacks by Palestinians against Israeli civilians. Yet he clearly advocated that young Palestinian boys carry out acts of martyrdom against the Israeli Defence Force.

However, there was no ambiguity whatsoever when, in his Lebanon speech, Al-Hilaly referred to the attacks on New York City and Washington DC on September 11, 2001 – what the Americans refer to as 9/11. Here the Sheik was crystal clear when he declared: “September 11 is God’s work against oppressors.” When interviewed about this by Geraldine Doogue on the ABC Radio Sunday Profile last weekend, Al Hilaly responded: “Actually it was poetry and in poetry we go a little bit into the imagination of presentation”. Yeah, sure.

It has long been said that Al Hilaly, who is the imam at the Lakemba Mosque in south west Sydney, has one message in Arabic and yet another (in translation) in English. Surprisingly, he did not deny this when the claim was put to him by Doogue. Rather, he responded: “Of course, you are talking about two different environments” and went on to add that “when addressing an Arabic community…I am using the high literary Arabic language”. How convenient. It’s just that no other prominent Muslim in Australia appears to experience such language-induced misunderstandings.

To some, the very presence of Al-Hilaly in Australia is an example of what is wrong with multiculturalism. Born in Egypt, he arrived in Australia on a tourist visa in 1982 from Lebanon and declined to return home. Soon Al Hilaly was heard making extremist comments which culminated in a manifestly anti-semitic address at the University of Sydney in September 1988 where he accused Jews of trying “to control the world through sex, then sexual perversion, then the promotion of espionage, treason and economic hoarding”.

Chris Hurford, when Minister for Immigration in the Hawke Labor government, wanted to deport Al Hilaly. He told the ABC TV Insiders program on June 29, 2003 that it was “appalling” that his decision was “ever changed”. But it was – and Al Hilaly was granted permanent residence, leading to full citizenship, when Gerry Hand was Immigration Minister in 1990 during the final years of the Hawke government.

Today Al Hilaly is no moderate – which explains why some Muslim leaders have expressed disquiet about reports of his recent address in Lebanon. Yet it does appear that the Sheik’s views have moderated somewhat over the past decade or so. Certainly this is the case with the speeches which he releases in English and this is the tone presented when his Arabic is translated into English by the Sheik’s associates.

A few examples illustrate the point. On November 15, 2001 Al Hilaly took part in an assembly hosted by New South Wales Premier Bob Carr – along with Buddhist, Christian and Jewish leaders. The occasion was held to acknowledge the victims of 9/11. The Sheik concluded his speech with an unambiguous poem which read in part: “No to terrorism/no to killing/no to wars.”

In October 2002 Al Hilaly commented on the prevalence of serious crime among sections of the Islamic Muslim community in Sydney. His message was clear: “Australia is our compassionate mother and I say to every person living in Australia…love this country or leave it; shape up or ship out.”

The fact that Al Hilaly wants to be seen as moderate within his adopted country indicates that multiculturalism is working. This helps to explain why, so far at least, Australia has not experienced the radical verbal attacks on Western societies which are frequently heard from some Islamist leaders in parts of Western Europe.

Certainly Australia has been multicultural – in fact, if not in theory – since European settlement in 1788. It is only in the last three decades, however, that all Australians have been encouraged to remember their ethnic backgrounds while embracing their Australian citizenship. This has become an effective safety-valve in the debate over what has been termed the clash of civilisations.

This has made it easier to talk about the real problems of Lebanese Muslim crime in parts of Sydney (where this ethnic group tended to settle in the 1970s and during and immediately after the Lebanese Civil War) than would otherwise have been the case. Multiculturalism has also facilitated the ability of Australians of Muslim faith to discuss their real and perceived problems.

Despite some discontents, Islamists in Australia have been less strident that their radical counterparts in Europe. And no Australian government has seen fit to act against Muslim practices, as is the case in France at the moment.

John Howard and Mark Latham quite properly condemned Al Hilaly’s comments in Lebanon. Just as Denis MacShane (a minister in Tony Blair’s government) was on strong ground last November when he called on Muslim leaders in Britain to use “clearer, stronger language” in condemning terrorism. Such message can be conveyed with greater authority in multicultural societies like Britain or Australia than elsewhere.

Al Hilaly has backed away from his recent Lebanon hyperbole because he and his advisers realise that such language is not supported in modern multicultural Australia – even within large sections of the Muslim community. Better a wannabe poet than a fellow-traveller with mass murder.