Australia [Archive] - It's Happening Forums

Petronas

02-21-2005, 12:45 PM

Dozens sick at Australian airport
Monday, 21 February, 2005, 10:43 GMT

A passenger terminal at Melbourne airport was evacuated on Monday after dozens of people were taken ill following a suspected chemical leak.
At least 45 people were hospitalised suffering nausea, vomiting and respiratory problems. Hundreds of others were evacuated from the Virgin Blue domestic terminal where the leak is thought to have occurred. Domestic flights were severely delayed, before the terminal was re-opened on Monday evening. Most of those who fell ill were security and airline staff, according to airport officials.

By mid-afternoon the majority had been released from hospital, but the terminal was closed for several hours while emergency services looked for the source of the leak. Melbourne Airport spokeswoman Brooke Lord said: "Initially... there was immediate testing done of the air quality and the air conditioning systems, and nothing was identified through that that could have caused the problem. "But as we got further reports of people feeling unwell, as a precaution, the aviation rescue and firefighting [crews] working on site decided to evacuate the terminal," she told the Australian news agency AAP.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4283045.stm

Petronas

02-23-2005, 12:02 PM

Australia airport leak unsolved
Tuesday, 22 February, 2005, 10:45 GMT

Investigators have not yet determined the cause of a suspected chemical leak which delayed thousands of passengers at Melbourne airport on Monday. The incident is still creating a backlog at Virgin Blue domestic terminal, which closed for eight hours while the leak was investigated. At least 50 people needed hospital treatment after suffering nausea, vomiting and respiratory problems. A spokeswoman for Virgin Blue said 62 flights were cancelled by the closure. This stranded or delayed more than 14,000 passengers across Australia.

Peter Holmes, a local fire official, said initial testing had detected a chemical element in the air but it quickly dissipated. "We were not able to find what the substance was," he was quoted as saying by The Australian. Mr Holmes said the substance could have been spread by air-conditioning ducts, contaminated baggage or even footwear.

The leak is still affecting passengers at the terminal, whose patience was tested by the last-minute cancellation of a further 15 flights on Tuesday. "I've lost a day's work and the way things are going I'll probably lose mot of today as well and I'm out of pocket for accommodation," said one passenger hoping to fly home to Adelaide, Graham Hartlett. Flight crews were being called in on their days off, because they had worked maximum permissible hours on Monday, Virgin Blue spokeswoman Amanda Bolger said.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4286703.stm

Petronas

03-19-2005, 12:39 AM

Plane bomb threat sent by SMS
19mar05

A NORTH Queensland man has been charged with issuing a bomb threat using a mobile phone text message. Police said a hoax text message was sent to a Cairns mobile phone number around 5.15pm (AEST) yesterday, saying there was a bomb on board the Air New Zealand plane departing Cairns for Auckland. Police were able to track the sender of the message through the phone number. A 35-year-old man from Edmonton, south of Cairns, was last night charged with using a carriage service for a hoax threat and making threats and false statements. He will appear in Cairns Magistrates Court on April 4.

http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5478,12593453%255E1702,00.html

pixikill

03-19-2005, 12:47 AM

Petronas

03-22-2005, 12:58 AM

Australia (Country threat level - 3): Authorities at Perth International Airport (YPPH/PER) have launched an investigation into a security breach that occurred on 20 March 2005. In the early morning hours, three men, who were apparently intoxicated, jumped the perimeter fence at the airport and boarded an empty Qantas Airbus aircraft. The men were aboard the aircraft for approximately one hour before police officers arrested them. No further information is currently available.

AIR SECURITY International - HOT SPOTS 3/21/2005

Petronas

03-22-2005, 09:19 PM

Al Qaeda ‘sleeper’ told to watch military sites
Wednesday, March 23, 2005

MELBOURNE: A Muslim convert accused of working in Australia as a “sleeper agent” for Al Qaeda was assigned the task of pinpointing military bases that could be attacked by the terrorist network, a court heard Tuesday. During the first day of his committal hearing, prosecutors alleged that Jack Thomas trained at Al Qaeda bases in Afghanistan before the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States and later returned to his home in suburban Melbourne to plot terror strikes. Thomas, a former taxi driver, has denied the charges against him, which include receiving financial support from Al Qaeda, providing the group with resources and support to carry out a terrorist attack and having a falsified passport. Court officials said prosecutor Jeanette Morrish told the closed hearing that after training in Afghanistan, Thomas stayed in Al Qaeda safe houses in neighboring Pakistan and was asked by one operative to return home and work for the organisation.

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_23-3-2005_pg4_13

Petronas

06-11-2005, 12:37 AM

Jihad text gave rules for killers, court told
June 09, 2005

A former Qantas baggage handler who compiled a book outlining "short and wise" rules for fighting jihad on his computer in suburban Lakemba dedicated it to the "martyrs of Islam". Yesterday the bizarre and often violent text was handed over to Sydney Central Local Court, where its 35-year-old editor, Bilal Khazal, faced a charge of making documents likely to facilitate terrorist acts.

Dressed in a long navy dish-dasha dress shirt, white prayer cap, socks and sandals, the portly Khazal sat impassively as prosecutor Geoffrey Bellew told the court that almost a third of the offending book was directed to the topic of assassination, including a list of attributes needed to be part of an assassination team - "wit and a quick mind", "a terrorist psychology" and "high physical fitness". The book concluded with praise for al-Qaeda's "impressive success of the conquest of New York" on September 11, 2001.

Defence lawyers for Khazal argued the Lebanese-born father of two had merely compiled the book from documents taken from the internet. But, according to the prosecutor, Khazal wrote the introduction to "Provisions on the Rules of Jihad", where he says he was asked to prepare it by "brothers working to support this religion". Using a pseudonym, Abu Mohamed Attawheedy, Khazal apologises in the introduction for the poor job on the text, saying it was done in a few days, but "better haste than never". The book was posted on a Jihadist website from September 2003 to May 2004.

The wide-ranging chapter on assassination, attributed to numerous scholars, debates not only setting up hit squads but explains how mujahideen fighters in Palestine and elsewhere can protect themselves against being hit by the CIA and Mossad. Among the assassination techniques used by Western intelligence, the book says, are letter bombs, snipers, car bombs and "cake throwing", which it adds, "is well known in the West". Jihadists are warned to be alert to couples pretending to be joking before attacking the target with cakes. "This could lead to his eyes, nose and mouth being plugged and [he] loses the ability to breathe. Few would suspect the fatal consequences." But in another section it includes a checklist for jihadist assassins, from getting the budgeting and transport organised, to checking wiring and receivers before attempting to use time-bombs.

Less clear from the text is who are the targets of the jihadist assassins. While the political and military leaders from the West are suggested, along with infidels in Arab countries, including Jews, Christians and Arabs, at times the book insists that "a legal fatwa" must be obtained for assassinations. Counsel for Khazal, Murugan Thangaraj, argued the book did not instruct people to commit terrorist acts and was only a book about terrorism. "This document does not direct any specific act to any specific person and is really a general document," Mr Thangaraj said.

http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/006575.php

Petronas

06-11-2005, 01:00 AM

Powder scare shuts part of Australian parliament
Saturday, June 11, 2005

CANBERRA: A packet containing white powder was sent to Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer’s office in Parliament House on Friday, and authorities shut down part of the building. The security scare comes just a day after five embassies, the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet and the loading dock of Parliament Hosue were closed after receiving suspicious packages. “We have another white powder incident, this time within the main part of the building. The incident has been contained to the affected suite, and the ACT (Australian Capital Territory) Fire Brigade has been called,” an official at Parliament House said. A spokesman for Downer confirmed the package had been opened in the foreign minister’s office and that about six ministerial offices in that part of the building had been shut down. Downer is currently on his way home from a visit to India. The packages discovered on Thursday at the US, British, Japanese, Italian and South Korean missions in Canberra were all found to be harmless.

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_11-6-2005_pg4_13

pixikill

06-11-2005, 01:13 AM

hence the new draft for our fridge magnets from the govt...
http://www.theage.com.au/ffximage/2005/06/08/cartoon_0906_gallery__550x389.jpg

Petronas

06-23-2005, 11:29 AM

Australia (Country threat level - 3): Reports issued on 23 June 2005 indicate that Australian police officials have raided four houses and questioned six people in Melbourne and Sydney in an effort to prevent suspected Islamic extremists from conducting terrorist attacks. The suspects reportedly conducted surveillance on two train stations and the Australian Stock Exchange in Melbourne and the Opera House and Harbour Bridge in Sydney. The suspected extremists have allegedly undergone paramilitary training in Afghanistan and with Lashkar-e-Taiba, a Pakistan-based Kashmiri separatist group. Furthermore, the group allegedly attended basic training camps in remote areas in the state of Victoria. It is not known how advanced plans for attacks against these facilities were. While several terrorist organizations regularly target Australian interests throughout Asia, it is less common for these groups to plan attacks within Australia.

AIR SECURITY International - HOT SPOTS 6/23/2005

Petronas

06-23-2005, 12:03 PM

Pastor prefers jail over apology
22jun05

A CHRISTIAN pastor who has been ordered to apologise for vilifying Muslims says he will go to jail rather than say sorry for his comments. Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) deputy president Michael Higgins ordered two pastors of an evangelical order, Catch the Fire Ministry, to apologise for comments they made in a speech, on a website and in a newsletter.

In a landmark ruling, the tribunal found Muslims were vilified by claims that Muslims were training to take over Australia, encouraging domestic violence and that Islam was an inherently violent religion. The case was the first to be heard by VCAT since the Racial and Religious Tolerance Act took effect in Victoria at the start of 2002.

Outside the tribunal, Danny Nalliah – one of the pastors taken to VCAT by the Islamic Council – described himself as a martyr and said he would go to jail before apologising. "Right from the inception, we have said that this law is a foul law, this law is not a law which brings unity," Pastor Nalliah said. "It causes disunity and as far as we are concerned right from the beginning we have stated we will not apologise. "We will go to prison for standing for the truth and not sacrifice our freedom and freedom to speak." He said the Evangelical group had nothing against Muslims and its comments were taken out of context.

Judge Higgins said an apology was "appropriate" as the intention of the Victorian legislation was to protect freedom of speech, while placing limits on such freedom by prohibiting the vilification of persons or classes of persons. He said he took into account that the pastors were of good character, but their passionate religious beliefs caused them to transgress the law. Catch the Fire is appealing the VCAT decision in the Victorian Supreme Court.

http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/common/story_page/0%2C5478%2C15694331%25255E1702%2C00.html

Thank God for freedom of speech in the United States of America! One wonders how evenhandedly the Racial and Religious Tolerance Act is being applied - have there been any prosecutions under this Act of Muslim clerics for some of the offensive statements about Jews and Christians the more extreme among them are wont to make?

Petronas

06-24-2005, 02:33 PM

What was Pastor Nalliah found guilty of? He said that:
* "Muslims were training to take over Australia" - "Muslims should learn military tactics" [what for?]
* "Muslims were encouraging domestic violence" - "a man killing the mother of his two children because she "disparaged the Prophet"; he also was declared clear of any crime" [killing your wife doesn't qualify as domestic violence?]
* "Islam was an inherently violent religion" - "if a person speaks ill of Islam it is acceptable to kill them" [sounds pretty violent to me...]

Looks like Pastor Nalliah was right on based on what Muslims in Australia are saying in their own mosques. Sending the Pastor to jail is a disgrace for the Australian justice system. Moderate Muslims need to clean up their mosques and hate literature if they don't want comments like Pastor Nalliah's made about their religion.

Muslim books of hate sold
24jun05

LITERATURE filled with hatred of Christians, Jews and non-Muslims is being sold at a mosque near a Melbourne home raided by ASIO. Books sold at the store attached to the Brunswick mosque tell Muslims they should "hate and take as enemies" non-Muslims, reject Jews and Christians, and learn to hate in order to properly love Allah. The texts say Muslims should learn military tactics and suggest that if a person speaks ill of Islam it is acceptable to kill them. They urge Muslims to strike back against "the barbaric onslaught from their enemies -- the Jews, Christians, atheists, secularists and others".

Pages are devoted to legitimising episodes of violence against Jews who insult Islam. "A Jewish woman used to abuse the Prophet and disparage him. A man strangled her till she died. The Apostle of Allah declared that no recompense was payable for her blood," one book recounts. A similar example is given of a man killing the mother of his two children because she "disparaged the Prophet"; he also was declared clear of any crime.

"When they (non-Muslims) meet you, they say, 'We believe', but when they are alone, out of frustration and rage, they bite off the tips of their fingers because of you," one says. "O you who believe! Do not take the Jews (Yahood) and Christians (Nasara) for friends (Awliyaa). They are Awliyaa to each other. And the one among you that turns to them is one of them." Readers are instructed by the books not to feel compassion for non-Muslims, not to trust them, and not to speak well of them. One book says faithful Muslims should learn military tactics.

The group of books were bought from the bookstore of the Islamic Information and Support Centre of Australia, which is in the same building as the Brunswick mosque. One, The Ideological Attack, describes "the Jews" as striving to corrupt the beliefs, morals and manners of Muslims. "The Jews scheme and crave after possessing the Muslim lands, as well as the lands of others," it reads.

"Supported by a demonic global plan as well as unlimited financial backing, this attack aims at domination and hegemony over the Islamic world; dividing it, attacking it culturally and morally and perverting the true image of the religion. "Therefore it is amongst the priorities of the Islamic call (da'wah) to break this attack and to counter it with every legitimate means of da'wah possible." One text says of devotion to Allah: "As regards hatred for His sake this is an essential prerequisite for loving Him."

A book on "Muslims Living as Minorities" mentions Muslims fighting in Afghanistan and discusses "jihad", or holy war, as a collective and individual responsibility. Another quotes classic anti-Semitic conspiracy text The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, stating Jews want to make Muslims "the ass of the chosen people".

http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5478,15714027%5E661,00.html

Petronas

06-25-2005, 11:16 PM

Free speech farce
24jun05

PREMIER Steve Bracks promised four years ago to give us "racial and religious tolerance" if we gave up our free speech. What fools people were to believe him.

You could see the "tolerance" his vilification laws gave us this week when two pastors became the first to be punished, after criticising the Koran. Police were posted outside the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal to watch Christians and Muslims bicker, and the pastors – Daniel Scot and Danny Nalliah – were escorted by security guards.

Protesters waved placards, and in a radio interview a heated Nalliah was told by a hostile ABC presenter to "mind your p's and q's" and had his reply censored. All this before he and Scot were even jailed – as they likely will be – for refusing to accept the unfair punishment ordered by Justice Michael Higgins.

