Australia's Muslims angered by “hate” speech

[sonz]

Islamic groups in Australia slammed a senior government minister who said that Muslims who cannot embrace the country’s values should be stripped of their citizenship.

Treasurer Peter Costello’s remarks came just few days after Prime Minister John Howard suggested that some segments of the Australian Islamic community were antagonistic to the society, remarks rejected by Muslim leaders as “offensive and ignorant”.

“Before entering a mosque visitors are asked to take off their shoes. This is a sign of respect. If you have a strong objection to walking in your socks, don’t enter the mosque,” Costello, who wants to become prime minister, said in a speech to the conservative think-tank The Sydney Institute.

“Before becoming an Australian you will be asked to subscribe to certain values. If you have strong objections to those values, don’t come to Australia,” he added.

Costello’s remarks sparked anger among leaders of Australia's Islamic community, who accused him of playing populist politics and inciting religious hatred.

The Prime Minister supported Costello’s position, in what Muslims leaders described as further evidence that the government is no longer committed to multi-culturalism.

“He (Costello) has no reason to raise the issue of Islam,” said Keysar Trad, founder of the Islamic Friendship Association of Australia.

“Why drag Islam into it other than for the reason of taking a cheap shot at a beleaguered community.”

Source: AP

[Nicola]

“Before entering a mosque visitors are asked to take off their shoes. This is a sign of respect. If you have a strong objection to walking in your socks, don’t enter the mosque,”

This is true, respect must work both ways...
When in Roman.....

[Bittersteel]

yeah yeah when in Rome do what the Romans do.fine so don't invade our countries and come to our countries to preach secularism.

[HeiGou]

yeah yeah when in Rome do what the Romans do.fine so don't invade our countries and come to our countries to preach secularism.

Well, last I looked, the West was preaching secularism but mostly from the safety of the West. It takes a great deal to provoke a Western country to invade another these days. The West could trivially overthrow any Muslim government except perhaps Pakistan. But by and large they have decided it is not worth it. Western governments do not, as a whole, like the corrupt and incompetent kleptocracies that rule most of the Muslim world, but as a general rule that is a problem for the Muslim populations, not the rest of us.

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[Malaikah]

:sl:

oh yeh that cause quite a stir around here, man such ignorant comments he made man, and some were totally unasked for, youd think that the muslims here were walking around forcing aussies to accepts shariah law by the way he was talking.

[HeiGou]

oh yeh that cause quite a stir around here, man such ignorant comments he made man, and some were totally unasked for, youd think that the muslims here were walking around forcing aussies to accepts shariah law by the way he was talking.

From what I have seen he said that some Muslims were plotting to commit terrorist acts specifically to force Australisn to accept Shariah law. This is self-evident and true. I am sure it caused a stir. As John Howard said,

Mr Howard said Australian Muslims overhwelmingly were committed to Australia, and terrorism was based "upon an evil, distorted interpretation of Islam … But that doesn't mean you can't identify areas of concern, and I think the reaction of some in the Islamic community … is quite unreasonable."

Quite.

[Malaikah]

From what I have seen he said that some Muslims were plotting to commit terrorist acts specifically to force Australisn to accept Shariah law.

er.. no one is that dumb, thats the dumbest plan ive ever heard..

oh and by the way, you are quoting the same people currently involved in a huge scandal, the 'kick backs to saddams regime', where the goverment knew about this aussie wheat company sending bribes to saddam hussien. i wonder if anyone will believe anything coming from the mouths of costello and howard after that...:rollseyes

[HeiGou]

From what I have seen he said that some Muslims were plotting to commit terrorist acts specifically to force Australians to accept Shariah law.

er.. no is that dumb, thats the dumbest plan ive ever heard..

oh and by the way, you are quoting the same people currently involved in a huge scandal, the 'kick backs to saddams regime', where the goverment knew about this aussie wheat company sending bribes to saddam hussien. i wonder if anyone will believe anything coming from the mouths of costello and howard after that...:rollseyes

Why is that dumb? Or better yet, what do you think is dumb here? Costello's remarks or the plan by some Australian Muslims to commit terrorist acts to force Australia to accept Sharia law?

I don't see what the fuss is about myself. Surely everyone in the Middle East does deals with commissions of one sort or another. Do Australians really think they are different?

[root]

"The majority of Muslims in Italy don't speak Italian in a proper way, don't know the culture or the religion of the Italian people, and don't share the values of Italian society."

Source:http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4836184.stm

“Before becoming an Australian you will be asked to subscribe to certain values. If you have strong objections to those values, don’t come to Australia,” he added.

I can accept that statement without being angered, sounds fair to me.