http://www.smh.com.au/news/opinion/immigration-mistakes-return-to...

http://www.smh.com.au/news/opinion/immigration-mistakes-return-to-haunt-us/2006/10/30/1162056925283.html

However, it was not long before the process got out of hand. As it turned out, very few Christians wanted to, or were able to, come to Australia at the time. Department officials sent to Lebanon to administer the program began granting visas mainly to Muslims - often on the flimsiest evidence they had close relatives or, indeed, any relative in Australia.

For a long time, Christian Lebanese have been successful migrants. Their descendants include the NSW Governor, Dr Marie Bashir, and the Victorian Premier, Steve Bracks. The unintended consequence of the Fraser government's decision was to allow, for the first time, numerous Lebanese Muslims to enter Australia. They were from rural areas, had little education and minimal English language skills.

In 1982, during the final years of the Fraser government, the Egyptian-born Sheik Taj el-Din al Hilaly entered Australia on a tourist visa. He overstayed his visa and soon became prominent at the Lakemba mosque. In 1988 he told a Sydney University meeting that "the Jews try to control the world through sex, then sexual perversion, then the promotion of espionage, treason and economic hoarding".

Al Hilaly's language has not changed much in 20 years. In the past week The Australian has quoted the sheik making outrageous claims about women and supporting jihad in Iraq and Afghanistan, where Australian troops are supporting the UN-sanctioned and Muslim-led governments in Baghdad and Kabul.

In The Adelaide Review in January 2003, Chris Hurford, the immigration minister from 1984 to 1987, said the decision to give al Hilaly permanent residence was done for political reasons: to appease some Australian Muslims. His view has not been challenged by al Hilaly's main Labor Party supporters at the time, including Paul Keating and Leo McLeay.

As Kabir documents, the numbers grew. There were about 3500 Lebanese Muslims in Australia in 1971. Just two decades later, the number had increased to more than 25,000. The number grew quickly, due primarily to Australia's then family reunion policy. Most Muslim Lebanese migrants settled in south-western Sydney. The Shia gathered around the Arncliffe mosque and the Sunnis at the Lakemba mosq