Gee, that worked well, Premier. Much more of your tolerance and we might actually get ourselves a war. Oh, the promises that were made when this shiny-eyed government introduced its vilification laws. They would "prohibit only the most noxious forms of conduct", Bracks claimed.

Yet we've since had complaints by a transgender witch against a Christian councillor who warned against covens; by a One Nation candidate cross that I'm too nice to Jews and Chinese; and by a pedophile witch upset that the Salvation Army uses an anti-witch King James version of the Bible in prison classes. Every case, each more trivial than the last, involves worry and legal costs. Each one makes yet more people too scared to talk freely.

Then there was that other promise – that the laws would "promote . . . tolerance". Instead, they've set us at each other's throat. Take this case against Nalliah and Scott, pastors with the Catch the Fires pentecostal church. Without Bracks' laws, these men would have quietly given their church seminar on jihad three years ago to 250 fellow worshippers and none of us would have even known. But the laws changed everything.

They inspired the Equal Opportunity Commission to urge Muslims to complain, and one EOC employee, May Helou, even asked three converts from the Islamic Council of Victoria -- of which she was an official -- to drop in on the pastors' seminar. So began a three-year prosecution against the pastors that has cost them hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Last December, Judge Higgins finally ruled that Scot in particular had offended by quoting the Koran in a way that got "a response from the audience at various times in the form of laughter". Is laughter now a crime? Stranger still, he gave 13 examples of how Scot had "made fun of Muslim beliefs and conduct", at least eight of which involved him quoting the Koran, and, I believe, accurately. Yes, the Koran indeed authorises men to beat their wives. Yes, it indeed calls for thieving hands to be chopped off.

What did Scot say that was false? The judge listed just two trivial examples, but also said Scot hadn't made clear enough he was giving a literalist reading of the Koran that wasn't mainstream. Did he? Isn't it? On such points, so deserving of debate, Scot was convicted of stating the wrong opinion. But if the judgment was strange, so was the penalty.

Scot and Nalliah must now run four big advertisements, costing $70,000, in the Herald Sun and The Age, declaring they've been found guilty of bad-mouthing Muslims. Oddly, these apologies must reach not just the 250 people who were at their seminar, but 2.5 million newspaper readers who weren't. Odder still, the judge ordered the pastors to never even imply what they'd said about the Koran. They are banned from speaking their mind not only in Victoria, but anywhere in Australia, where others are still free to say what they may not.

Not surprisingly, the pastors say they'd rather go to jail than comply. Let's see if Bracks dares let this happen. He should note, though, that other Labor leaders have seen this disaster of his and promised never to make such a mistake themselves.

NSW Premier Bob Carr announced on Tuesday he'd fight plans by an independent MP to introduce such laws, warning: "The Victorian experience spells out how anti-religious vilification can be misused." Likewise, South Australia's Attorney General, Michael Atkinson, dropped a similar proposal, agreeing "they are liable to misuse". As we've seen. Enough. These laws shame us by curbing our right to freely debate what free people deserve to debate. And they harm us by creating the strife they promised to end. Ask yourself: Before this week, did you ever see on TV Christians and Muslims quarrelling on our streets? Scrap these sorry laws now.

http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5478,15708881%255E25717,00.html

Petronas

06-28-2005, 05:57 PM

'Jihad Jack' pleads not guilty to al-Qaeda link
June 28, 2005

Terror suspect Jack Thomas pleaded not guilty in a Melbourne court today to receiving money from al-Qaeda.... Justice Bernard Teague ordered Thomas, who also faces charges of providing support to al-Qaida and falsifying a passport, to reappear in court on January 30. He has not entered pleas on the remaining charges.

http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/006837.php

NYer

07-28-2005, 08:08 AM

Site safe after bomb threat
By Louise Crossen of Brisbane's Courier-Mail
July 28, 2005

EXPLOSIVES experts have declared the Caltex Oil Refinery in Brisbane safe after a telephone bomb threat today forced the evacuation of 700 employees from the plant.

The Port of Brisbane precinct came to a standstill after an emergency situation was declared, shutting down airspace above the refinery and blocking train lines and nearby roads.

Staff from the Lytton refinery and its adjacent terminal – including the Australian Lubricants Manufacturing Company facility – were evacuated at 10.30am, and sent home just before 1pm.

The bomb squad moved in and just after 1.30pm declared the most volatile areas of the refinery safe.

Police later said they had failed to find any suspicious items after a search of the entire site.

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,16075891-2,00.html

Petronas

10-04-2005, 02:00 AM

'300' jihadists in Australia in 2002
September 30, 2005

ASIO was last night investigating a claim that as early as 2002 there were 300 extremists in Australia willing to mount a terror attack. The claim is understood to have been made by an Australian terror suspect who was jailed in the Middle East because of his links with the al-Qa'ida terror network. The suspect is alleged to have boasted of the strength of al-Qa'ida's network in Australia during a telephone call made to an associate in Hamburg. That conversation was recorded by German police. The suspect is now back in Australia and is understood to be on an ASIO watchlist.

The development comes after The Australian revealed earlier this week that, in the wake of the July 7 London bombings, ASIO believes there are now as many as 800 people in Australia who could be inspired to carry out such an attack. Sydney 2ME Arabic radio announcer and former interpreter Anis Ghanem told Attorney-General Philip Ruddock yesterday that he had seen a document in 2002 referring to the extent of the terror threat in Australia.

"Mr Ruddock, in another role I played in my life, I came across a document containing the result of telephone monitoring of one Australian suspect in a terrorist attack overseas," Mr Ghanem said. "He did divulge that there are 300 young men ready to implement an attack on Australian soil. Top security officials are now being quoted as saying there are up to 800 extremists living in Australia. Why are you (Mr Ruddock) playing down that number?"

Mr Ruddock said he was not aware of the claim and urged Mr Ghanem to provide him with details so he could have it investigated. "If you have such a document I would like to see it and I would like to have it examined and its authenticity established," he said. A spokeswoman for the Attorney-General said later that he had passed the allegations on to "appropriate authorities" for further investigation.

The claim of 300 Australians being prepared in 2002 to commit terrorist acts comes after state and territory leaders earlier this week backed John Howard's package of tougher terror laws, including longer detention and tagging of suspects for up to 12 months. It emerged yesterday that the new anti-terror regime may also result in more groups being added to a government list of banned organisations. "It would be foolish of me to say that if the ambit for proscribing an organisation has been widened ... that there are not bodies that could be considered," Mr Ruddock said. "Obviously there may well be some ... it's done by competent authorities and they will make recommendations to me."

The Prime Minister also warned yesterday that terrorists could step up attacks in Iraq as elections approach, but Australia's troops should stay until a stable, democratic government was in place. "It's in the interests of the terrorists to stop democracy being established in Iraq. It's in our interest to stop the terrorists succeeding," Mr Howard said.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,16766778%255E31477,00.html

Petronas

10-07-2005, 12:31 AM

Australia (Country threat level - 3): A stolen van exploded at the Studley Park Boathouse parking lot in the Kew area of eastern Melbourne during the morning of 6 October 2005. Two police officers discovered the van as they were conducting their routine patrol and noticed that wires were protruding from suspicious bags that were left on the front seats of the van. Shortly afterward, the van exploded. Police officials continue to conduct an investigation into the incident; however, a police spokesperson stated that "there is nothing to indicate at this stage that it is at all terrorist related." There were no reports of injuries.

AIR SECURITY International - HOT SPOTS 10/6/2005

Petronas

10-11-2005, 10:53 AM

Guantanamo inmate seeks British citizenship
October 11, 2005

AN AUSTRALIAN inmate at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp has applied for legal aid in Britain to fund his fight for British citizenship. David Hicks, 30, whose mother was born in Croydon, South London, believes that he will be released if he becomes a British citizen. There is no legal bar to Mr Hicks being granted citizenship but his lawyers are concerned that the Home Office is stalling on a case that threatens to sour Anglo-US relations.

This year the Government secured the release of all British citizens held as terrorist suspects at Camp Delta after protesting against the unfairness of the planned military tribunal trial system, but the Australian Government has expressed itself content for Mr Hicks to face the tribunal, and the US authorities plan to try him next month. He fought for the Kosovo Liberation Army and in Kashmir before going to Afghanistan in 2001. Mr Hicks converted to Islam but he is reported to be less than diligent in practising the faith. One Australian official said he was not a committed Islamist but “a young man looking for adventure”.

The US has charged Mr Hicks with with conspiracy to help al-Qaeda, aiding the enemy and the attempted murder of coalition forces during the conflict in Afghanistan. According to his indictment, Mr Hicks trained in urban and guerilla warfare and translated al-Qaeda training manuals into English for Osama bin Laden.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,22989-1820309,00.html

Petronas

10-31-2005, 08:34 PM

Tolerance for wife beatings today - how far can tolerance for 'honor killings' be behind?

Police told to respect traditions
25oct05

POLICE are being advised to treat Muslim domestic violence cases differently out of respect for Islamic traditions and habits. Officers are also being urged to work with Muslim leaders, who will try to keep the families together.
Women's groups are concerned the politically correct policing could give comfort to wife bashers and keep their victims in a cycle of violence. The instructions come in a religious diversity handbook given to Victorian police officers that also recommends special treatment for suspects of Aboriginal, Hindu and Buddhist background.

Some police officers have claimed the directives hinder enforcing the law equally. Police are told: "In incidents such as domestic violence, police need to have an understanding of the traditions, ways of life and habits of Muslims." They are told it would be appreciated in cases of domestic violence if police consult the local Muslim religious leader who will work against "fragmenting the family unit".

Islamic Women's Welfare Council head Joumanah El Matrah called the guidelines appalling and dangerous. "The implication is one needs to be more tolerant of violence against Muslim women but they should be entitled to the same protection," Ms El Matrah said. "Police should not be advising other officers to follow those sorts of protocols. "It can only lead to harm."

Ms El Matrah said Muslim leaders should be brought into domestic violence investigations only if requested by the abused woman. The guide also advises officers not to hold interviews with Aboriginal suspects or set court hearings during Aboriginal ceremonies involving "initiation, birth, death, burials, mourning periods, women's meetings and cultural ceremonies in general". They are told to interview Baha'i suspects only after sunset in the fasting month. And they are cautioned that when a Sikh is reading the Sikh Holy Script -- a process that normally takes 50 hours -- "he should not be disturbed". The 50,000 handbooks instruct police to take shoes off before entering Buddhist and Hindu houses and mosques, and remove hats before entering or searching churches. They are warned that taking photos or samples from Aboriginal suspects could raise fears they could be used for sorcery and spiritual mischief.

Australasian Police Multicultural Advisory Bureau head Gerard Daniells, who created the 82-page full-colour handbook, said common sense would prevail over the guide in an emergency. Mr Daniells said the next edition would include Maori spiritual beliefs and practices.

The glossy guides would have cost at least $300,000 to produce, a printing industry expert said. Police Association secretary Paul Mullet said members had an appreciation of different cultures but their overriding concern was for safety of the community.

http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/printpage/0,5481,17026063,00.html

Petronas

11-02-2005, 10:38 AM

Australia Receives Threat of Terror Attack

CANBERRA, Australia - Australian authorities have received specific intelligence that terrorists are planning an attack on the country, Prime Minister John Howard said Wednesday, calling on lawmakers to increase the powers of Australia's intelligence agencies. Howard refused to give any details of the threat, saying he did not want to jeopardize counterterror operations, but he introduced a minor amendment to counterterrorism laws in the House of Representatives on Wednesday.

"The reason for this amendment is that the government has received specific intelligence and police information this week which gives cause for serious concern about a potential terrorist threat," Howard said at a nationally televised news conference in Canberra. "We have seen material; it is a cause of concern; we have been given advice that if this amendment is enacted as soon as possible, the capacity of the authorities to respond will be strengthened," he added.

There has never been a major terror attack on Australian soil but the country's citizens and diplomatic outposts have been hit repeatedly in recent years by bombings — most notably in Indonesia, where Canberra's embassy in Jakarta was hit by a 2004 suicide minivan bomb and dozens of its citizens have been killed in attacks on the tourist island of Bali in 2002 and on Oct. 1 this year.

Howard said the amendment meant that when prosecuting someone for planning a terrorist act, authorities would not have to identify a specific terrorist act. It will also allow groups to be banned based on intelligence that it is preparing an unspecified terrorist act rather outlining details of a specific plot.

Aldo Borgu, an intelligence expert from the Canberra-based Australian Strategic Policy Institute, said the government may be planning to ban the radical Islamic group Hizb ut-Tahrir. "They now want to ban organizations that aren't necessarily terrorist groups but might advocate terrorism," Borgu said. Attorney-General Philip Ruddock said in August that the government was considering outlawing Hizb ut-Tahrir as a counterterrorism precaution but had no legal basis to list it as a terrorist organization. Britain banned the group — which has called for attacks against coalition forces in Afghanistan and Iraq as well as U.S. and Israeli interests elsewhere — after the July 7 bombings in London that killed 52.

Borgu noted, however, that the government did not increase the official threat level from medium despite Howard's comments. "The problem the government is going to have is explaining the inconsistency between the potential terrorist threat but not changing the threat alert level," he said. The government has kept the threat level constant since it was elevated to medium in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051102/ap_on_re_au_an/australia_terror_threat

Casey

11-13-2005, 04:19 PM

Link to Breaking News thread:

Breaking on cnn.....

Australian police have arrested 15 people in two counter-terrorism raids in Sydney and Melbourne, media reports say.

http://www.wincoast.com/forum/showthread.php?t=19494

Casey

11-13-2005, 04:20 PM

Supergrass 'tipped off spies'
14.11.05
By Greg Ansley

CANBERRA - Further details of the alleged plot by 18 Muslim extremists to launch a jihad against Australia are expected to be revealed today, amid new claims that a turncoat "supergrass" has been feeding information to counter-terrorism agents.

The alleged plot to bomb key targets in Sydney and Melbourne was foiled last week by raids in the two cities that found enough chemicals to make 15 large bombs and included evidence of discussions of suicide bombings.

Police last week tried to stem the flood of revelations about the alleged plot that followed the raids, seeking an order to suppress the statement of facts against eight men remanded without bail in Sydney.

But the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions has now withdrawn its action in the Supreme Court, allowing the disclosure of the statement.

In Melbourne Izzydeen Atik, arrested in Sydney after the raids and extradited to Melbourne on Friday, will appear in court today on terror-related charges, joining nine others already remanded in custody until January.

Evidence presented to courts so far alleges the men were part of a terrorist group that adhered to Osama bin Laden's teachings of violent jihad (holy war) against the West, engaging in military-style training, downloading bomb-making information and jihadist propaganda from the internet, buying "massive" amounts of bomb-making chemicals and operating a car-stealing racket to fund its activities.

