Paul Sheehan: Islamophobia is a fabrication

Paul Sheehan | March 30

I've been considering a request from a post-graduate student who wants to do a thesis on Islamophobia in Australia. She writes: "I am researching the topic Islamophobia, and I am trying to prove whether Islamophobia is based on religion fear or cultural fear of Islam."

What about proving that Islamophobia exists at all? That would be the logical, ethical and scholarly starting point. But it appears the outcome has already been decided. This would fit the prevailing orthodoxy in academia that the default position for Muslims in Australia is victim. The jargon, "Islamophobia" is part of this ideological construct. Literally, it means fear of Muslims.

I reflected on all this while on holiday in Malaysia and the Maldives last week. This was my twelfth visit to Muslim societies because I do not "fear" Muslims and do not "fear" Islam. Yes, there is ample evidence that Australians have become uneasy about Muslims in general and hostile in specific cases, but this is about cause and effect.

Consider the series of blows to the image of Muslims in just the past three weeks, where the everyday decency of the majority have been collaterally damaged by the antics of the few.

On March 8, the night of the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras, police say a group of about 100 young Muslim men, allegedly members of a loose gang called MBM - Muslim Brotherhood Movement - moved through the centre of the city intimidating, harassing and beating bystanders.

On March 15, Abdul Darwiche was murdered, shot to death in a shopping centre in the latest hyper-violence involving two warring Lebanese Muslim clans. Police later arrested Darwiche's brother, Michael, for driving around with a loaded pistol. A third brother, Adnan, appeared in the NSW Supreme Court three years ago to be sentenced for a double murder. He and his fellow accused, Nasaem El-Zeyat and Ramzi Aouad, laughed and joked, going out of their way to express their contempt for Australian law. After the three men were all given life sentences they shouted "God is great!" This was the same Adnan Darwiche who purchased rocket launchers stolen from the Australian Army, which have never been recovered.

Hundreds of mourners attended Abdul Darwiche's funeral at the Lakemba Mosque, where, within days, Sheik Taj el-Din al Hilaly was involved in yet another controversy. Channel Nine obtained a copy of a video surveillance tape which shows the former mufti of Australia kicking in a door, then returning soon after in the company of police. Apparently he called police over vandalism which he committed, blaming others who are engaged in a power struggle at the mosque. Sheik Hilaly has been embroiled repeatedly in controversy and provocation, making numerous inflammatory remarks about Australia and Australians.

A few days later, yet another rape sentence was handed down to one of the K brothers, three of whom, during their various trials for gang rape, claimed they were victims of an anti-Muslim conspiracy. Between them, four K brothers have been convicted of gang-raping five girls.

This sentencing followed closely on the conviction of seven Sydney schoolboys for the aggravated sexual assault of a 13-year-old girl in a toilet block in Yagoona in 2007. According to police, the ring-leader was on his phone speaking in Arabic during the assaults and most or all of the boys are of Muslim background.

If this is so, these latest convictions produce a morbid tally of more than 30 young Muslim men involved in serious proven sexual assaults of non-Muslim girls in Sydney, involving the Skaf brothers, the K brothers, the E-M cousins, the Yagoona schoolboys and various others. Because sexual assault is the least reported crime (about 15 per cent of incidents are reported to police) this particular phenomenon was certainly much broader.

Finally, there has been fatal violence between bikie gangs, accompanied by news that there has been an infusion of young Muslim men into the bikie culture. There is now warring between new gangs and traditional Anglo criminal gangs for control of the drug and protection markets. Gang leaders named Mahmoud and Hassan and Ismail have been prominent. Gangs like MBM, Notorious and Asesinoz have flaunted their ethnicity. Overtly racist videos have been posted on YouTube, such as the message that "Asesinoz is now targeting Aussies", with an image of a vandalised Australian flag.

The events of the past week have been a variation on a theme police have been dealing with for years. It erupted spectacularly in 2005 when a self-styled "intifada" by armed Muslim men, travelling in convoys, staged numerous co-ordinated assaults across the eastern beach suburbs of Sydney. The attacks were in response to the most notorious case of anti-Muslim feeling in Australia, the Cronulla riot in December, 2005. The roots of this demonstration was the failure of the police, who for years had preferred to pretend the problem did not exist.

Given the abundant evidence of violent cause and fearful effect, involving a small percentage of antagonists, the general charge of Islamophobia is an ideological fabrication.

