Here we have, on face value, a leading Islamic cleric here in Oz seemingly giving Australians assurances we are safe, for a Jihad is ".....unacceptable in Australia......This is not how we work here"
But then in the very next breath he says......Reporter Sarah Ferguson asked: "Does that mean that jihad is appropriate in other places?"
"Of course," Sheik Omran replied.
Well then, we say..... seems a safe enough sort of guy....sort of on our side....seems to think a bit like us....
Now ask yourself this.......what would a cleric in let's say New Zealand or Indonesia or Phillipines answer to that question?
Mightnt he say the same thing. Logical, no???
In essence........not here but elsewhere is fine!!!
Well, guess what!....WE - us, Australia - are the elsewhere to those other lunatic ratbags.
Think about it.
Holy war OK abroad, says cleric October 30, 2003
JIHAD, or holy war, was not appropriate in Australia, but was acceptable in Iraq and other nations, a Melbourne Muslim cleric said tonight.
On SBS TV's Insight program, Sheik Mohammed Omran defended fundamentalism in the wake of ASIO raids on Islamic Youth Movement headquarters at Lakemba in Sydney this week.
The raids followed an investigation into suspected terrorist Willie Brigitte, who has been deported from Australia and is being interrogated by French authorities.
Sheik Omran said he had a close relationship with ASIO, and was opposed to all forms of local terrorism.
He said two alleged leaders of Jemaah Islamiyah in Australia - brothers Abdul Rahman Ayub and Abdul Rahim Ayub, who left the country last year - had approached him for advice about attacking the Israeli embassy in Canberra in the lead-up to the Sydney 2000 Olympics.
"I said to them, 'This is unacceptable in Australia'. I said to them, 'This is not how we work here'," Sheik Omran told SBS.
Reporter Sarah Ferguson asked: "Does that mean that jihad is appropriate in other places?"
"Of course," Sheik Omran replied.
Asked if it was appropriate for Muslim's to join the holy war against coalition forces in Iraq, Sheik Omran said: "I would say, 'Yes'."
Sheik Hilali, of Sydney's Lakemba mosque, told the program that Sheik Omran's views were dangerously radical.
"It is not to the benefit of young people in any area to have a teacher like Omran ... not in Australia or any Arabic or Islamic country," Sheik Hilali said.
Sheik Omran also defended Islamic Youth Movement leader Bilal Khazal, who has been investigated by Spanish and Lebanese authorities in relation to his alleged connections to a Lebanese terrorist group.
"I'm sure he wouldn't support someone to go and blow up a restaurant, especially if we know that restaurant is in a Muslim area and the people will go and eat there, even if it's an American company, but the people who will eat there are not Americans," Sheik Omran said.