Counter-terror police and the domestic spy agency Asio are known to have been tracking Islamic radicals for years and to have run a specific operation against the alleged terror group for the past 18 months.

Publicly disclosed potential targets have included major city railway stations, important commercial and Government buildings, and national icons such as Sydney's Opera House and Harbour Bridge.

Yesterday Melbourne's Sunday Herald Sun said information from an Islamic "supergrass" who had met bin Laden had been crucial in the arrests of the alleged terrorists.

The newspaper said the informant, now in hiding and in fear of his life, was a former follower of radical Melbourne cleric Abdul Nacer Benbrika, also known as Abu Bakir, the alleged leader of the terror group, and an associate of another alleged member of the Melbourne cell, Gregory Kent.

The informant had trained with al Qaeda in Pakistan in 2001, where bin Laden had asked him how Muslims were faring in Australia, before returning and co-operating with counter-terrorism officials, the Sunday Herald Sun said.

Attorney-General Philip Ruddock refused to confirm or deny the report, but told Channel Nine that protection was available for witnesses prepared to give evidence.

"Aside from the issue of whether or not there has been an individual providing information to authorities, we do have witness protection schemes in Australia in which people of importance to the prosecution of criminal offences are given witness protection," he said.

But it is known that investigators have been given important information from both within and outside the Muslim community, and by a major and often covert surveillance operation against many Islamic militants and their associates.

A flow of information has also been received on a national telephone hotline - similar to anonymous police tip-off schemes - and from people suspicious of unusual activities or purchases, including large amounts of chemicals. One of the key triggers for the investigation came from an alert Melbourne lawyer, who saw a man filming the Australian Stock Exchange in Melbourne and told police.

Quoting prosecutor Richard Maidment, the Age said another man had reported a similar incident at the Flinders St railway station.

The car reported in both incidents was owned by the father-in-law of a man Asio was watching as a member of an extremist Islamist group that included zealous young followers of Benbrika, many Australian-born.

Benbrika, according to a Weekend Australian investigation, had turned to extremism after hearing a sermon in 1994 by Abu Qatada, the spiritual leader of al-Qaeda in Europe, who had been invited to Australia by another Melbourne radical cleric and former Benbrika mentor, Sheik Mohammed Omran.

Soon after the sermon, which reportedly also radicalised many of his colleagues, Benbrika split from moderate Islam and began taking a hard-line approach.

"[Qatada's] impact was enormous, and that is where it all began," a senior Muslim source told the paper.

Informing on his own

'Supergrass' uses an alias.

Helped the Australian Federal Police's Operation Pandanus.

Was crucial to the arrests of 18 alleged terrorists last week.

Once a follower of Abu Bakir and an associate of Shane Gregory Kent, both arrested in Melbourne on terrorist charges.

Said to have trained in Afghanistan in 2001 at an al Qaeda camp.

Met terror mastermind Osama bin Laden.

Attorney-General Philip Ruddock has refused to confirm or deny the claims.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10355050

Petronas

11-14-2005, 12:00 AM

Nuclear Link Alleged in Australia Arrests
November 13, 2005 10:25 PM EST

SYDNEY, Australia - Police believe a nuclear reactor in southern Sydney was a possible target for an Islamic terror cell there, according to details of an Australian counterterror investigation released Monday. Police previously stopped and questioned three recently arrested Sydney terror suspects near Australia's only nuclear reactor in December last year, according to an outline of police allegations made public Monday.

The document also outlined what it said were plans by the men to stockpile chemicals for making explosives and that they "obtained extremist advice and guidance" from a firebrand cleric arrested along with them. The three men stopped near the nuclear reactor were among 18 terror suspects arrested in Sydney and Melbourne last week and accused of plotting to carry out a "catastrophic" attack in Australia. The police document recounted the December incident under the heading, "Possible targets for terrorist attack." The document, provided during a court hearing last week and released publicly on Monday, alleges that three of the eight Sydney suspects were stopped in their car near the nuclear facility in southern Sydney in December 2004.

The men also had an off-road motorbike and claimed they were there to ride, the document said, noting that all three gave different versions of the day's events to police. Police inquiries revealed the lock of a gate to a reservoir of the reactor had recently been cut, the document said.

The three - Mazen Touma, Mohammed Elomar and Abdul Rakib Hasan - along with five other Sydney men, have been charged with conspiring to manufacture explosives in preparation for a terrorist act. Their lawyer has said prosecutors have produced no evidence of an imminent terror attack in the country.

The police fact sheet, which outlines the prosecution's case against the eight Sydney suspects, said members of the group sought materials to produce explosives, ordering dozens of gallons of chemicals. During a search of Elomar's home on June 27, police said they found a computer memory stick which contained instructions in Arabic for making TATP, or triacetone triperoxide, a highly unstable explosive made from commercially available chemicals. Australian police have said TATP is similar to the bombs used by suicide bombers the July 7 attacks on London's public transport system, but British authorities have refused to confirm those reports.

The statement also said some of the men attended a terrorist training camp at a rural property in a remote area of New South Wales state, and "obtained extremist advice and guidance" from the firebrand cleric, Abu Bakr, who made headlines last year by calling Osama bin Laden a "great man." Abu Bakr, whose real name is Abdul Nacer Benbrika, was among the men arrested during last week's raids.

Another of the men arrested, Abdulla Merhi, wanted to carry out attacks to avenge the war in Iraq, police said in a Melbourne court. Australian Prime Minister John Howard was a strong supporter of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq and has sent hundreds of troops to the country.

http://enews.earthlink.net/article/top?guid=20051113/4376c850_3ca6_1552620051113-2139216902

Petronas

11-14-2005, 01:11 PM

Come on, Ali, you won't even turn in the perverted and fanatical ones?

Australian Islamic leader rejects call to ‘spy’ on Muslims
Monday, November 14, 2005

SYDNEY: A top Australian Islamic leader on Sunday rejected a call by Prime Minister John Howard for “perverted, fanatical” Muslims to be reported to police. The head of the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils, Ameer Ali, made the comment in the wake of the arrest last week of 18 alleged Muslim extremists on terrorism charges. “A community organisation like mine is not a police force,” Ali told commercial television. “We don’t monitor the behaviour of each individual and on the other hand also, Islam is not for example like Christianity where there is a Pope and an archbishop, and so when the Pope says something others carry it out. “The imams (preachers) are not a structurally organised community.” Ali, who heads a group of Muslim leaders consulted by the government on terrorism issues, did, however, urge imams to tone down their rhetoric. Attorney-General Philip Ruddock said Muslims were not being called on to spy on each other but asked to put the safety of the general population ahead of their commitment to their own community.

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2005\11\14\story_14-11-2005_pg4_3

Petronas

11-15-2005, 10:50 AM

'Terror brawl group' get bail
November 15, 2005

FIVE men accused of being involved in a wild attack on media outside a Melbourne court were arrested today and charged with offences including assault and affray. The men, who are relatives and friends of alleged terror group members, were released on bail after a brief appearance in Melbourne Magistrates' Court. They are accused of an unprovoked attack on news photographers and cameramen who were filming them leaving court last Tuesday. They were at the court to support nine men charged with being members of a terrorist group.

Abdul Sayadi, 24, of Brunswick, Nasser Raad, 27, of North Coburg, Monzer Ramadan, 28, of Coburg, Majed Raad, 21, of Coburg, and Bassam Raad, 24, of Meadow Heights, appeared in Melbourne Magistrates Court after being arrested by police this morning. Each has been charged with affray and assault. Sayadi, Nasser Raad and Ramadan have also been charged with behaving in a riotous manner.

Senior Detective Dale Fitzgerald told the court a large media contingent followed the five men as they left the court last Tuesday and an altercation took place between a Seven Network cameraman, Sayadi and Ramadan. As this occurred they attacked the cameraman and the other three men joined in the "unprovoked" assault, he said. He said two Seven cameramen suffered injuries and one was punched in the face.

The prosecution did not oppose bail for the men, including the condition they surrender their passports to police within 24 hours. The men must also report to police weekly, notify them of any change of address and cannot attend any port of national departure or leave Australia. Sen Det Fitzgerald said the men had strong family links in Lebanon and was concerned they could easily travel overseas if they held onto their passports. Magistrate Paul Smith granted the men bail and ordered them to surrender their passports. He adjourned the matter for a committal mention hearing on February 20. High security surrounded the men's release from the court this afternoon, with a large media contingent waiting outside for them.

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,17255811-421,00.html

Petronas

11-16-2005, 02:01 PM

Australia (Country threat level - 3): Security has been increased in Adelaide ahead of the 17-18 November 2005 Australia-United States Ministerial Meeting. Additional police officers will be deployed for the duration of the summit, as U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick are to attend the meeting. Road closures have already been put in place on North Terrace Road and in the vicinity of Adelaide Town Hall and the Hyatt Hotel. Police officials are also expected to erect barricades in areas of King William Street. Anti-U.S. protests are expected to occur in the vicinity of the summit's venues.

AIR SECURITY International - HOT SPOTS 11/16/2005

Petronas

11-16-2005, 08:54 PM

Odd story... Perhaps there is more here than meets the eye.

Four Australians detained in Syria
17nov05

FOUR Australian women have been detained while trying to board a plane in Syria, reportedly after gun parts were found inside a child's toy. The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFAT) said two women from Victoria and two from NSW were with two Iraqi women when they were detained at Damascus airport on Tuesday. All six were of Iraqi origin, the department said.

A DFAT spokesman would not confirm media reports that the group was detained after a disassembled gun was found inside a toy being carried by a child with the women. The ABC has quoted a Syrian police source and a diplomatic source as saying the women entered the airport in the Syrian capital with a child. They said the women were detained after the gun parts were found in a toy the child was holding.

The women were reportedly trying to board a flight bound for Australia. The DFAT spokesman said one of the Australian women was accompanied by her son. "Consular officials from Cairo are seeking to confirm the reports and to provide consular assistance to the group," he said. Syrian police were questioning the women, the ABC reported.

The ABC later reported that Syrian authorities were investigating whether the women might have been involved in a plot to hijack the plane. But it was unclear if any hijacking plot would have been activated between Damascus and Bahrain, where the plane was due to stop over, or between Bahrain and the final destination in Australia.

Authorities were now looking for a man who dropped the women off at the airport in Damascus, the ABC reported. A Syrian police source told the broadcaster that seven Iraqi women carrying Australian passports were involved. That is at odds with DFAT's statement saying four Australian women, of Iraqi origin, had been detained along with two Iraqi women.

The plane the women had intended boarding was thoroughly searched by authorities, and nothing suspicious was found on board, the ABC reported. The plane was allowed to take off three hours later. Acting prime minister Mark Vaile said Australian consular officials were seeking more information.

"I've seen the reports and, yes, our consular officials from Cairo are currently seeking to confirm those reports and to provide consular assistance to the Australian women, but there are not too many more details available," Mr Vaile told ABC radio. "I'm aware of the allegations that ... either a firearm or parts of a firearm were found in the hand luggage of the group." Mr Vaile said he could not comment on allegations the women were allegedly planning to hijack the aircraft.

http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5478,17274410%255E1702,00.html

Ono

11-16-2005, 09:07 PM

Suspected militant threatens Australia

A masked man believed to be one of Asia's most wanted militants has warned Western countries, especially Australia, of more attacks in a video found last week by Indonesian anti-terrorist police.

The video was broadcast on Indonesian Metro TV on Thursday.

Vice-President Jusuf Kalla, quoted by the Kompas newspaper, says he believes the militant on the tape was Malaysian Noordin M Top, a senior operative of Jemaah Islamiah, a South-East Asian group seen as the regional arm of Al Qaeda.

"We repeat that America, Australia, England and Italy are all our enemies," the militant said, wearing a black balaclava and constantly pointing his right finger in the air.

He made particular mention of Prime Minister John Howard and Foreign Minister Alexander Downer.

"We especially remind Australia that you, Downer and Howard, are killing Australia, leading it into darkness and misfortune and mujahedeen terror," he said.

"Know that as long as you [all] continue to colonise the land of Iraq and Afghanistan and intimidate Muslims then you too will feel our intimidation and terror."

The video marks the first time militant threats have been made on tapes found in the world's most populous Muslim nation, a practice common among radicals in the Middle East.

Support warning

The militant also warned anyone who supported US President George W Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

"We remind that those who support Bush and Blair are also our enemies. The infidel rulers, the apostate rulers, those who oppress Muslims and victimise ulamas, the mujahedeen, they are our enemies too. The ones we target in our attacks," the militant said.

The video was among several found by police last week as part of a series of raids that resulted in the killing of Azahari bin Husin, the master bombmaker of Jemaah Islamiah.

Police have been hunting Azahari and Top since the 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202 people, including 88 Australians.

Both men have also been blamed for other attacks, including a car bomb blast outside the Australian embassy in Jakarta last year that killed 10 people.

While Malaysian Azahari was the bombmaker, police say Top is an expert in recruiting suicide bombers in Indonesia.

The video also showed three young suicide bombers who killed 20 people in attacks on restaurants on the resort island of Bali on October 1.

On the tape, one of the three said they would be in heaven once the tape was aired.

Police had previously said the videos contained the three suicide bombers, but they had not mentioned the masked militant.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200511/s1508865.htm

After It Happened

11-17-2005, 03:38 AM

Most of the news posted here is still unresolved many in Australia know, HOWARD is a geo political specialist; it could all be a ruse. There has been no case information or even a court hearing, until then.

Australia is as free as it’s ever going to be.

Stop inflaming the inflamed.....

Free the Gauntanamo 667.

BAD BOY BUBBY

11-17-2005, 03:52 AM

After It Happened

11-17-2005, 06:44 AM

this is in Lucas Heights, i used to go there as a child for Xmas parties.

It nearly burnt down too...BBB

BAD BOY BUBBY

11-17-2005, 06:48 AM

It nearly burnt down too...BBB
I did like to play with matches
some chooks never stood a chance with me after they looked at me wrong

Petronas

11-24-2005, 12:32 AM

Australia (Country threat level - 3): Testimony given at a parliamentary inquiry session in Sydney on 23 November 2005 indicates that hundreds of security access cards, which grant entry into restricted areas at Sydney's Kingsford Smith International Airport (YSSY/SYD), have been lost or stolen. Qantas, Australia's largest airline, reportedly cannot account for 384 cards; 24 were reported stolen while the rest were lost. The cards, which are issued by the Department of Transportation and Regional Services, do not expire until 2006. Although the lost and stolen cards were reported to police officials and deactivated, the cards can still grant entry into areas of the airport that are manned by security guards instead of electronic card reading devices. The information comes as part of a continuing investigation into security at YSSY/SYD, as there have recently been several reported incidents of security breaches at the facility.