As for the criminal gangs, for more than 10 years I have argued that Australia needed anti-gang laws similar to the RICO laws (racketeering influenced corrupt organisations) used in the United States, which smashed the code of silence and solidarity by criminal gangs. Finally, the state Labor Government has begun to stir on this issue.

Source: Sydney Morning Herald

Breakaway Muslims vote to dismiss executive

Angus Hohenboken, Natalie O'Brien March 24

A FAULTLINE through the most powerful Muslim organisation in the country deepened last night as a breakaway faction of the Lebanese Muslim Association voted to sack its executive.

The meeting of young MLA members, labelled the "Taliban of Lakemba" by controversial Sheik Taj Din al-Hilali, was held outside Bankstown Town Hall in west Sydney after the group was reportedly shut out of the venue due to security concerns.

The 54 association members at the meeting voted unanimously in favour of motions of no confidence in the board's six executive office-holders.

"All we are asking is for a fair vote in April," Bilal Alameddine said. "From today there will basically be two boards directing what goes on in the (Lakemba) Mosque: nine on our side and six on their side."

Members said that, while the no confidence motions named the board's six office-holders, no one was singled out -- rather it was a vote of no confidence in the executive amid concerns the vote for the new board at the annual general meeting next month would be rigged.

The power struggle is mainly between the younger generation and the old guard, with tensions escalating in recent years.

LMA president Shawky Kassir said the executive would not accept the vote, as the executive was accepted by the majority of the organisation's 400 members.

"There is only one legitimate board," Mr Kassir said. "Irrelevant of its outcome, the meeting was not legal.

"They go and meet wherever they want and whenever they want -- any decision outside the proper procedure of the LMA constitutional law will not be accepted by the members and everybody around the mosque."

One senior Muslim said the younger group were "crazy and will stop at nothing".

The LMA board had previously sent a letter to the members attempting to cancel the meeting, and failed in an attempt to get an injunction in the Supreme Court to stop the meeting going ahead.

Mr Alameddine, who strenuously denied claims the group had Taliban ideology, said the cancelled venue booking was another example of the "political games" being played by the board. "The council asked the police for a risk assessment over the meeting and the police said there was no risk, but the council still cancelled the meeting because of security concerns," he said. "We are not radicals."

Bankstown City Council could not be contacted at the time of going to publication.

Trouble was expected at the Lakemba Mosque last Friday after confrontations last week between supporters of Sheik Hilali and his rivals, but a guest imam from Lebanon gave the sermon instead of Sheik Hilali.

Several scuffles have broken out during prayer times after the Nine Network's A Current Affair played security video footage of Sheik Hilali kicking in a door in his own mosque before calling in the police to report an act of vandalism.

The Muslim youths believe Sheik Hilali staged the vandalism to frame them and gain public support.

Sheik Hilali has denied the allegations and says there is more CCTV footage that proves there was a break-in.

Source: The Australian

Hilali kicks door, blames vandals

Image is Photoshopped for entertainment purposes

Natalie O'Brien, Angus Hohenboken | March 19

AUSTRALIA'S most controversial sheik, Taj Din al-Hilali, has been caught on videotape kicking in a door at his own mosque before calling police to report an act of vandalism.

The head imam at the Lakemba mosque, who caused outrage in 2006 by comparing scantily clad women to uncovered meat, was shown on a CCTV security tape kicking open the door just minutes before reporting the incident.

The Nine Network's A Current Affair last night broadcast the videotape from March 9, showing the incident, which Sheik Hilali initially denied.

"There is a trick in this camera. There is a trick in this film," he told ACA.

But in a letter sent by Sheik Hilali's lawyers to ACA yesterday, he admitted kicking the door, saying the damage had already been done to the door before he kicked it.

"What he did do was to kick open a door to the mosque that had already been damaged by others in order to gain entry to it," the letter said.

Lebanese Muslim Association president Shawky Kassir said they had called the police "for a little problem, but we have fixed (it) and everything is under control".

The footage shows four young men locking the door behind them at 10.28pm.

Nine minutes later, Sheik Hilali checks the lock and pushes on the top of the door, bending it on its hinges. After checking the corridor, he disappears from view before rushing towards it and kicking it open at 10.46pm.

It is understood the name of the suspected culprit was put forward to NSW police, but it is not known if he was interviewed by the authorities.

A NSW Police media spokesperson said they started to investigate the matter but three days later were told by a mosque official that he did not wish to take the matter any further.

"The matter remains under investigation. Further senior members of the local community will be consulted to discuss the incident."

