Holocaust claims a Zionist lie: mufti

THE nation's Islamic leader, Sheik Taj Din al-Hilali, has dismissed the Holocaust as a "Zionist lie" in a series of fiery sermons in which he also lashed out at the West and the US-led occupation of Iraq.

And Sheik Hilali -- the Mufti of Australia and a member of John Howard's Muslim Community Reference Group -- also accuses the Government of being dishonest for claiming the anti-terrorism laws were not designed specifically for Muslims.

"These laws are tailored to target us precisely," he said in a sermon recorded at Sydney's Lakemba Mosque in November - one of a number of recordings The Weekend Australian has of Sheik Hilali's religious addresses delivered in Arabic over the past eight months.

Revelations that the nation's most senior Islamic cleric has been openly preaching extreme messages to his mainstream followers will be a major setback for the Howard Government.

Sheik Hilali is a senior member of the Prime Minister's Muslim advisory board. Parliamentary Secretary for Multicultural Affairs Andrew Robb will tomorrow unveil details of federal funding for national projects to help address problems within the Islamic community.

Mr Robb, who oversees the advisory group, told The Weekend Australian Sheik Hilali's reported comments were "inflammatory and unacceptable".

Last night, the mufti stood by his sermons: "We are always saddened and always remember with great sorrow what Nazism did to the Jewish people," he said in a statement.

"However, we do not wish to see these crimes repeated by other hands. "Some who see themselves as supporters of Israel do abuse the Holocaust whenever Israel is engaged in its indefensible wars and crimes against humanity.

"People, myself included, are within their right to question the morality of exploiting the memory of the Holocaust."

Attorney-General Philip Ruddock said the mufti's intolerance of other religions was hypocritical. "It is not the time for anyone in positions of responsibility to make comments about other groups, particularly if you are someone who has been concerned about a lack of tolerance towards Muslims," he said.

In a February sermon, Sheik Hilali attacked the Western press for being afraid to admit that the Holocaust was "a ploy made by the Zionists".

"What's that six million all about? Is there six million?", said the Egyptian-born cleric, before calling on Muslims worldwide to boycott Danish goods over the publication of cartoons that offended Muslims for their depiction of the prophet Mohammed.

"The West say we have freedom and freedom of speech," he told thousands of his followers on February 3. "But journalism stops and shuts up when it discusses the burning of the Jews - the Holocaust -- the Zionist lie and the industry that the West deals in."

In another Friday sermon, delivered two weeks ago at Lakemba Mosque - titled The Zionists Murder Palestinians and the World Watches and the Muslims Are Silent - he called the US the breeders of oppression and labelled Israel a "cancer that is planted in the heart of the Ummah (Muslim community)".

I don't understand why it's taken them so long...

May 04, 2004, 8:36 a.m.
Not Lost in Translation
A Grand Mufti’s not-so-grand statements.

By Steven Stalinsky

“Don't be surprised if one day you hear the muezzin calling for praying and saying 'Allah Akbar' from the top of the White House. September 11 is Allah's work against oppressors," stated the mufti of Australia and New Zealand, Sheikh Taj Al-Din Hamed Abdallah Al-Hilali. The mufti, who had enjoyed a reputation for being a liberal, had been exposed when a series of his interviews and sermons over the past two years were translated from Arabic into English in a February report by MEMRI. His statements were supportive of jihad and martyrdom operations as well as terrorist organizations with which he met, such as Hezbollah. Al-Hilali also explained that the "Axis of Evil" really consists of President Bush, Australian Prime Minister John Howard, and British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Following the translations of Al-Hilali's statements, the Australian government was highly critical of the country's leading Muslim religious authority. Prime Minister Howard condemned his remarks, saying that "incitement to a jihad" is "utterly unacceptable." In another interview Howard added, "What he has said deserves to be condemned in the strongest possible terms." Australian parliamentarians also reacted strongly to Al-Hilali's statements. Senior Liberal MP Christopher Pyne called on the government to consider opening an investigation, and explained: "I am appalled, horrified and shocked...by this newest example of Sheikh Al-Hilali's extremism, which has no place in this country." Opposition Labor-party senator Michael Forshaw was quoted on February 18 stating: "Any calls like that would be very, very serious and very damaging to the nature of society." Australia's Foreign Minister Alexander Downer added, on February 29, that Al-Hilali's statements were "appalling," "provocative," and "stupid."

Canada's National Post reported on March 6 that Al-Hilali's spokesman and other prominent Australian Muslims, including Amir Ali — leader of the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils — challenged the accuracy of translations of the mufti's remarks, and claimed that this was a further case of Western mistreatment of Muslims. In response, the Australian foreign ministry authorized an independent translation of Al-Hilali's remarks and, as the National Post wrote, "predictably, it discovered MEMRI was accurate."

Member of Parliament and Opposition Whip Michael Danby, who was quoted on February 19 saying, "Hilali's presence in Australia is a mistake," issued a later press release disputing the argument by Al-Hilali supporters that his statements had been taken out of context. He wrote:

It is not true that this remark was "taken out of context." There is no "context" for it to be taken out of. Everyone...knows that "martyrdom operations" is code for terrorist bombings against civilian targets. A Shahid is a "martyr," one who dies carrying out one of these bombings. During his visit to Lebanon, Sheikh Hilali also gave a clear and unambiguous endorsement to the terrorist organization Hizbullah. He said that Hizbullah had "become a model for all Mujahideen in the world." This remark was not taken out of context. Sheikh Hilali's comments were made at a meeting with the infamous head of Hizbullah, Sheikh Nasrallah.
On February 20, the Australian government announced that the federal police would investigate Sheikh Al-Hilali. A spokesman for Attorney General Philip Ruddock stated: "Meeting Hizbullah is probably not the most prudent thing to do. If his comments about violence are as reported, that would be of concern."