AIR SECURITY International - HOT SPOTS 11/23/2005

pixikill

11-24-2005, 12:51 AM

Petronas

11-24-2005, 10:28 AM

Police lack tracking technology
November 25, 2005

AUSTRALIAN Federal Police do not have the technology to fit terror suspects with tracking devices that the Howard Government has included in new anti-terrorism laws. The laws were designed to give the AFP the power to get a court order allowing them to put a monitoring device on a terror suspect so authorities could track their whereabouts.

But the AFP has admitted it does not have the technology to implement the laws. "The AFP does not currently have technology appropriate to perform the tracking contemplated by the administration of control orders," Deputy Commissioner John Lawler told a parliamentary committee looking into the new laws. Mr Lawler said the AFP had formed a committee to find a device that would do the job and produce guidelines on how the devices would be used.

NSW Council for Civil Liberties spokesman Cameron Murphy said current tracking devices were unreliable. He said police would end up having to place terror suspects under house arrest. "The tracking devices they are using are notoriously inaccurate," Mr Murphy said. "They're very similar to mobile phones, if you go into a lift or a building, they go offline."

Mr Murphy said a NSW prisoner was recently put back behind bars and forced to give up attending university lectures because his ankle bracelet tracking device went offline when he was attending tutorials in University of NSW buildings in Sydney. "Even with witnesses saying he was in the tutorial, the governor of the prison just revoked it, saying he didn't want to take the chance," he said. "The same thing is likely to happen if these are fitted to terrorist suspects."

Mr Lawler told the Senate Legal and Constitutional Committee last Thursday that control orders in the legislation might require the AFP to hire more staff to watch terror suspects. Opposition justice spokesman Joe Ludwig said MPs were getting ahead of the technology. "It is usual for policing technology to undergo a rigorous testing regime before deployment," Senator Ludwig said. "It seems the drafters are well in front of the AFP in this case."

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,17357305%255E601,00.html

Petronas

12-04-2005, 12:03 AM

Anger over attack on Christmas
December 04, 2005

A leading Islamic body says the use of the term "Christmas" is politically incorrect because it excludes too many people in multicultural Australia. The Forum on Australia's Islamic Relations wants a community debate to find an alternative – suggesting the word "festive" as a possible replacement. And a Queensland Jewish leader has called for an end to the "automatic imposition" of Christmas on the community, saying the season has been reduced to a "shopping festival". The attacks have outraged Christian churches, family groups and civic leaders. Even other Muslim groups have slammed the call. ...

... the Islamic-relations forum director, Kuranda Seyit, told The Sunday Mail it was time for Australia to fall in line with places such as the UK, where councils have renamed Christmas "Winterval" and replaced references to Christmas on signage with the words "Festive" and "Winter".

"Australia is now so diverse and there are so many cultures and festivities, we need to acknowledge the need to be inclusive of our identity." He expected his plan would insult some people, but urged a "step-by-step" approach. "A word like Festive is a good word but the community should make an effort to come up with an alternative to Christmas. Schools will take a leading role in terms of political correctness. The younger generation will grow up and say 'it's not fair'." ...

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,17454097-421,00.html

Petronas

12-10-2005, 02:34 PM

Gang rapist claims right to assault
December 10, 2005

The eldest of four Pakistani gang rapist brothers has admitted lying at trial and apologised to his victims but said he thought he had a right to rape the "promiscuous" teenage girls. MSK, 27, told the NSW Supreme Court yesterday that this was because the girls did not wear headscarves, were drinking alcohol and were unaccompanied when they went to his Ashfield home. MSK also blamed his intoxication, "cultural beliefs" and an undiagnosed mental disorder.

He and his brothers MAK, 25, MRK, 21, and MMK, 19 - who cannot be named for legal reasons - are serving between 10 and 22 years for raping two girls in 2002. All except MRK are yet to be sentenced for several other rapes. Yesterday evidence was being heard on a sentence for MSK for the rapes of two more girls, TW, then 14, and CH, then 13. He admitted that some of the evidence he had given at an earlier trial was fabricated, particularly that he had had consensual sex with TW and that she had coaxed him.

"It was a pretty big untruth when you said that it was consensual sex, wasn't it?" asked the Crown prosecutor, Ken McKay.

"Yes," he replied.

You chose to lie about that, correct? - Yes.

During a long apology to TW, who was in court, he stopped mid-sentence to reprimand her. "I wish to say this to [TW], that at the time when I commit these offences I come from such a background which led me to - don't shake your head, I'm telling you something - I say now that I hurt you and I'm extremely, extremely apologetic to you and I'm, I wish to say one thing more.

"I'm serving 22 years … I'm just requesting to you that you one day may come that you realise that the person who assaulted me is in prison … and I should forgive him. I'm asking for your forgiveness." He said it was only now, since he had gained a "better understanding of Australian culture", that he knew the rapes were wrong.

He arrived in Sydney for the ninth and final time four days before committing several rapes over six months. He had planned to study medicine. He agreed he knew the girls did not want to have sex. "[TW] said no but I go ahead with it because I believe that at the time I commit these offences, I believe that she was promiscuous …" he said. "She don't know us, I don't know her, like she was not related to us and she was not wearing any purdah … like she was not … covered her face, she was not wearing any headscarf and she started drinking with us and she was singing.

"First off, I was actually, I was not taking my medication so I was under the influence of voices and secondly I believe at the time when I commit these offences that she had no right to say no." Mr McKay said the voices excuse was a last-ditch strategy to avoid justice. "You wanted to hurt and terrorise these girls and you did that. You used acts of sexual intercourse on them." The matter was adjourned until next Friday.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/gang-rapist-claims-right-to-assault/2005/12/09/1134086806845.html

NYer

12-12-2005, 07:45 AM

POLICE moved quickly to prevent violence at potential new flashpoints in Sydney tonight following some of the worst race-based clashes (http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5478,17548680%5E1702,00.html) ever seen in Australia.

Petronas

12-14-2005, 11:43 PM

Church hall burned down
December 14, 2005

A FIRE that destroyed church hall in Sydney's west may be linked to the race riots in Cronulla, New South Wales Premier Morris Iemma said today. Four men were seen near the Uniting Church hall, which is next to an Islamic centre, in Auburn before the fire broke out about 1.30am (AEDT) today. It took about 30 firefighters up to two hours to control the blaze, which was still burning in small pockets this morning. The fire follows two days of violent assaults and vandalism during ethnic clashes in Sydney.

It also follows an incident last night in nearby St Joseph the Worker Primary School where shots were fired into cars and parents abused during a Christmas carols service. No one was hurt in the incident and police are investigating.

Mr Iemma said today he had been in contact with officers about the church hall blaze. Asked if the fire was related to the riots, Mr Iemma said "it may be". "I've been in contact with the police this morning and the police are treating it as suspicious," he said. Assistant Police Commissioner Mark Goodwin said he did not know whether the fire was linked to the recent violence. "Auburn has not been a location where violence or confrontation with police has occurred," he said. The scene would be examined today to determine the cause.

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,17564679-37435,00.html

Petronas

12-15-2005, 12:42 PM

Now churches are targeted
December 15, 2005

FOUR churches in Sydney's southwest have been attacked in 24 hours as the city's riots spread from race to religion. A community hall linked to a Uniting church was burned to the ground early yesterday, carol-singers were spat on and church buildings peppered with gunfire. In response, members of the Arab Christian and Arab Muslim communities have called for a curfew for all Lebanese youths over the weekend.

Police believe the attack on the hall, in the suburb of Auburn, was intended to destroy the Uniting church next door, while nearby StThomas's Anglican Church, which has a primarily Chinese congregation, had all its front windows smashed. Three of the attacks were on churches within minutes of each other. The night before, Molotov cocktails were used in an attack on an Anglican church in Macquarie Fields in the city's far southwest.

Arab Christians have suggested the attacks on churches may have been meant as a violent attempt to "shame" the city's Lebanese Christian community into supporting Lebanese Muslims in the race-hate war, which began as a battle against young white males over use of suburban beaches. Community leaders said Lebanese youths should not venture out after 9pm on Friday and Saturday, and should stay home all day on Sunday. "Those who violate the curfew will be doing so in defiance of their faith, of the law and their community leaders. We are all united in opposing violence," Lebanese Muslim Association leader Ahmad Kamaledine said.

Anglican Archbishop Peter Jensen welcomed the call for a curfew. "We must remember that it is first of all in the home that we learn to respect and care for others," he said. "So I trust that all parents will join these community leaders in encouraging their own young people to exhibit mature and thoughtful respect for other people at all times."

Despite the call for a curfew, the state Government, police, community and religious leaders were bracing for a violent clash between opposing ethnic groups over the weekend. The church attacks prompted NSW Premier Morris Iemma to yesterday assign extra police to monitor places of worship. Mr Iemma said police would pay special attention to churches, schools and church halls. "We have to be on guard for this, and these hooligans and criminals will not destroy the fabric of our society," he said.

A heavy police presence was again ordered last night as the suburb of Cronulla - the scene of race-related violence on Sunday - began a second night of lock-down and police roadblocks. During a tour of the command post set up in the Sydney Police Centre to co-ordinate the crisis, Deputy Commissioner Andrew Scipione told Mr Iemma the situation was being treated as if it were a terror attack. "We are running the same command and control centre as we would for a terrorist situation," Mr Scipione said.

Elsewhere in Sydney, two men were attacked in separate incidents by men wielding bats and golf clubs and asking their victims if they were Australian.

Steve Stanton, a spokesman for the Maronite Catholic Church in Australia, said he thought the shooting outside a carol service in South Auburn on Monday night was the responsibility of a "very small minority" of fanatics within the wider Muslim community. "There is also a view that it will have been done with a view to shaming the Lebanese for not standing united," he said.

Amjad Mehboob, head of the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils, said he believed the violence had been committed by an extremist fringe of the Muslim community. "I wish we knew who they were. I wish we could engage with them so we can find out what their beliefs are, so we can deal with them," he said. "This is something that started out as a minor scuffle between some youths and a couple of life-savers that has suddenly become an issue of racism and religion. Buildings can be rebuilt, but the damage this is doing to our community is extremely deep."

Reverend Glenys Biddle, of the Uniting church in Auburn, said the destroyed hall had been a important part of the local Tongan community. "For them, they have lost not only a physical building but a sense of fellowship," she said. "A lot of memories have also been lost for Anglos, Tongans and people of all sorts of cultures." Shafiq Khan, the principal of the al-Faisal College next door, said Christians and Muslims had always worked amicably, and the fire - coupled with the fear it may promote - was a loss for both religions. "This is a crime against peace, the community and the country; a crime against harmony and against our children, who used the hall," he said.

Television and sporting celebrities and leaders from Sutherland Shire and the Islamic community will hold a meeting this morning, brokered by local MP Bruce Baird, to try to settle their differences.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,17572776%255E601,00.html

Petronas

12-16-2005, 11:53 PM

Two men facing terrorism charges threatened to kill prime minister, court told Dec. 16, 2005

Two men accused of being members of a terrorist organization in Australia threatened to kill Prime Minister John Howard, court officials said Friday as the men were denied bail. Abdulla Merhi, 20, and Hany Taha, 31, were among 10 men charged in the city last month with being members of a terrorist organization. They had applied for bail in Melbourne Magistrates Court. During the hearing, Crown prosecutor Nick Robinson told the court police intercepted a conversation when Merhi said: "For example if John Howard kills innocent Muslim families do we ... have to kill him and his family?" court was told. In applying for bail, lawyers for Merhi and Taha had argued that the Crown prosecution case against their clients was weak and delays in the court proceedings were expected.

In November, police arrested 18 suspected members of extremist Islamic cells in Sydney and Melbourne and said they were plotting a catastrophic attack in Australia, possibly targeting a nuclear reactor on the outskirts of Sydney.

http://www.tkb.org/NewsStory.jsp?storyID=98781

pixikill

12-17-2005, 12:24 AM

theres more though....and this in my capital city!!!! fucking hairy backed moslem women and men!!!
Terror suspects spoke of killing, court told

By Ian Munro
December 17, 2005

TWO men accused of being members of a terrorist group discussed killing children, "innocents" and the Prime Minister and his family, prosecutors say.
One of them, Abdullah Merhi sought religious guidance on when it was acceptable to kill and agreed that if thousands died the Federal Government might be swayed into pulling troops out of Iraq, prosecutor Nicholas Robinson told the Melbourne Magistrates Court yesterday.
Merhi and fellow accused Hany Taha, 31, remained in the Barwon Prison last night after losing their bid for bail. They have been in custody since being arrested on November 8 in raids across suburban Melbourne.
The court heard that in September last year, Merhi told the alleged ringleader of the terrorist group, Abdul Nacer Benbrika, that his eyes had opened to how non-Muslims "have got control of us all over the world".
Merhi, who has been accused of harbouring an ambition of becoming a suicide bomber, was allegedly overheard telling Benbrika he was impatient to take action: "I am not waiting 20 years, or two years."
Mr Robinson told the court that Merhi was heard asking: "For example, if John Howard kills innocent Muslim families do we … have to kill him and his family … or someone else, like people at the football?" Benbrika allegedly replied: "If they kill our kids, we kill … little kids … innocent ones."
At another point Merhi said: "Sometimes, I have got doubts. If I do this, is it pleasing to Him? Am I doing wrong?" Benbrika allegedly replied: "No, you are pleasing Him because they are killing our brothers."
*how lost do these stupid moslems sound? theyre just like any moslem on any forum...brainfucked.*-Pix
The men allegedly were heard discussing how they did not trust another religious leader who was critical of the campaign waged by Osama bin Laden, and the possibility that the man had spoken about the group to police. The mention of the man's name caused Benbrika to spit and to suggest that "two brothers" abduct him, drive him to the bush and learn the truth.

Petronas

12-20-2005, 12:44 PM

Mum's cocktail of fear
20dec05

THE mother of a Melbourne youth allegedly found on a Sydney bus with two bottles of petrol said she was worried he "likes Islam too much". Amir Ali Osmanagic's distraught mother said yesterday she feared he would get mixed up with trouble-makers when he moved to Sydney three weeks ago.

"He's a very good person, but he like too much Islam," Envera Osmanagic said. "He likes Islam, maybe he protects Islam, something like that. He's young, he does not know what is happening."

Amir Ali Osmanagic, 18, and Parham Esmailpour, 19, of Sydney, gave police different excuses for carrying the petrol, a court heard yesterday. Mr Osmanagic allegedly said he was helping a mate who had run out of fuel, while Mr Esmailpour said it was for sniffing. They were arrested on Sunday in a major crackdown by police who feared a new outbreak of race violence on Sydney beaches. They allegedly boarded a bus from the city to Bondi with two 800ml drinking bottles filled with petrol. Police were notified when the bus driver smelled petrol and asked other passengers to contact police.

