“Top Australian cleric says he backs Hizbollah,” from Reuters:
SYDNEY – Australia’s top Shia Muslim cleric has said he supports the Hizbollah
militant group and attacked the Australian government for “defending terrorism” because of its support for Israel.
Hooray, a top cleric condemns “terrorism!” But who are the “terrorists,” according to this cleric?
Kamal Mousselmani, head of the Supreme Islamic Shia Council of Australia, told
the Weekend Australian newspaper in an interview published on Saturday that Australia was
encouraging people to “kill our people daily”.
“If Australia supports Israel, they are defending terrorism. Because we believe terrorists come from Israel “” not from our people. I support Hizbollah,” Mousselmani said in the interview, which the paper said was conducted in Arabic.
The comments come after a series of controversies involving Australian Muslim
clerics.
[…]
Australia has about 280,000 Muslims, of whom about 30,000 are Shia.
Mousselmani said Australia’s Shia community avidly supported Hizbollah and hated Israel, but insisted neither he nor Hizbollah condoned suicide bombings.
“We are against the suicide bombings going on around the world. And Hizbollah is against it. Our opinion is that Hizbollah is not a terrorist group.”
Of course not, since he believes “terrorists come from Israel.” Then, if Hizballah isn’t Israeli, well, there you go.
The newspaper said that the comments came as Australian security authorities were looking into transactions between the Shia community and groups overseas.
Mousselmani said the community had sent money to victims of last year’s fighting between Hizbollah and Israel, but none of the money had gone to militants.
He said the Shia community would oppose any attack on Australia.