Andrew Bolt writes in the Australian Herald Sun, “Mufti mixes motives, ” with thanks to JS. (In a quick aside, my apologies to all if I don’t give proper thanks. I would rather error on the side of not giving a thank you than put up the wrong name. A quick note next to the link you’re sending in will help me – thanks, Rebecca)
We should be grateful Australia’s most senior Islamic cleric has trekked to Baghdad to save the life of Australian hostage Douglas Wood.
But the Mufti of Australia, Sheik Taj El-Din El-Hilaly, has at the same time shown — again — that not all the Muslim extremists who threaten us are in Iraq.
Surely now even his closest supporters see that this man of hate should no longer represent our Muslims.
Hilaly on the weekend filmed an appeal in Arabic for Wood’s kidnappers to spare the life of the 63-year-old engineer, who had been bashed, shaved bald, and threatened with execution if coalition forces were not pulled out of Iraq.
Hilaly is a Sunni extremist, like the men believed to hold Wood, and in his appeal, broadcast in Iraq, he told them: “We value your jihad and your efforts.”
But, he added: “We call upon you to do something for the sake of our community and all Australian society, which does not support (Prime Minister John) Howard’s pro-American policies. You know the Australian forces in Iraq are protected by American forces and don’t do anything — it’s all politics.”
I can think of only one plausible way to read this — our senior Islamic cleric values the terrorists who kill and kidnap countless victims, most of them Iraqis. And he wants Wood freed because killing him won’t help Muslims here, most Australians already think Howard is a toady, and the real enemy is America.
Of course, excuses were immediately made for the Mufti, as they always are when he is discovered vilifying Jews or Americans, or praising suicide bombers and terrorists…
Read it all.