Source: The Australian
Taj Din al-Hilali
Latest recipient of the Distinguished Islamofascist Award

Sheik Taj Din al-Hilali accuses Israel of atrocities

Natalie O'Brien | February 06, 2009

AUSTRALIA'S most outspoken Muslim leader, Sheik Taj Din al-Hilali, has compared the Israeli bombing of Gaza to the Holocaust, sparking outrage among Jewish groups.

Sheik Hilali, the imam of the nation's biggest mosque at Lakemba, southwest Sydney, lashed out at the Israeli leaders, branding them as "butchers" whose "Zionist racism" was creating another Holocaust.

"When we remember the atrocities of the Holocaust - it seems that what we are seeing is another Holocaust," Sheik Hilali said yesterday.

"It is not just about numbers of people killed - thousands as opposed to millions - but the atrocity itself, and here we have similar atrocities."

His comments drew an angry response from NSW Jewish Board of Deputies chief executive Vic Alhadeff.

Mr Alhadeff said comparisons between Israel's offensive in Gaza and the Holocaust were obscene and historically unsupportable.

"They trivialise the Holocaust and they falsify history," he said. "The racial hatred and anti-Semitism which Sheikh Hilali has been expressing for 20 years has clearly not dissipated."

Mr Alhadeff was referring to claims that Sheik Hilali gave an anti-Semitic lecture to a group of Muslim students at the University of Sydney in 1988, in which he was quoted as saying: "The Jews try to control the world through sex, then sexual perversion, then the promotion of espionage, treason and economic hoarding."

Sheik Hilali was appointed the following year as Mufti of Australia by the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils in what was claimed to be a move designed to prevent him being thrown out of Australia over the comments.

Sheik Hilali hopes to lead a delegation into the Palestinian territory to deliver medical supplies to the wounded and to assess the situation.

The group, being co-ordinated by Melbourne-based group the Popular Committee for Palestine, has invited the attendance of Jewish journalist and the founder of Independent Australian Jewish Voices, Antony Lowenstein, who said yesterday he did not believe Sheik Hilali's comments were anti-Semitic. Mr Lowenstein said it was important to make the distinction between anti-Semitic and anti-Israeli.

Sheik Hilali is waiting for permission for the delegation to enter Gaza via the Rafa crossing on Egypt's border, and is planning to take a delivery of hundreds of wheelchairs and three ambulances.

The 15-strong delegation is expected to include five doctors and representatives of several Muslim organisations.

In the wake of the Israel-Lebanon war in 2007, Sheik Hilali travelled to Lebanon to deliver aid.

At the time, he was accused of diverting funds to an Islamic leader with links to Hezbollah. But an Australian Federal Police investigation cleared him of any wrongdoing.

In 2005, Sheik Hilali travelled to Iraq in an effort to help secure the release of Australian hostage Douglas Wood.

Sheik Hilali, who is a member of the Gaza Committee, which has been established by several prominent NSW community members and religious leaders, said he wanted to be able to see where the funds raised by Australians would most help the Palestinian people.

The Gaza Committee, along with other charities, is understood to have raised more than $2.5 million to send to the Palestinians. Sheik Hilali said the money would only be given to registered charities or hospitals, and would not go to any political organisation.

Source: The Australian

Piers Akerman: Prodding at lions will bring Hamas

January 03, 2009

ISRAEL’S continued demolition of the terrorist Hamas government of Gaza has highlighted the impotence of the United Nations.

In a small bonus, call it collateral damage, it has also flushed out some members of the Fifth Column in Australia’s Muslim community who are dedicated to the destruction of Western culture. The politics of war in the Middle East are often too muddied for all but the cognoscenti to follow, but the current situation is as clear as gin, which may be why there remain a few in the alcophobic Islamic world who attempt to deny the realities.

Since 2001, Hamas and its allies launched more than 6400 rockets, mortar bombs and other missiles at Israel. Not at specific military targets, not at strategic targets ... just at the nation.

Fortunately, there were few casualties because the Israeli Government was able to give its citizens a warning system that gave the 250,000 people in the most exposed areas exactly 15 seconds to take shelter.

Since mid-2008 a truce was nominally in effect, but Hamas chose to stockpile smuggled weapons through a series of tunnels from Egypt into Gaza. Israel sought to extend the truce when it expired last month but Hamas rejected the offer, firing some 80 rockets a day into Israel between December 24 and December 27.