After being exposed as a supporter of terrorist movements and jihad against the West, Al-Hilali made a point of criticizing al Qaeda in English. However, during a subsequent interview on Al Arabiya TV (Dubai) on March 9, in Arabic, the mufti reiterated his previous controversial statements, modified to the new circumstances:

When I make Islamic legal statements, I stand behind them, and I fear no rebuke concerning my duty to Allah. Anyone who supports the abhorrent crime that took the lives of thousands of innocent civilians on September 11, 2001, in America understands nothing of his religion, and it is inconceivable that anyone who understands his religion would justify such a barbaric deed... Yes I do support the Palestinian Resistance... And I welcome the national and Islamic resistance efforts in Lebanon... [This is] a tempest in a teacup, and these statements [against Al-Hilali] have no effect. Australia is a multicultural society, and is not the property of Howard or of the foreign minister. I am an Australian citizen like him. If he thinks the Lebanese Hizbullah, that defended the Lebanese land by means of the Lebanese resistance and with the blessing of the Lebanese, and whose actions have the support of the U.N., of the Secretary Council, of human rights legislation, of revealed religious law and of the man-made laws — if he thinks Hizbullah is a terrorist organization then I disagree with him...
A further development is a report that an umbrella group of Australian Muslim organizations has been waiting for Al-Hilali to clarify his statements in support of jihad. If they are unhappy with his response, there is talk of stripping him of his title of Grand Mufti.
— Steven Stalinsky is executive director of the Middle East Media Research Institute.

* * *

I think this might be how he bought himself more time in Oz:

Sheikh Taj el-Din al-Hilaly Interview
Dateline has decided to postpone tonight's announced profile of Thai Prime Minister Taksin Shinawatra, to bring you a one on one interview with Sheikh Taj el-Din al-Hilaly. Until now, the role of the Sydney-based Sheikh in the effort to secure the safe release of hostage Douglas Wood has been - to say the least - confusing, even obscure. Opinion on the part the Sheikh played ranges wildly, from crucial to irrelevant.
Douglas Wood himself says he has never heard of him. That said, the Federal Government has praised what they called his tremendous efforts. Nick Warner, the Head of Australia's Emergency Response team in Baghdad says the 64-year-old Sheikh displayed "extraordinary courage" walking the streets of the dangerous Red Zone in the violence-ridden Iraqi capital for two weeks trying to contact Douglas Wood's captors.
So what is the Sheikh's version of events? What role does he claim to have played? When he agreed to be interviewed at his suburban home in south-western Sydney, the Dateline crew and George Negus had no idea of the "post-Douglas Wood release" drama that would unfold before our cameras.

http://news.sbs.com.au/dateline/index.php?page=archive&artmon=06&fyear=2005#

Hilali sems to have more lives than a cat:

http://chrenkoff.blogspot.com/2004/11/good-news-from-islamic-world-part-2.html

Monday, November 01, 2004
Good news from the Islamic world, part 2

Australia: A push for more responsible moderate leadership of Australia's Muslim community:

"The controversial head of Australia's Muslims, Sheikh Taj Din al-Hilali, is under threat from a new Islamic council that is trying to gather support for an alternative leader. The Islamic High Council of Australia was formed in southwestern Sydney this month with plans to become the leading organisation of the country's 400,000 Muslims.

"Members of the council said their goal was to appoint a mufti of their own, in a direct challenge to Sheikh Hilali, the current mufti of Australia. The council is hoping to tap into disenchantment in some Muslim communities with Sheikh Hilali over his controversial speeches, in which he reportedly attacked Jews and supported suicide bombers...

"A spokesman for the new council, Mahmoud Krayem, said yesterday that 20 Muslim organisations had joined the council from different ethnic backgrounds around the country, including Afghan, Indonesian, Pakistani and Lebanese...

"The spiritual leader of the new council, Sheikh Salim Alwan Al-Hasani, said there was a need for a moderate umbrella organisation that 'totally refuses all kinds of extremism' and rejects interference from overseas."
According to Sheikh Alwan, "In looking at the current state of the Muslim leadership in Australia, we can confidently say there is an urgent need for the unity of all the moderate sheikhs, sincere scholars and the highly qualified and educated members of the community." In a dig at the perceived influence of Saudi Wahhabi money, Sheikh added that "Darul-Fatwa Islamic High Council of Australia [as the new group is known] is not a tool serving the interests of any foreign government nor does it accept or receive funds from any overseas sources." His final words offer encouragement for all those who hope to see the Muslim community taking a strong stance against the Islamist cancer: "Darul-Fatwa totally refuses all kinds of extremism as it refuses its elements from any group or individual and declares all acts of extremism unrelated to Islam, as Islam is not related to them in spite of those who claim otherwise."

Yet he's still hangin' in there...

http://www.brookesnews.com/051912muslim.html

Lebanese Muslim thugs spark riots and the media blame “racist” Australians

Gerard Jackson
BrookesNews.Com
Monday 19 December 2005

snipped

Miranda Devine, Janet Albrechtsen, Andrew Bolt and Paul Sheehan are among the few in the media who have had the courage to write the truth about the hatred, thuggery and racism coming from Lebanese Muslims.

Then there's Tim Blair and Tim Priest:

http://timblair.net/ee/index.php/weblog/2006/07/

http://www.hvk.org/articles/0104/64.html

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