A welcome bit of anti-dhimmitude from John Howard, but this shouldn't even be news at all. This sort of action should be taken by non-Muslim leaders on a routine basis.
"PM bans Islamic leader ahead of conference," from NineMSN, with thanks to Andrew Bostom:
A radical Muslim sheik who was expected to speak at a major Islamic conference in Melbourne at the weekend has reportedly been banned from entering the country.Well-known Muslim lecturer Sheik Bilal Philips was denied a visa at the last moment by the Howard Government, The Herald Sun reports.
The government is believed to have acted on advice from national security agencies that have blacklisted Philips, a Jamaica-born cleric who was linked to the 1993 bombings of the World Trade Center.
Philips, 50, who now lives in Qatar, once wrote that "Western culture, led by the United States, is the enemy of Islam."
The US Government deported Philips in 2004 after labelling him an "unindicted co-conspirator" in the bombings that killed six people and injured 1000.
Four other foreign Islamic speakers have been granted visas to enter Australia this weekend, including Yvonne Ridley, a controversial British journalist who has described suicide bombings as "martyrdom operations"....
Sheik Philips reportedly practices a radical form of Islam that advocates marriage to pre-pubescent girls, public executions and stonings.
On his personal website, Philips has declared that "the cutting of hands and heads, stoning of people to death, and (public) lashings are only to be held on Fridays".
Only on Fridays. How moderate.
The Muslims have the option of buying a plane ticket to go where ever their beloved is speaking
"Sheik Philips reportedly practices a radical form of Islam that advocates marriage to pre-pubescent girls, public executions and stonings"
...typical Muslim....
Australia is welcome to keep Yvonne Ridley - we don't want her back.
Although if she wants to share a cell with Abu Hamza - whom she described as "quite sweet really" - then that would be ok. They'd make a lovely couple.
"They'd make a lovely couple"
...or a stinking mess....
I'm not sure where the contention that he supports Khomeini comes from; this comes from his writeup on a book about Khomeini that he helped translate (you can find it on his website):
Clearly no fan of Khomeini (except perhaps in that Khomeini hated Americans...that's common ground I suppose).
Bilal Philips is, apparently, a Salafi, or considers himself such, as indicated in his "reply to critics" in which he tries to counter accusations that he has fallen from the true Salaf. But he publishes things they don't like, such as this expose of the so-called "Miracle of the Qur'an" in which the number 19 appears all over the place. This piece almost makes Philips a sympathetic character -- it's a decent read, thought it lacks specifics on critical points.
As for the advocation of stoning, cutting of heads and hands, and so on. Yep, he holds to the Salafi line and speaks in favor of the Saudi regime. But he doesn't sound much different on this point than the average "string-em-all-up" redneck republican (Note: I don't paint all republicans with this smear, but there are those who love to call for blood just like the good Imam).
On balance after scanning his website for the signals of extremism I think he is a Salafi of such a moderate variety that he has trouble maintaining legitimacy among that crowd. By our standards, still off the deep end, but relatively speaking, moderate. Australia is probably right to refuse him entry, but I suspect this is a power-play by even more radical elements who don't want him watering down their messages.
I've long begun to suspect the same thing -- when you see certain muslims "cooperating" with western powers to capture "radicals" it turns out that the cooperators are at least as radical than the ones they are turning in. What the hey? I think it's just "cleaning house" for them. Western police are just a handy tool for getting rid of competition. This business in Australia may be a case in point.
The Australian immigration officials would find Robert's questionnaire very useful for these situations!
Could Australia make Mr. Howard available to the US for a couple years to teach a course on backbone for our politicians, both present and want-to-bes?
We would ideally require all the members of Congress and the Cabinet and the unelected Islaobureaucrats to sign up or resign.
Idle talk. Sorry.
Jimmy Bones:
John Howard should be available sometime after December 2007. I imagine he will hit the speaking circuit similar to Bill Clinton.