abbott rubbishes wilders's views on islam

Nice trifecta here Abbott Iislam and Geert Wilders


Abbott rubbishes Wilders's views on Islam
By chief political correspondent Simon Cullen
Posted 34 minutes ago


PHOTO: Geert Wilders is in Australia as part of a speaking tour organised by the Q Society. (Reuters: Fabrizio Bensch, file photo)
RELATED STORY: Clashes erupt outside Wilders' Melbourne speech
MAP: Australia
Opposition Leader Tony Abbott says controversial Dutch politician Geert Wilders is "substantially" wrong in his views on Islam, arguing there is not much Australia can learn from the Netherlands on the issue of multicultural integration.

Mr Wilders is in Australia as part of a speaking tour organised by the Q Society, which warns against the "Islamisation" of the country.

There were violent scuffles outside a Melbourne venue last night as protesters tried to prevent people from entering the building to hear the anti-Islamic MP speak.

Mr Abbott says Mr Wilders is free to "say his piece", but says Australia's experience of multiculturalism is different from the Netherlands.

"Obviously he's entitled to his viewpoint, but I think that the Muslims in this country see themselves rightly as fair dinkum, dinky-di Australians, just as the Catholics and the Jews and the Protestants and the atheists," Mr Abbott told Fairfax radio.

"We see ourselves as Australians.

"We don't like to divide ourselves on the basis of race, of faith, of colour, of class, of gender.

"That's one of the great strengths of our country.

"We are always conscious of what we have in common, rather than the things that divide us."

Mr Abbott was yesterday forced to defended the Coalition against accusations it was being "radicalised" by extreme right-wing political influences from the United States Tea Party movement.

Treasurer Wayne Swan used a speech to the Australian Workers' Union national conference yesterday to argue that the Coalition had "imported all the very worst aggressive negativity and reckless disregard for responsible economics from the Tea Party".

Mr Abbott responded by saying that the Coalition would always practice politics with an "Australian accent".

"We don't import our politics from overseas, we don't import our personnel from overseas," he added, in a thinly veiled reference to Prime Minister Julia Gillard's director of communications John McTernan, who is Scottish.