Posted on 08/24/2005 5:21:39 PM PDT by naturalman1975
EDUCATION Minister Brendan Nelson has bluntly told Islamists who do not want to accept and teach Australian values that they should "clear off".
And John Howard has warned that mosques, prayer halls and Muslim schools will be watched "to the extent necessary" to ensure they do not give comfort to terrorism.
A day after the Prime Minister's summit with Muslim leaders, the Government stepped up its push to get "Australian values" — epitomised, it says, by the Anzac story of Simpson and his donkey — taught comprehensively to Muslim children.
On Tuesday Treasurer Peter Costello said people thinking of coming to Australia who did not like Australian values and preferred a society that practised sharia law should go elsewhere.
Dr Nelson said he would soon meet the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils to discuss programs to ensure those in Islamic schools and all other children fully understood Australian history and values.
"We don't care where people come from; we don't mind what religion they've got or what their particular view of the world is. But if you want to be in Australia, if you want to raise your children in Australia, we fully expect those children to be taught and to accept Australian values and beliefs," he said.
"We want them to understand our history and our culture, the extent to which we believe in mateship and giving another person a hand up and a fair go. And basically, if people don't want to be Australians and they don't want to live by Australian values and understand them, well basically they can clear off."
Dr Nelson said if the country lost sight of what Simpson and his donkey represented, "then we will lose the direction of the country". John Simpson Kirkpatrick, carrying wounded soldiers on his donkey, is the iconic image of Gallipoli. "He represents everything at the heart of what it means to be Australian."
Mr Howard, asked on Perth radio if the Government was prepared to get inside mosques and Islamic schools, said it had a right to know if the "virtues of terrorism" were being preached in the Islamic community.
"It is very hard for a government or any of its agencies to penetrate every aspect of life, and we don't want to interfere with people's enjoyment of life," he said.
"But equally, if people are not willing to give their first loyalty to this country, they obviously must understand that that will arouse enormous concern within the rest of the Australian community."
Dr Nelson also demanded an explanation from University of Western Sydney vice-chancellor Janice Reid over a speech to a student meeting this week by former Guantanamo Bay detainee Mamdouh Habib.
Mr Habib, who returned to Australia this year when the United States did not press charges, addressed a students' association forum on war, terrorism and civil liberties.
Dr Nelson said Mr Habib had "peddled his anti-American view of the world".
Professor Reid said the university had followed protocols and informed the authorities, who had monitored the meeting. "Although we may not condone what a visitor to the university says, we support free speech as long as it does not foster hate, bigotry or violence."
* Australians should be in no doubt that the lives of the 190-strong Special Forces Task Group about to leave for Afghanistan would be in peril during their mission, Mr Howard said.
He was in Perth to farewell the members of the SAS Regiment, 4th Battalion, commandos of the Royal Australian Regiment and members of the Incident Response Regiment.
After spending more than an hour with the troops, Mr Howard said the wishes of the country were with the taskforce, but they faced severe danger.
Now, if we could get the rest of the Western nations to move in the same direction.
Good for the Aussies!
EDUCATION Minister Brendan Nelson has bluntly told Islamists who do not want to accept and teach Australian values that they should "clear off".
If we could get rid of those whiners in the teachers' union and that PC cr*p, we'd be safer, too.
This John Howard is quickly becoming my favorite world leader.
bttt
I'll agree with that.
At times when the left is really getting to me I thought I would love to move to an island to get away from them.....I found my island
It's about time someone pushed back on these Islamo-bullies.
Agreed.
I wish there was a politician in this country that had the ba**s to say this publicly.
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