Obviously Hamas’s leaders were unfamiliar with Stanley Holloway’s cautionary tale about Albert and the lion, in which young Albert Ramsbotham pokes his ``stick with an ‘orse’s ‘ead ‘andle’’ into the ear of Wallace the lion in the Blackpool Zoo, and is eaten for his troubles.

Perhaps Sheik Dr Nizar Rayan, one of the most prominent leaders of Hamas in Gaza who was killed in the first air strike in the Gaza Strip _ should have been reading Holloway’s instructional rhymes to the son he encouraged to become a suicide bomber, rather than applauding his decision to obliterate himself and two Israeli citizens.
The missiles that killed Rayan also killed nine other people, including one or two of his wives (the reports are conflicting) and three children.

Hamas said that a further 25 people were wounded when it issued a call for ``mass rallies of wrath’’.

Its call coincided with a rally in Lakemba, the centre of Sydney’s Muslim ghetto, by the familiar figure of the Islamic Friendship Association of Australia’s Keysar Trad, the faithful apologist for that old beneficiary of Labor politics, Sheik Taj al-Din al-Hilali, to protest the retaliatory attacks against the Hamas leadership.
No record can be found of any rallies conducted by these prayerful representatives of Australia’s Islamic friends in protest at Hamas’s prolonged rocket campaign against Israeli civilians. It should also be noted that the Israelis took the trouble to phone Rayan, who was an advocate of the strict Wahhabist line of Islamist extremism, and warn his family to evacuate their home because it was to be attacked.
Trusting in their underground shelter to protect them, they remained. Secondary explosions indicated that their shelter was used to store arms and ammunition. One need not feel distressed by Rayan’s demise. He repeatedly urged young people generally and young women in particular to enlist as suicide bombers.

Two days before he was killed, he delivered a sermon at a Gaza mosque calling on Muslims everywhere to pray for Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, saying: ``We do not need money or weapons, we only need your prayers. We can handle the enemy ourselves.’’

Rayan was fiercely opposed to the moderate Palestinian Authority and to the notion of a secular Gaza. Last year, in an interview with the Palestinian al-Ayyam newspaper, he promised to turn the headquarters ofthe National Security Forcein Gaza into a huge mosque and to deliver sermons from the presidential headquarters.

As the moderates were defeated by the Hamas terrorists, he boasted: ``In a few hours, the secular era in Gaza will end without leaving a trace ... today heresy ends. Today the struggle is between Islam and the infidels, and it will end with the victory of the faith. [Once victorious], Hamas will open its arms to the members of the security forces, so that they will return to the faith, [for] Islam is generous with infidels [who repent]. We hold the truth and they [represent] falsehood ... how can we not fight against those who desecrate the sanctity of Allah, execute clerics and sell out the Palestinian cause _ those who blasphemed in houses of worship, burned mosques, Korans and [Islamic] education facilities and executed jihad fighters? We will hold dialogue with these [people] only through the barrels of our guns.’’

Today, even most of the so-called Arab street is tired of Rayan’s chosen form of dialogue.

And as Iran’s income from oil declines and it cuts back its sponsorship of Hamas and other terror groups, militants like the late Rayan will now find themselves further isolated.

In the clash of cultures, those who offer little more than death (and a promise of martyrdom) to followers, will find their currency doesn’t hold its value against the hope of prosperous, fruitful lives.
Little wonder that free, democratic and genuinely progressive Israel’s mere existence poses such a threat to its regressive, repressive Islamic neighbours.

Source: The Daily Telegraph

Hilali protest at cartoons

Sheik Taj Din al-Hilali at the Lakemba Mosque. He
will protest against the 2005 Mohammed cartoons.

Natalie O'Brien

CONTROVERSIAL Muslim cleric Taj Din al-Hilali yesterday rallied his supporters against the publication of cartoons insulting to Mohammed, just a day after Osama bin Laden denounced the European Union over the same issue in a new videotape.

At his sermon at Australia's biggest mosque, in the southwest Sydney suburb of Lakemba, Sheik Hilali said the cartoons, published in a Danish newspaper in 2005 - and republished last month - showed the "hatred and envy" felt by the West against Islam.

He said today's sermon at the mosque would be followed by a march to a nearby park to protest against the cartoons.

"The West announces holding a competition for caricatures that insult the Messenger of God, may he be blessed," Sheik Hilali said. Read more ...

Source: The Australian
H/T: GramfanTaj Din al-Hilali
Latest recipient of the Distinguished Islamofascist Award