Mr Osmanagic and Mr Esmailpour appeared separately before Sydney's Waverley Local Court yesterday on charges of affray and possessing an offensive implement with intent to commit a serious offence. The court was told that officers who boarded the bus found Mr Osmanagic in possession of two bottles of petrol, a rail ticket from Liverpool, a bus ticket to north Bondi and a pamphlet that read: "Howard's riots -- how racist policies breed racist violence".

Mr Esmailpour was alleged to have bought the fuel at a petrol station in Epping, a northwest Sydney suburb. He had asked the service station attendant to fill the two bottles with petrol, but had been refused, opting to buy a five-litre container instead. He later filled the two bottles with the fuel, the court was told. Prosecutor Sen-Constable Brad Scanlan said Mr Osmanagic had told police he was carrying the bottles to help a friend whose car had run out of petrol at Bondi.

"Why did his friend need petrol from Liverpool when there are numerous petrol stations in the city?" Sen-Constable Scanlan asked. He said Mr Esmailpour told police he wanted the petrol to sniff it. "Petrol is available in Bondi. One doesn't have to ride all the way to Bondi to sniff petrol," Sen-Constable Scanlan told the court.

Magistrate Lee Anne Gilmour refused Mr Osmanagic bail and ordered him to reappear in court tomorrow for a further bail application. Noting that Mr Esmailpour had no convictions, she granted him bail on strict conditions, also ordering him to appear again tomorrow.

Ms Osmanagic told the Herald Sun her son went to Sydney about three weeks ago to live and find work. It was his first time away from home. The family moved from Dandenong to Roxburgh Park about two months ago. She said her son, a former Lyndale Secondary College student in Dandenong, had never been in trouble before. "Now there many trouble with Muslims, many trouble. I'm all the time worried he's going to be close with some of those people that like fighting," she said.

FOUR men questioned over the discovery of a drum of petrol and materials used to make molotov cocktails in Bright-Le-Sands on Sunday were released without charge yesterday, pending further police inquiries. A fifth youth, a 17-year-old male from Wollongong, was charged with being armed with intent to commit a serious offence. He was released on conditional bail and was due to face court again on January 17.

http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5478,17616264^662,00.html

Petronas

12-20-2005, 12:51 PM

If from Europe, I would have posted this under "Eurabia" - what to call it when it happens in Australia fair?

No ham for Christmas: Muslim menu for WA hospital
18dec05

A WA hospital has scrubbed baked ham from its Christmas menu, fearing Muslim patients could be offended. It has also overhauled its entire menu so that all meals are now halal – containing only meat and other food prepared according to Muslim customs.

But Port Hedland Regional Hospital staff and many non-Muslim patients are outraged, saying it is a case of political correctness gone mad. Kitchen staff are so angry that they have organised a petition demanding ham be put back on the Christmas menu.

Other WA hospitals are also introducing halal dining, though the Health Department says Port Hedland is the only one to convert its entire menu to suit Muslims.

Hospital directors decided to axe the traditional festive season baked ham because of the high percentage of Muslim patients. Eating pork or ham is forbidden under Muslim custom. Until now, Muslims were asked to supply their own food if they did not want to eat hospital fare.

The hospital's nursing director, Judy Davis, said though ham was not on the menu, Christian patients would not miss out on festive cheer. "We'll still make Christmas special – we've got prawns and all sorts of other special treats," she said.

But one long-time Port Hedland hospital worker told The Sunday Times the menu change was "unAustralian". "It's going to be a boring old Christmas lunch for the patients," he said. "After all, what's Christmas without a ham, or Sunday morning without bacon and eggs? The management of the hospital are unable to stand up to a minority and keep our Australian way of life intact. They are bowing to the pressure of a select few." He warned that the only politically correct fare would soon be "a bowl of rice and a cup of tea".

"No wonder the true-blue Australians are getting angry," he said. "Now all we need is for someone of the Hindu faith to jump up and down and we'll have no beef. Before we know it, if you're sick in Port Hedland, you will have to be happy with a diet of boiled rice and a cup of tea."

A Health Department spokeswoman said the menu change was about meeting the needs of the Islamic community. She denied it meant sacrificing Christian traditions. "Port Hedland has one of the largest Muslim communities outside the capital cities of Australia, and has done so for many years," the spokeswoman said. "Changes to the menu meant pork and ham were no longer offered to patients. However, other meat and alternatives are available."

She said no patients had complained, but the Health Department was aware that staff at Port Hedland were unhappy. "We are aware that staff would like ham for Christmas lunch, and this will be provided by the hospital," the spokeswoman said. "The majority of hospitals try to take into account the different patient mix when deciding on their menu, and offer several choices."

http://www.sundaytimes.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,7034,17598854%5E2761%2C00.html

Petronas

12-21-2005, 08:28 PM

Terror suspect 'pledged jihad'
December 21, 2005

AUSTRALIAN terror suspect Shane Kent had to pledge his allegiance to a jihad, or holy war, before being allowed to meet Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan in 2001, a Melbourne court heard today. The 28-year-old father of three, one of 10 Victorian men arrested in a series of raids last month, has been charged with being a member of a terrorist organisation. Kent, from the Melbourne suburb of Meadow Heights, along with co-accused Amer Haddara, 26, of Yarraville, is seeking bail in Melbourne Magistrates' Court.

Kent wanted to participate in jihad but was frustrated by the watchfulness of Australian authorities, police said today.

Crown Prosecutor Nick Robinson told the court Kent spoke of this to Melbourne Muslim preacher Abdul Nacer Benbrika, 46, who is charged with directing a terrorist organisation and supplying funds to a terrorist organisation. Mr Robinson read a transcript of a conversation between the pair, in which Kent allegedly said, "Sheikh, it's too hard here ... we can't move, we can't do nothing".

Detective Senior Constable Ben Condon gave evidence that Kent made the pledge when he visited a training camp in Afghanistan before the September 11 terrorist attacks. "He made a pledge to jihad in front of Osama bin Laden," Det Sen Cost Condon said. "They were required to do that if they wanted to meet him (bin Laden)."

Kent's defence counsel Peta Murphy said the Crown case was "weak". "He has no role in any alleged organisation ... there's no evidence of conversations of bombings or killings of Australians," Ms Murphy said. She said the matter could take years to come to trial, given the 35,000 hours (or four years) of recorded conversations between alleged members of the alleged organisation. Police have relied on 57 hours of conversation for evidence.

Haddara's lawyer Rob Stary said "gaping holes" existed in the evidence against his client, who intends to plead not guilty. Haddara's father, Maarouf Ali Haddara, gave evidence today that he would offer the family home as surety if his son is released on bail. Mr Stary said his client had met Benbrika twice and had discussed whether it would be legitimate to participate in a jihad. "He's (Haddara) said to be in possession of some literature, literature that is lawful, that is available and may express an alternative view to western ideology," Mr Stary said. The defendants are being held in Barwon Prison's maximum security Acacia unit. The application continues.

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,17631800-421,00.html

Petronas

01-03-2006, 12:59 AM

Australian flag banned for fear of offending Muslims
January 01, 2006

PLANS to fly Australian flags over the famous Bondi Beach pavilion were vetoed because of fears the symbols could incite more racial violence on Sydney's beaches. In a decision met with outrage from locals, returned servicemen and ethnic groups, Waverley Council voted 6-5 against the proposal, declaring the popular beach should remain clear of flags to "remove provocation"....

The Australian flag and an Aboriginal flag were to be provided by Liberal MP Malcolm Turnbull, who yesterday led a chorus of opposition to the decision. He described the decision as "ridiculous" and remained hopeful council would do a backflip in the face of public backlash. "I just don't understand why such an iconic building on such an iconic location shouldn't have the Australian flag flying," he said. "It was just politically correctness which is sadly what you get often from the Left on councils."

But an unapologetic Mr Copeland said the council remained concerned about a repeat of the Cronulla racial violence. "The Australian flag was used by both sides as a symbol around which to perpetrate racial violence," Mr Copeland said. "The people from Lakemba burnt the flag and the Cronulla people swathed themselves in it while pounding people. We didn't want to wave a red rag in front of either side on New Year's Eve."

Muslim leaders yesterday described the council's stance as misguided and presumptuous. Islamic Friendship Association of Australia founder Keysar Trad said decisions made on behalf of Muslims with no consultation only caused further division. "To suggest that Muslims would be offended at the sight of the Australian flag is naive. A great deal of Muslims call Australia home and they are just as happy to see the flag flying high," he said.

The council has also offended community organisations which proudly fly the national flag. Police Association president Bob Pritchard said he could not envisage any context under which the Australian flag would incite racial tensions. "It (the flag) represents us all - it should not represent any separation of race or instil any feelings of racial tension," he said. "This is political correctness taken to the extreme and is wrong."

UPDATE: The News.com.au story has been revised to remove all mention of Muslims and Keysar Trad's comments.

http://www.jihadwatch.org/dhimmiwatch/archives/009639.php

Story as revised:
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,17710338-2,00.html

Petronas

01-07-2006, 01:39 PM

Terrorists recruiting for Iraq in Sydney
January 7, 2006

SYDNEY supporters of al-Qaeda's leader in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, have tried to encourage Australian Muslims to join the insurgency and donate money to the cause. ASIO is investigating the group and the Iraqi ambassador in Canberra has warned the spy agency needs to get a "grip" on the problem. "It looks like there is group in Australia who are supportive, at least vocally, of the Zarqawi people," Ghanim Taha al-Shibli said. "You can see them in different places expressing themselves very clearly about what they think."

The Herald has learned of two separate approaches on behalf of the insurgency, including at least one that is under ASIO investigation. It involves a man who directly approached several Muslims in Auburn about 12 months ago. "They said come and fight with the mujahideen," said someone present at the incident. The witness asked to remain anonymous, noting that "ASIO have said not to speak to the media". A senior security source confirmed that ASIO had made inquiries and was building a brief of evidence. ASIO declined to comment.

Another man of Iraqi descent said he had been asked to give money to the insurgents. "I know for a fact that they are raising money. I was sitting in a group when someone approached me and said they were raising money for the freedom fighters in Iraq," he said. He said that the money was distributed to supporters of Zarqawi through a circuitous route, often disguised as payments to family members back in Iraq. He also said the fund-raiser was a Sunni Muslim and adherent of the strict Wahabi or Salafist form of Islam. "They believe that Shiites are not Muslims. They believe they are apostates, that they are damaging Islam," he said.

Mr al-Shibli told the Herald he had encountered Zarqawi supporters in Australia, most notably at the Auburn polling station during the Iraqi elections last January. Shots were fired in Auburn several hours after a wild melee between voters and opponents of the US occupation and Iraq's interim government. "I do hope, and I wish to God that the Australian Government and its intelligence services have a good grip on these people," he said.

Australia's new anti-terrorism laws give authorities greater power to arrest and imprison people for supporting the insurgency in Iraq. Under the laws, it is a crime to finance or fight for the enemies of Australian troops. Even "urging" support for the insurgency carries a jail term of up to seven years. Mr al-Shibli backed Australia's tough stance, denouncing Zarqawi and the insurgents as terrorists. "When people start donating money for those people, when they start having connections with these people, when they start preaching hate, this is when they should be stopped," he said.

Mr al-Shibli said foreign fighters were coming from all around the world to join the Iraqi insurgency, forming an "unholy alliance" with Saddam Hussein loyalists. "Where do these people get their money from? From abroad. Where do they get their people from? They get them from abroad," he said. "We can get control of the old regime elements. But these others, the rest of the world has to help us."

http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/terrorists-recruiting-for-iraq-in-sydney/2006/01/06/1136387628036.html

Petronas

01-15-2006, 11:29 AM

Force's new look of diversity
January 14, 2006

NAVY blue hijabs, loose-fitting shirts and turbans emblazoned with the police logo will be part of a new range of West Australian police uniforms. But the institution of religiously appropriate attire to attract to the ranks Muslims and Sikhs was lambasted yesterday by the police union and state Opposition. Opposition police spokesman Rob Johnson asked if officers would also be permitted to interrupt their duties to pray to Mecca.

Victoria and Queensland police have already allowed culturally appropriate uniforms for Muslims and Sikhs on a case-by-case basis, but West Australian Police are the first to introduce blanket uniform exemptions to accommodate religious beliefs.

Superintendent Duane Bell said under the initiative, officers would be allowed to keep their beards or wear shoes made of synthetic materials rather than leather in order to remain faithful to their customs. "In essence, we recognise that the police uniform has been a barrier to people wishing to become police officers, from certain ethnic backgrounds," Mr Bell said.

Turbans and hijabs will remain in keeping with the rest of the uniform, emblazoned with the metal police badge and checkered hatband. Mr Bell said the hijab would have a velcro section so if offenders tried to pull the cloth, it would become loose rather than strangling the officer.

"If officers have already come in, they've had to shave their beard off or take off their turban," he said. "We are now open to those officers who might wish to meet those observances." He said the move was aimed at increasing police numbers and targeting new recruits from a variety of backgrounds.

But West Australian Police Union spokesman Mike Dean said people of different cultural backgrounds should be required to meet uniform standards. "Special treatment for special groups brings difficulties," he said. Mr Johnson said the public might not react kindly to being policed by officers wearing unfamiliar uniforms.

Historian and author Geoffrey Blainey welcomed the initiative, saying it was an experiment and needed to be introduced slowly. "This is an experiment and needs to be looked at as such," Mr Blainey said. Multicultural and Ethnic Affairs Minister Margaret Quirk said the Police Service needed more diversity in its ranks. "It is very important that the composition of the police is more accurately representative of the composition of the community," she said.

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,17815528-28097,00.html

Petronas

02-20-2006, 12:52 AM

Osama 'sought Aussie agent'
February 16, 2006

ACCUSED terrorist Joseph Terrence Thomas was told by an al-Qaeda operative that Osama bin Laden wanted him to act as a sleeper agent in Australia, a Victorian court has heard. Opening the trial of Thomas in the Victorian Supreme Court today, Crown prosecutor Nicholas Robinson said Thomas told Australian Federal Police he had seen bin Laden in "close quarters" on several occasions.

The 32-year-old Werribee man has pleaded not guilty to one count of intentionally receiving funds from a terrorist organisation between November 2002 and January 2003. He has pleaded not guilty to intentionally providing resources to a terrorist organisation between July 5, 2002, and January 4, 2003, and between November 1, 2002, and January 4, 2003. He denied one count of possessing a false passport on or about January 4, 2003.

Mr Robinson said Thomas told AFP officers he had trained for about three months at an al-Qaeda camp in Afghanistan called Al Farooq around the middle of 2001.

