Partial anti-dhimmitude from Australian Prime Minister John Howard. One hopes he is close to an epiphany that it is not a “hijacking” of Islam by a Tiny Minority of Extremists that is creating problems in his country, and that the resolution of all of the Muslim world’s grievances with Israel would not do away with the jihadists’ pursuit of open-ended wars of conquest and the subjugation of unbelievers.
The article also underscores the hazards inherent in the vague nature of the term “terrorism,” which covers a host of ideologies, and whose definition can be manipulated to fit the agenda at hand: Muslim apologists have been known to label Israel’s military operations as “terrorism,” which they’ll happily condemn all day. Far more meaningful discussions will begin to take place as the topic is narrowed to that of jihad and its accompanying doctrines calling for the subjugation of nonbelievers, and the replacement of secular law with Sharia.
From Arab News:
SYDNEY, 12 September 2006 – Muslims should be more critical of terrorism and nobody should “pussyfoot around” the link to extremism, Australian Prime Minister John Howard said yesterday.
In a series of media interviews to mark the 5th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States, Howard also urged Muslims to fully accept Israel’s right to exist and defended the invasion of Iraq.
“We shouldn’t pussyfoot around. No decent, genuine Muslim would support terrorism,” Howard told The Australian newspaper.
“We are not attacking Muslims generally but you have to call terrorism for what it is — it is a movement that invokes in a totally blasphemous and illegitimate way the sanction of Islam to justify what it does.”
Howard, who sparked an angry reaction in the Muslim community earlier this month when he urged them to adopt Australian values, said it would help if moderates “on occasions… come out and be more critical of terrorism.”
In a later interview with Sky television, Howard said an acceptance by Muslims of the right of Israel to exist and the establishment of a Palestinian state would remove one of the arguments used to justify terrorism.
“It wouldn’t stop terrorism, but it would remove one of the arguments that is constantly used to recruit the young, in particular, to the terrorist cause,” he said.
However, Muslim leaders said Howard’s comments fuelled intolerance, and warned attacks on Muslims had happened in recent weeks after the prime minister called for immigrants to do more to integrate into Australian society.
“Instead of constantly singling out Muslim people, he should be trying to promote cohesion,” Islamic Friendship Association president Keysar Trad told Reuters.
Australia has about 280,000 Muslims, making up about 1.5 percent of the population.
Canberra has gradually strengthened its anti-terrorism laws since Sept. 11, but Muslim leaders say their community has been unfairly targeted by authorities.
Howard said most Australian Muslims shared his views and condemned terrorism. “There are a small minority who in my view perhaps don’t condemn it as much as they should, and there is a resistance amongst some of those to integration in the Australian community.” The Australian Federation of Islamic Councils said Muslim leaders had frequently condemned extremism since the US attacks and bombings in neighboring Indonesia over recent years, which left 92 Australians dead.
“We have told them over and over again, these extremists have no place in this country, there is no place for hatred in this country and if they can’t fit into society in Australia they must pack up and go,” President Ameer Ali told Reuters.