"The accused told police ... that he saw Osama bin Laden in close quarters on a number of occasions," Mr Robinson told the court. He said that after training at the camp, Thomas went to Pakistan where he stayed in safe houses frequented by al-Qaeda operatives.

Mr Robinson said one al-Qaeda member, Khaled Bin Attash, personally handed him $US3500 ($4745) and organised a plane ticket from Pakistan back to Australia. When AFP agents asked Thomas why Attash wanted him to go back to Australia he said he was to surveil military installations.

"Osama bin Laden wanted an Australian to work for him and to carry out operations in Australia," Mr Robinson said Thomas told police. Attash told Thomas to contact him within six to 12 months of returning to Australia.

Thomas' lawyer, Lex Lasry QC, urged the jury of nine women and three men not to be hijacked by suspicion or prejudice. He said that unless they had been on the moon, the jury would have heard names such as Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda and would be familiar with concepts of terrorism. "It is something people have to think about every day because it is constantly in the media," he said. Mr Lasry warned the jury about allowing prejudice to cloud intellectual evaluation of the evidence. "An American broadcaster in the 1950s observed that everybody is a prisoner of their own experience," he said. "People cannot eliminate prejudice, all they can do is recognise it. "Fear of terrorism ... is the last reason to compromise principle."

Mr Lasry said the only evidence the Crown had was Thomas' record of interview on March 8, 2003, which was done without Thomas having access to an Australian lawyer. He warned the jury not to "cherry pick" from the interview, but rather assess it as a whole. Mr Lasry said the jury must find Thomas not guilty of the charges because the interview did no more than generate suspicion. He said there was no dispute that Thomas received $US3500 ($4745) and an airline ticket, but all the other allegations were denied.

The trial in the Victorian Supreme Court continues

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,18166160-2,00.html

pixikill

02-20-2006, 02:19 AM

PM slams Muslims

From: http://network.news.com.au/images/h14_theaustralian.gif (http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/?from=ni_story)
By George Megalogenis

February 20, 2006

http://network.news.com.au/image/0,10114,5111247,00.jpg John Howard ... says some Muslim immigrants are antagonistic towards Australian society / file

JOHN Howard has strongly criticised aspects of Muslim culture, warning they pose an unprecedented challenge for Australia's immigration program.
While he remained confident that the overwhelming majority of Muslims would be successfully integrated, the Prime Minister said there were two unique problems that previous intakes of migrants from Europe and Asia did not have. "I do think there is this particular complication because there is a fragment which is utterly antagonistic to our kind of society, and that is a difficulty," Mr Howard told The Australian.

"You can't find any equivalent in Italian, or Greek, or Lebanese, or Chinese or Baltic immigration to Australia. There is no equivalent of raving on about jihad, but that is the major problem."
The Prime Minister also expressed concern about Muslim attitudes to women. "I think some of the associated attitudes towards women (are) a problem," he said.
"For all the conservatism towards women and so forth within some of the Mediterranean cultures, it's as nothing compared with some of the more extreme attitudes.
"The second one of those things is a broader problem, but to be fair to them, it's an attitude that is changing with the younger ones."
The comments are contained in a new book to mark the 10th anniversary of Mr Howard's rise to power. Written by The Australian's team of journalists and commentators, The Howard Factor - a decade that changed the nation will be published on February 27 and launched by the Prime Minister on March 2.
Mr Howard conducted a series of interviews for the book on December 9, the final sitting day of the parliamentary year for 2005. This happened to be just two days before the race riots in the Sydney beachside suburb of Cronulla.
The Prime Minister did not specify which Muslim source nations he was concerned about. But by placing Lebanese immigrants in the same category as the Italian, Greek, Chinese and Baltic, he appears to have been referring to the Christian rather than the Muslim intake from the Middle East.
The president of the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils, Ameer Ali, said the conservative Muslims about whom Mr Howard was talking represented only a "tiny fraction".
"There is (also) a tiny fraction of Australians who believe in white supremacy," said Dr Ali, who chairs Mr Howard's Muslim advisory group.
"I think he (Mr Howard) understands that the large majority of Muslims are like everyone else.
"In any society there are immigrants who try to hold on to their traditions, and it takes time to change. My faith is in the following generation - the next generation will be more adaptive."
In the interview, Mr Howard was upbeat about the immigration program.
Australia crossed two immigrant thresholds in 2003-04, which is the latest year for which Bureau of Statistics tables are available.
The overseas-born population rose to 24 per cent - its highest proportion since the 1890s. And the European share of the immigrant total fell below 50 per cent for the first time.
The previous Labor government of Paul Keating had the overseas-born at 23 per cent of the population, and the European component was 57 per cent.
Mr Howard seemed genuinely pleased when the numbers were read out to him.
"Really? I think what it demonstrates is that we have run a truly non-discriminatory immigration policy."
After slashing immigration in his first term between 1996 and 1998, Mr Howard has steadily ratcheted up the intake to levels that now exceed those under Labor's Bob Hawke in the 1980s.
As Opposition Leader in 1988, Mr Howard attacked Asian immigration. He has since apologised for the comment and conceded it cost him his job at the time.
His comment in August 1988 was: "I wouldn't like to see it (the rate of Asian immigration) greater. I'm not in favour of going back to a White Australia policy. I do believe that if it is in the eyes of some in the community that it's too great, it would be in our immediate-term interest and supporting of social cohesion if it were slowed down a little, so the capacity of the community to absorb it was greater."
Mr Howard's latest observations on Muslim culture are not in the same category, because they do not suggest the rate of Muslim immigration should be slowed down in the interests of social cohesion.
"The public sometimes mixes up attitudes to immigration with attitudes to our identity and our history," he told The Australian.
"I think one of the reasons why people have been accepting of all of this is that they feel they have a government and a prime minister that is in favour of what I might call a slightly less zealous multiculturalism than was practised by my predecessor.
"Not a return to assimilation so much, but somewhere in between, which is what people want.
"What resonates most with people, I find, is they don't mind where new people come from, as long as they've got skills, and as long as they become Australians when they arrive.
"But that doesn't mean they should forget where they were born, that is really what the average person thinks."

http://network.news.com.au/images/i_vote.gif Vote: Learn Australian values? (http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,18206505-2,00.html#)

pixikill

02-20-2006, 02:21 AM

'Jihadists' remarks my duty, says PM

From: http://network.news.com.au/images/news_sourcelogo.gif (http://www.news.com.au/?from=ni_story)
By staff writers and AAP

February 20, 2006

http://network.news.com.au/image/0,10114,5111328,00.jpg Concern ... Muslims on the street in Lakemba, Sydney / AP (File)

JOHN Howard said today his belief that some Muslims were "utterly antagonistic to our society" was "a view that I have held for some time".
The Prime Minister said it was his "right and duty" to air his views on problems with Muslim immigration into Australia. "We want people when they come to Australia to adopt Australians ways," Mr Howard said today.
"We don't ask them to forget the countries of their birth, we respect all religious points of views - but there are certainly things that are not part of the Australian mainstream."
http://network.news.com.au/images/i_vote.gif Vote: Learn Australian values? (http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,18206505-2,00.html#)
In remarks published this morning (http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,18202786-39555,00.html) in The Australian, Mr Howard said commitment to jihad and extreme attitudes towards women were two problems unique to Muslims not seen in previous intakes of immigrants.

Advertisement:
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Mr Howard's views are outlined in a book to mark the 10th anniversary of his rise to power written by journalists and commentators from The Australian. The Prime Minister said today it was important people realised he had made the comments about Muslims before the Cronulla race riot and subsequent violence in Sydney.
"I was not trying to make some kind of tawdry political point, it is a view that I have held for some time," he said.
In the interview with The Australian, Mr Howard said: "I do think there is this particular complication because there is a fragment which is utterly antagonistic to our kind of society, and that is a difficulty."
The Prime Minister also expressed concern about Muslim attitudes to women. "I think some of the associated attitudes towards women (are) a problem," he said.
"For all the conservatism towards women and so forth within some of the Mediterranean cultures, it's as nothing compared with some of the more extreme attitudes.
"The second one of those things is a broader problem, but to be fair to them, it's an attitude that is changing with the younger ones."
The president of the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils, Ameer Ali, said the conservative Muslims about whom Mr Howard was talking represented only a "tiny fraction".
"There is (also) a tiny fraction of Australians who believe in white supremacy," said Dr Ali, who chairs Mr Howard's Muslim advisory group.
"I think he (Mr Howard) understands that the large majority of Muslims are like everyone else.
"In any society there are immigrants who try to hold on to their traditions, and it takes time to change. My faith is in the following generation - the next generation will be more adaptive."
In the interview, Mr Howard was upbeat about the immigration program.
Australia crossed two immigrant thresholds in 2003-04, which is the latest year for which Bureau of Statistics tables are available.
The overseas-born population rose to 24 per cent - its highest proportion since the 1890s. And the European share of the immigrant total fell below 50 per cent for the first time.
The previous Labor government of Paul Keating had the overseas-born at 23 per cent of the population, and the European component was 57 per cent.
Mr Howard seemed genuinely pleased when the numbers were read out to him.
"Really? I think what it demonstrates is that we have run a truly non-discriminatory immigration policy."
After slashing immigration in his first term between 1996 and 1998, Mr Howard has steadily ratcheted up the intake to levels that now exceed those under Labor's Bob Hawke in the 1980s.
As Opposition Leader in 1988, Mr Howard attacked Asian immigration. He has since apologised for the comment and conceded it cost him his job at the time.
His comment in August 1988 was: "I wouldn't like to see it (the rate of Asian immigration) greater. I'm not in favour of going back to a White Australia policy. I do believe that if it is in the eyes of some in the community that it's too great, it would be in our immediate-term interest and supporting of social cohesion if it were slowed down a little, so the capacity of the community to absorb it was greater."
Mr Howard's latest observations on Muslim culture are not in the same category, because they do not suggest the rate of Muslim immigration should be slowed down in the interests of social cohesion.
The comments are contained in a new book to mark the 10th anniversary of Mr Howard's rise to power. Written by journalists and commentators from The Australian, The Howard Factor - A decade that changed the nation will be published on February 27 and launched by the Prime Minister on March 2.

Petronas

03-08-2006, 08:11 PM

Crusaders were 'terrorists'
March 08, 2006

A TEXTBOOK widely used in Victorian high schools describes the Crusaders who fought in the Holy Land in the Middle Ages as terrorists, akin to those responsible for the September 11 attacks. The Year 8 textbook Humanities Alive 2 says that the Crusaders, like Muslim terrorists, "believed they were giving their lives for a religious cause". "Like the Crusaders ... they were told they would go straight to heaven when they died," the book says. "Those who destroyed the World Trade Center are regarded as terrorists. Might it be fair to say that Crusaders who attacked the Muslim inhabitants of Jerusalem were also terrorists?"

The textbook has been criticised by Melbourne University historian Barry Collett, a specialist in medieval history, for being "historically inaccurate" and "grossly misleading" in its depiction of the Middle Ages. "The Crusaders felt they were intervening to stop the bloodshed that was already going on," he said. "I would tend to compare them more with Australian troops intervening in East Timor."

The book, used in about 100 schools around Victoria, is a revised edition of a series of textbooks published by John Wiley and Sons since 2003, all of which have included the section on September 11. The selection of textbooks is at the discretion of individual schools in Victoria and neither the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority, nor the state Education Department, have any input into the quality or content of textbooks. A spokesman for state Education Minister Lynne Kosky said schools decided for themselves what was appropriate to be taught and there were no recommended books for the curriculum.

The textbook also portrays the church as a corrupt institution driven by the desire for power and which tortured and killed anyone with opposing beliefs. "It's very out of date, this view of the church as being fiendishly power-hungry," said Dr Collett, a visiting scholar at Oxford University. "The church's activities were far more humane and pastoral than you would guess from reading this." Dr Collett said the textbook presented an oversimplified view of history and the language used suggested a particular point of view rather than asking open-ended questions. ...

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,18384627-421,00.html

Petronas

03-14-2006, 02:12 AM

Australia (Country threat level - 3): The Commonwealth Games will be held in Melbourne from 15-27 March 2006. Security will be increased in Melbourne for the duration of the games, particularly in the city’s Central Business District. Police presence will be increased near the games’ venues, including the Melbourne Exhibition Centre and the Multi Purpose Venue. Military aircraft will patrol a no-fly zone over the Central Business District and will shoot down any unauthorized aircraft. At least three navy ships will provide security along Melbourne’s waterways. Security will especially be increased during the games’ opening ceremonies, as Queen Elizabeth II is expected to attend.

http://www.airsecurity.com/hotspots/HotSpots.asp

Petronas

03-27-2006, 09:58 AM

Sydney bomb plot link to race riots, murderer
Monday March 27, 2006

A woman charged at the weekend with plotting to bomb Sydney was a convert to Islam who planned the attack at the behest of a jailed murderer angered over anti-Muslim race riots here late last year. Jill Courtney, 26, was arrested at her suburban Sydney home on Friday in a swoop by Federal and local police operating under anti-terrorism laws.

She was charged with conspiracy to murder and conspiracy to cause explosives to be placed in or near a public place. The court granted a request by Courtney's lawyer that the woman be assessed by a psychiatrist.

Police were not required to detail the allegations against Courtney during a brief court hearing yesterday, but Sunday newspapers quoted police sources saying they believed she was acting out of love for a jailed murderer, Hassan Kalache. Kalache, 28, is serving a 22-year sentence for killing a rival drug dealer in 2002 and allegedly told Courtney he was angry over race riots in Sydney last December and that he would marry her if she carried out a retaliatory bombing.

A police detective said Courtney converted to Islam after becoming "besotted" with Kalache. "It's a pretty sad case, she's a bit of a candle in the wind," he was quoted as saying. Courtney is due to appear in court again tomorrow. Last year's riots began when a white mob shouting racist chants assaulted people of Middle Eastern appearance in the beachside suburb of Cronulla.

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=92998

Petronas

04-01-2006, 10:04 AM

Melbourne trio charged with terrorism offences
Saturday, April 1, 2006. 0:01am (AEDT)

Three Melbourne men have been charged with terrorist offences in relation to an ongoing counter-terrorism operation in the city. The Australian Federal Police (AFP), ASIO and Victorian police have all been involved in the arrests. A 21-year-old, a 25-year-old and a 26-year-old from the city's northern suburbs were questioned at the AFP's headquarters in Melbourne. They have been charged with intentional membership of a terrorist organisation and intentionally making funds available to a terrorist organisation. The two older men have also been charged with supporting a terrorist organisation. Two of the charges carry a maximum penalty of 25 years prison.

An AFP spokeswoman says the arrests are linked to the terrorism raids in Sydney and Melbourne in November last year coordinated by the AFP, ASIO, New South Wales and Victorian police. Operation Pendennis has resulted in multiple arrests and terrorist charges in both capital cities. The men are expected to face court on Monday.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200604/s1606190.htm

Petronas

04-01-2006, 10:06 AM

'Jihad Jack' gets 5 years
31/03/2006 12:43 - (SA)

Melbourne - An former Australian taxi driver known as "Jihad Jack" was sentenced to five years in prison on Friday for receiving money and an air ticket from al-Qaeda. Joseph Thomas, a Muslim convert, was the first Australian jailed under new anti-terrorism funding laws.

Thomas had faced a maximum 25 years in jail for accepting 3 500 US dollars in cash and the air ticket home from a senior al-Qaeda operative in Pakistan. But supreme court Justice Philip Cummins sentenced the 32-year-old to a far lower term of five years' jail, with a non-parole period of two years, saying he had cooperated with authorities and had good prospects for rehabilitation.

Prosecutors alleged Thomas trained at al-Qaeda bases in Afghanistan before the group launched its September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States and then stayed in safe houses frequented by al-Qaeda operatives after moving to Pakistan in 2002. In February a jury acquitted Thomas of the most serious charges of providing resources to a terrorist group. But he was convicted of receiving funds from a terrorist organisation and of falsifying his passport to disguise how long he had been in Pakistan.

Thomas was the first person jailed under anti-terrorism funding laws adopted in October 2002 in the wake of the September 11 attacks and a bombing linked to al-Qaeda which killed 202 people - 88 of them Australian - on the Indonesian resort island of Bali.

In handing down the sentence, Cummins said Thomas had committed a serious offense by linking up with Al-Qaeda and rejected suggestions the Australian had been "foolish or naive". "Your conduct shows you were well capable of being manipulative," he said. But the judge also said Thomas had excellent prospects for rehabilitation, and that his cooperation with police has been valuable.

Thomas was arrested in November 2004 after his return to Australia. Prosecutors alleged he had struck a deal be a sleeper agent in Australia for al-Qaeda chief Osama Bin Laden. Thomas said he accepted the money and plane ticket simply because he wanted to return home to his family and had no intention of becoming an al-Qaeda operative.

http://www.news24.com/News24/World/News/0,,2-10-1462_1908442,00.html

Petronas

04-15-2006, 12:45 PM

Muslims here who say democracy is a no, no
14apr06

ANOTHER speech by another Muslim leader, and I ask -- who's kidding who? In February Treasurer Peter Costello was monstered for saying Muslims shouldn't come to Australia unless they accepted basic Australian values.
And he listed them: democracy, the freedoms of a secular state, and "loyalty first -- loyalty to Australia". For this he was called a Muslim-basher by most of our leading Muslim groups.

The Australian Federation of Islamic Councils declared "Islam law teaches that when you go into a country you embrace the laws of that country". The Islamic Council of Victoria said: "Muslims are Australians first." The Lebanese Muslim Association claimed the "majority of Muslims . . . accept Australian values".

And maybe they do, indeed. It's a good sign, in one way, that so many felt hurt by Costello's remarks. But I wonder if they should take far more offence at the many other Muslim spokesmen who seem determined to make them seem dishonest, or at least deaf to what a significant minority of other Muslims here say.

Last Saturday a small Muslim group, Hizb ut-Tahrir, held a public meeting at the Bankstown Town Hall to discuss whether Australia's Muslims really should subscribe to those values Costello mentioned. The answer was: No. No to democracy, a secular society and Australia first. For instance, Usman Badar, president of the University of NSW Muslim Students Association, told the 300 or so people that "Western values are not worthy of human subscription".

Take democracy: "Democracy sounds nice enough, (but) not to a Muslim . . . Sovereignty is for none but Allah." And "Allah did not say . . . whatever the people want, we'll have this." As for a secular society, "it relegates Allah to the margins of public life and places human beings above him. This, to put it blatantly, is as blasphemous as it gets".

Nor was any overriding loyalty to Australia possible. "The overriding commitment of a Muslim is to Allah, and Allah alone."

I expect to hear the usual protests -- that Hizb ut-Tahrir and the Muslim Students Association are small, representing few people. But surely it's now clear that far too many Muslim activists and leaders have at times seemed to reject Australian values and even Australians themselves. To remind you of some of them:

Melbourne cleric Abdul Nacer Ben Brika: "This is a big problem. There are two laws -- there is an Australian law and there is an Islamic law."

Melbourne's Sheik Mohammad Omran: "We believe we have more rights than you because we choose Australia to be our country and you didn't."

American Sheik Khalid Yasin, then based in Sydney: "There's no such thing as a Muslim having a non-Muslim friend."

Khaled Cheikho, now on terrorism charges in Sydney: "Sharia law is gonna prevail through this land, it's gonna be ruled by it, you tell Howard this."

Sheik Faiz Mohamad, of Sydney's Global Islamic Youth Centre: "A victim of rape every minute somewhere in the world. Why? No one to blame but herself."

The Mufti of Australia, Sheik Taj el-din el-Hilali, who called the September 11 attacks "God's work against oppressors" and blamed "Australian society" for pack rapes by gangs of Muslim Lebanese youths.

Keysar Trad, of the Islamic Friendship Association: "The criminal dregs of white society colonised this country and . . . the descendents of these criminal dregs tell us that they are better than us."

There's more, but you get the message. Perhaps it's time more responsible Muslim leaders got it, too, and realised they'd do more good by criticising their radicals than by attacking those who confront them.

The real battle is not, or should not be, between Muslims and non-Muslims. It is as Arab-American psychiatrist Wafa Sultan bravely put it in a debate on Al-Jazeera two months ago: "It is a clash between civilisation and backwardness, between the civilised and the primitive, between barbarity and rationality. It is a clash between freedom and oppression, between democracy and dictatorship." The hard truth is more Muslim spokesmen need to join us on the right side of that battle . . . and to fight with us, not against.

http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5478,18809142%255E25717,00.html

Petronas

04-20-2006, 10:53 AM

Lodhi 'planned power grid bombings'
April 19, 2006

A SYDNEY man plotted to bomb Sydney's electricity grid and various defence sites in "violent jihad", a New South Wales Supreme Court jury has been told. Faheem Khalid Lodhi, 36, today pleaded not guilty to four counts of preparing to commit a terrorist act between October 3 and 26, 2003.

In reading the indictment against Lodhi, Justice Anthony Whealy said it was alleged he had collected two maps of Australia's electricity grid with the intention of seriously damaging it by detonating an explosive or incendiary device. He did this with "the intent of advancing a political, religious or ideological cause, namely violent jihad," the indictment says.

Lodhi allegedly sought information on the availability of materials used to manufacture explosives and also created a set of aerial photographs of certain Australian defence establishments with the intention of detonating an explosive device. The court was told he also allegedly possessed documents containing information relating to the ingredients and method of manufacture of poisons, explosives and detonators, as well as intelligence in connection with a terrorist act.

Sydney Crown prosecutor Richard Maidment, SC, said the crown case centred around documents. "In particular by reference to allegations that he (Lodhi) collected documents, that he made documents, and that he possessed documents or sets of documents which, in each case, the crown alleges, were connected with preparation for a terrorist act," Mr Maidment said. "And that at the time he did so, in each case, he knew of that connection."

Mr Maidment said the alleged offences were committed when Lodhi was living at Lakemba in Sydney's southwest. He told the six men and six women jurors, empanelled today, that 34 witnesses would be called during the trial. They included members of the Australian Federal Police, NSW and Victorian police, the Department of Defence, and the US Federal Bureau of Investigation, as well as various civilians. An undefined number of ASIO witnesses would also take the stand during the eight-week trial, Mr Maidment said.

Justice Whealy told the jury there were still a number of legal issues to be resolved before the trial could formally open, and it was unlikely to commence today. The jury was later dismissed until Monday, when the crown case was expected to formally begin.

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,18859735-29280,00.html

pixikill

04-20-2006, 11:31 AM

thanks for the posts petronas

Petronas

07-14-2006, 11:00 AM

Islamic books banned for inciting terror
Tuesday Jul 11 13:40 AEST

Two Islamic books have been banned after the Classification Review Board found they incited terrorism. The books, Defence of the Muslim Lands, and Join the Caravan, have been refused classification and can no longer be sold within Australia or imported into the country. Last year, an Islamic book store at Lakemba, in Sydney's west, was accused of selling the now-banned books.

Federal Attorney-General Philip Ruddock sought the review last month after the classification board found the books and a film did not breach Australian law, and federal police could find no grounds to prosecute the booksellers. Six other Islamic books and a film were reviewed and cleared for sale.

The review board said in a statement that Defence of the Muslim Lands "promotes and incites in matters of crime, specifically terrorism acts, including the plan, action and execution of martyrdom operations. The book is specific and explicit in its support for and encouragement of suicide bombing, including details for undertaking such crimes," the board said.

The second book, Join the Caravan, also "has the objective purpose of promoting and inciting acts of terrorism against disbelievers and is a real and genuine call to specific action by Muslims to fight for Allah and engage in acts of violence".

Board convenor Maureen Shelley said the board had sought advice from the Mufti of Australia, Sheik Taj Aldin Alhilali, and the NSW Council for Civil Liberties in making its decision. It also considered how current anti-terrorism laws applied.

Mr Ruddock said it was now up to state governments to follow through on the matter. "I would urge state and territory attorneys-general and police to ensure that they enforce the laws available to them and keep offensive material of this nature off streets," Mr Ruddock said. He is also seeking the support of state attorneys-general at a meeting later this month on whether changes to censorship laws are needed.

Islamic Council of Victoria spokesman Waleed Ali said the ban was not justified. "We understand that the literature is demonstrably unsavoury but that's different from saying that it necessarily causes a threat," he told ABC Radio.

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=71155

Petronas

07-15-2006, 09:08 PM

Hate sites push terror call
July 16, 2006

EXTREMISTS have used Australian internet sites to urge young Muslims to back international terrorism. The website chat rooms have also attracted messages of support for terrorist and anti-semitic rants. A site for Muslim youth this week featured an 11-page diatribe attacking moderate Muslims.

The statement, posted on Monday, attacked moderate Muslims for condemning "the activities of Muslims abroad". The message, on the Sydney Muslim Youth Forum, called for followers of the faith to uphold values that oppose Western beliefs. "Our value as Muslims lays (sic) in our adherence to Islam's principles, even if these principles are not compatible with the dominant political, social, economic or intellectual trends of the day," it said. "Seeking the approval of non-Muslims in order to achieve a brief gain in this worldly life is obviously a short-lived benefit."

Messages of hate are among a range of opinions, many mainstream, voiced on the websites that are accessed by Muslims Australia-wide. In a chat forum on the youth website, a participant who called on Muslims to embrace Australian values, was warned: "We are more than 2.4 billion (in number) and Islam is the fastest growing religion on Earth . . . Be nice to us, the future is Islam."

On another site, Muslim Village Australia, a member identified as "Muslim4Life" called on Muslim nations to rally against the West. "Reality suggests that Muslims are not doing enough to alleviate their humiliation and suffering," Muslim4Life said.

The death of notorious terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi prompted some members to attack fellow members who rejoiced that the terrorist was dead. "As for the Muslim, he does not celebrate the killing of a Muslim," one said. Another section on the site calls for a boycott of products made by companies allegedly supporting Israel.

Many site comments favour peace and harmony. Muslim Village founder Ahmed Kilani said the website was not responsible for radical statements made by members. He said some "stupid comments" were made, but most were positive.

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,19801651-421,00.html

Petronas

08-25-2006, 03:19 PM

Architect jailed for 20 years for Sydney terror plot
Wed Aug 23, 4:37 AM ET

SYDNEY (Reuters) - A Pakistan-born Australian architect was jailed for 20 years on Wednesday for planning bomb attacks in Sydney. Faheem Khalid Lodhi had planned to detonate home-made bombs in Australia's largest city as part of a "holy war," the New South Wales Supreme Court was told during his trial. Supreme Court Judge Anthony Whealy sentenced 36-year-old Lodhi to a maximum 20 years jail, with a minimum of 15 years to be served, a court official told Reuters.

Prosecutors told the court that police had found what amounted to a terrorism manual when they raided Lodhi's home in October 2003.

In handing down the sentence, Whealy said that if Lodhi had succeeded in his attack it would have rocked the security of Australia, which has never had a terror attack on home soil in peacetime. "Australia has, to this time, not been a country where fundamentalist and extreme views have exposed our citizens to death and destruction within the sanctuary of our shores," said Whealy. "One has only to think of the consequences on the national psyche of a tragedy such as the Port Arthur massacre to realize how a major terrorist bombing would or could impact on the security, the stability and wellbeing of the citizens," he said.

Australia's worst mass murderer of modern times, Martin Bryant, shot dead 35 people at Port Arthur in the island state of Tasmania in 1996. The massacre shocked the nation and led to tough new gun laws.

A Supreme Court jury found Lodhi guilty in June on three charges -- collecting maps of Sydney's electricity grid, acting in preparation for a terrorist act by gathering information about bomb-making and possessing documents with information about how to manufacture poisons. Lodhi was acquitted on a fourth charge of downloading aerial photographs of defense facilities from the Internet.

Lodhi told the court during his trial that he was not a violent religious fanatic and his lawyers said he had the defense photographs because he had worked as an architect at the sites. Lodhi, who emigrated to Australia in 1996, was charged under tough new anti-terrorism laws introduced soon after the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.

Judge Whealy said Lodhi was a respectable community member who turned "dangerous terrorist" by the "the glorification of Muslim heroes who have fought and died for jihad."

Australia is a staunch U.S. ally with troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. While Australians have been targeted in attacks on foreigners in neighboring Indonesia, Australia has never suffered a major peacetime attack on home soil. Australia's four-level counter-terrorism alert system has been set at the second level of medium since soon after the September 11 attacks.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060823/wl_nm/security_australia_dc

Petronas

09-03-2006, 08:38 PM

PM STANDS BY MUSLIM COMMENTS
1.9.2006. 14:42:21

Prime Minister John Howard says he has no need to apologise for telling Muslims they need to embrace Australian values. Mr Howard sparked controversy yesterday by saying on talk-back radio a small group of Muslim migrants had refused to accept their adopted country's values and had not learned English.

He told Macquarie Radio Australia had benefited greatly from immigration, but “there is a section, a small section, of the Islamic population ... which is very resistant to integration”.

"What I want to do is to reinforce the need for everybody who comes to this country to fully integrate," Mr Howard said yesterday. "Fully integrating means accepting Australian values, it means learning as rapidly as you can the English language if you don't already speak it. And it means understanding that in certain areas, such as the equality of men and women, the societies that some people have left were not as contemporary and as progressive as ours. People who come from societies where women are treated in an inferior fashion have got to learn very quickly that that is not the case in Australia."

Mr Howard was responding to a caller to the radio station who said she was concerned that immigrants were "not fitting in". Most Muslims were appalled by extremism but some wrongly believed it was discrimination to suggest migrants should integrate into Australian life, Mr Howard added.

Comments spark fury
The prime minister’s comments sparked fury among some Muslim leaders who say they were offended by what the prime minister had said. The chairman of the government's new Islamic advisory committee, Dr Ameer Ali, has warned of more trouble unless Mr Howard tones down his rhetoric on Muslim migrants.

"We have already witnessed one incident in Sydney recently in
Cronulla, I don't want these scenes to be repeated because when you antagonise the younger generation, younger group, they are bound to react," Dr Ali told Macquarie Radio.

But Mr Howard today stood by his comments. "I don't apologise," he told reporters. "I think they are missing the point and the point is that I don't care and the Australian people don't care where people come from. There's a small section of the Islamic population which is unwilling to integrate and I have said generally all migrants ... they have to integrate."

Mr Howard denied he was singling Muslims out for criticism over the way some immigrants fail to integrate into Australian society. "There's a small section of the Islamic population which is unwilling to integrate," he said.

"And I have said, generally, all migrants ... they have to integrate, and that means speaking English as quickly as possible, it means embracing Australian values and it also means making sure that no matter what the culture of the country from which they come might have been, Australia requires women to be treated fairly and equally and in the same fashion as men. And if any migrants that come into this country have a different view, they better get rid of that view very quickly. I don't retreat in any way from that. It doesn't involve singling out a group." ...

http://www9.sbs.com.au/theworldnews/region.php?id=131055&region=7

Petronas

09-19-2006, 07:22 PM

And because it is your faith that is being invoked as justification for these evil acts, it is your problem:happy_01:

Muslims read riot act
September 17, 2006 12:00am

AUSTRALIA'S Muslim leaders have been "read the riot act" over the need to denounce any links between Islam and terrorism. The Howard Government's multicultural spokesman, Andrew Robb, yesterday told an audience of 100 imams who address Australia's mosques that these were tough times requiring great personal resolve. Mr Robb also called on them to shun a victim mentality that branded any criticism as discrimination.

"We live in a world of terrorism where evil acts are being regularly perpetrated in the name of your faith," Mr Robb said at the Sydney conference.

"And because it is your faith that is being invoked as justification for these evil acts, it is your problem. You can't wish it away, or ignore it, just because it has been caused by others. Instead, speak up and condemn terrorism, defend your role in the way of life that we all share here in Australia."

Mr Robb said unless Muslims took responsibility for their destiny and tackled the causes of terrorism, Australia would become divided. Mr Robb, the parliamentary secretary for immigration and multicultural affairs, said it was important for migrants to learn English. "I see as critical the need for imams to have effective English language skills -- it is a self-evident truth that a shared language is one of the foundations of national cohesion," he said.

On the eve of Mr Robb's release today of a discussion paper on a new citizenship test, the chairman of the Government's Muslim Reference Group, Dr Ameer Ali, said Opposition Leader Kim Beazley's idea of a values test was silly, as was the need for a universal English test. He called for an orientation program for new migrants akin to a university student's orientation week.

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,,20425347-661,00.html

Petronas

09-24-2006, 12:55 AM

Muslim nations 'should separate church and state'
Saturday, September 23, 2006. 6:29pm (AEST)

Federal Treasurer Peter Costello has called on Islamic societies to disconnect church from state. Mr Costello has said Islamic states should adopt a secular view free of all religion, in an address to the Australian Christian Lobby at a Christian Conference in Canberra today. He also says Muslim societies should allow robust debate, after reaction to comments made last week by Pope Benedict XVI that sparked outrage across the Islamic world.

"How can one religion exercise the freedom to speak on its values, its faith, without prompting a violent response from other religions?" Mr Costello said. "It can only happen where we all accept a set of rules, the right to freedom of speech without receiving violence in return."

Mr Costello says separating religion from government allows religious freedom. "Now, I have argued that separation of church and state is good for both and further consistent with Christ's teaching," he said. "I believe that a secular, national state can be adopted by Muslim societies and what is more, in doing so, will lead to greater technological and economic progress." ...

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200609/s1747189.htm

Petronas

10-25-2006, 05:48 PM

Muslim leader blames women for sex attacks
October 26, 2006

THE nation's most senior Muslim cleric has blamed immodestly dressed women who don't wear Islamic headdress for being preyed on by men and likened them to abandoned "meat" that attracts voracious animals. In a Ramadan sermon that has outraged Muslim women leaders, Sydney-based Sheik Taj Din al-Hilali also alluded to the infamous Sydney gang rapes, suggesting the attackers were not entirely to blame.

While not specifically referring to the rapes, brutal attacks on four women for which a group of young Lebanese men received long jail sentences, Sheik Hilali said there were women who "sway suggestively" and wore make-up and immodest dress ... "and then you get a judge without mercy (rahma) and gives you 65 years". "But the problem, but the problem all began with who?" he asked.

The leader of the 2000 rapes in Sydney's southwest, Bilal Skaf, a Muslim, was initially sentenced to 55 years' jail, but later had the sentence reduced on appeal.

In the religious address on adultery to about 500 worshippers in Sydney last month, Sheik Hilali said: "If you take out uncovered meat and place it outside on the street, or in the garden or in the park, or in the backyard without a cover, and the cats come and eat it ... whose fault is it, the cats or the uncovered meat? The uncovered meat is the problem."

The sheik then said: "If she was in her room, in her home, in her hijab, no problem would have occurred."

He said women were "weapons" used by "Satan" to control men. "It is said in the state of zina (adultery), the responsibility falls 90 per cent of the time on the woman. Why? Because she possesses the weapon of enticement (igraa)." ...

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,20646437-601,00.html

Petronas

10-29-2006, 10:24 AM

Cleric linked to terror groups
October 29, 2006 12:00am

ASIO warned authorities 20 years ago that Sheik Taj al-Din Al-hilaly could inflame communal violence in Australia. Court judgments show ASIO initially believed the controversial mufti posed a risk to the community because of his alleged propensity to cause or promote violence. Shortly after his arrival in Australia as the new imam of Lakemba Mosque in 1982, Sheik Hilaly was also linked with a shadowy terrorist group, Soldiers of God, which is thought to have been involved in the assassination of Egyptian president Anwar Sadat in 1981.

A group of the same name, also known as Ansar al Islam, is among those listed by the Federal Government as a banned terrorist organisation. Western governments believe Ansar al Islam has close ideological and operational links with al-Qaeda. Sheik Hilaly was also alleged to have endorsed suicide bombing, verbally attacked women and preached a highly political message of extremism.

The Sunday Telegraph columnist Piers Akerman writes today that a former intelligence officer said Sheik Hilaly's name first surfaced in a report by one of Australia's most senior intelligence assets in Cairo. The claimed the sheik spent a number of years training in Libya and was sent to Australia to train extremists. Akerman writes the report was shelved and the agent who sent it believes that a campaign was waged against its contents.

The pressure on Sheik Hilaly grew yesterday, with Parliamentary Secretary for Multicultural Affairs Andrew Robb saying it was time for him to heed the wishes of moderate Muslims and resign. He also questioned the sincerity of his apology for comments comparing women to uncovered meat and blaming them for rape. "The body language of the apology was totally unconvincing," Mr Robb said. "He's condoned violence against women and snubbed his nose at ... every section of the community."

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,20661909-2,00.html

Petronas

10-30-2006, 04:28 PM

Radical sheik blasts judges on rape
October 31, 2006

THE leader of the nation's most radical Islamic group has fuelled the Taj Din al-Hilali controversy by accusing Australian judges of discriminating against Muslim rapists. As Sheik Hilali yesterday took "indefinite leave" from preaching after a "heart attack", The Australian can reveal Melbourne cleric Sheik Mohammed Omran told his flock on Friday that rapes committed by Australian non-Muslims - such as "bikies" or "football stars" - were treated more leniently than those committed by Muslims.

"I feel there is no justice here. Not 60 years and someone else three years and they did the same crime. Why?" Sheik Omran told worshippers at his Brunswick mosque. "They make a big fuss about these kids because one of them, his name is Mohamed. Even if you kill someone you don't go for 60 years," he said, referring to Sydney's 2000 gang rapes in which Lebanese Muslim Bilal Skaf was initially sentenced to 55 years' jail, but later had the sentence reduced on appeal. "This is where I think everything has gone unbalanced," Sheik Omran said. "We don't support criminals or crimes, but at the same time we want justice for everyone."

Sheik Omran strongly defended the besieged mufti, who until yesterday had defiantly resisted demands from Muslims and the wider community to step aside for likening women to uncovered meat and suggesting rape victims should be held responsible for enticing attackers.

Soon after arriving at Lakemba Mosque yesterday morning for another crisis meeting over the Ramadan sermon that prompted the furore when it was revealed by The Australian last week, Sheik Hilali collapsed and was rushed to hospital. In a statement issued in his name later, Sheik Hilali - who came under more pressure yesterday when The Australian also uncovered recent comments supporting military jihad against US and Australian forces in Iraq and Afghanistan - said he would step aside. "The pressure of the last couple of days has had an obvious effect on my health and wellbeing," the statement said. "I ask the public to give my family and I some privacy, time and space to recover. I have also asked for indefinite leave from duties at Lakemba Mosque."

The decision came as the federal Opposition demanded that the Government investigate whether Sheik Hilali's support of jihad in Iraq and Afghanistan constituted treason and John Howard repeated his advice to Muslims to overthrow their spiritual leader. "One of the things that does bother me is that when he goes overseas he carries the title of Mufti of Australia and that represents to the world a view of Australian Islam which I feel very uncomfortable with," the Prime Minister said.

Sheik Hilali - in an interview on Arabic radio a fortnight ago - had also praised Egyptian philosopher Sayyid Qutb, the intellectual mentor of Osama bin Laden.

And yesterday Immigration Department chief Andrew Metcalfe sought advice from the Prime Minister's office and intelligence agencies about whether he could discuss his knowledge of a 1984 intelligence report warning that Sheik Hilali had links to extremist groups. Mr Metcalfe said he had a "personal knowledge" of the matter because he was working with the department in a legal capacity at the time. The intelligence report was provided to the department six years before Sheik Hilali was granted permanent residency.

A former Australian secret agent has alleged the report was shelved because of the importance of the ethnic vote to the Labor Party, which was then in government. The Weekend Australian revealed that Hawke government immigration minister Chris Hurford tried to have Sheik Hilali deported in 1986. But senior party figures including treasurer Paul Keating and MP Leo McLeay, whose electorate included the Lakemba Mosque, opposed the move, allegedly for political gain.

When asked about his knowledge of the intelligence report yesterday, Mr Metcalfe said he had "knowledge as to the answer of that question" but was concerned about revealing it because it could breach matters of privacy, national intelligence and protocol surrounding the decisions of a previous government.

Sheik Omran, one of the country's most outspoken and controversial fundamentalist clerics, said on Friday that attacks on Sheik Hilali were attacks on Islam. "His name is a mufti and we should respect that name - we should respect the turban on his head," Sheik Omran said in the sermon, an audio copy of which was posted on his Ahlus Sunnah Wal-Jamaah Association website yesterday. "This is the sign of a scholar - you are not attacking Sheik Taj here, you are attacking the scholars, you are attacking ... Islam."

Sheik Omran has said bin Laden was a good man and the US, rather than the al-Qa'ida leader, was behind the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,20674017-601,00.html

Vancouver

10-31-2006, 10:10 PM

A bit on two of the Aussies who are being held by Yemen:
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/the-mother-her-sons-and-their-terrorist-dad/2006/10/31/1162278141610.html

edit: update:
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,20678248-2,00.html?from=rss

Petronas

11-01-2006, 12:48 PM

Australia / Yemen (Country threat level - 3/4): Media reports issued on 1 November 2006 indicate that Yemeni police officials arrested three Australian nationals for allegedly plotting to conduct a suicide bomb attack against the Kings Cross rail station in Sydney. The plot, which reportedly involved targeting the train station during rush hour, was thwarted in 2005 by Australian counterterrorism police officers. The men, along with five other people, were arrested for trafficking weapons to Somalia and for reportedly being members of an al-Qaeda cell. The group was also allegedly plotting to conduct attacks on oil facilities and an unspecified international airport. No additional information is currently available.

http://www.asigroup.com/HOTSPOTS.asp

Petronas

11-05-2006, 11:16 PM

Australian mum married into al-Qa'ida
November 06, 2006

SYDNEY woman Rabiyah Hutchison, whose two sons are being held in Yemen on terrorism charges, has longstanding intimate links to the top leadership of al-Qa'ida. During a two-year stay in Afghanistan in 2000 and 2001, Hutchison was married to a member of Osama bin Laden's inner circle, Mustafa Hamid, also known as Abu al Walid al-Masri.

Hamid was a leading al-Qa'ida ideologue and a member of its central governing council, the Majlis al-Shura. He is the author of an unofficial al-Qa'ida history, discovered by US forces in Kandahar, Afghanistan, in 2001, which documents the inner workings of the al-Qa'ida shura, including its discussions on acquiring weapons of mass destruction.

An Egyptian, Hamid is the brother-in-law of Saif el-Adel, currently deputy chief of military operations for al-Qa'ida. He became Hutchison's third husband after the Sydney woman travelled to Afghanistan in the late 1990s, following her divorce from Abdul Rahim Ayub, leader of the Australian branch of the Indonesian terrorist group, Jemaah Islamiah.

The details of Hutchison's marriage to Hamid and his links with al-Qa'ida are contained in a dossier compiled by the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation, ASIO, which has been monitoring Hutchison for several years. Hutchison is also well-known to US intelligence. One well-placed intelligence source says she is more highly connected to "al-Qa'ida central" than anyone else in Australia, although at the weekend, speaking through her lawyer, Peter Erman, she insisted she was not a terrorist and had not associated with terrorists while in Afghanistan.

Now living in the southwest Sydney suburb of Lakemba, her passport seized by ASIO, Hutchison came to national attention last week when it becane known that her two sons, Mohammed and Abdullah, had been arrested alongside al-Qa'ida figures in Yemen, accused of plotting to import arms into Somalia. Along with a third Australian man, 35-year-old Marek Samulski, they remained in isolation cells in the Central Security Prison in the capital Sanaa last night, as Australian officials pressed Yemen for more details of their case.

Born in Mudgee, Hutchison travelled to Bali and then Java in the early 1980s when she began her transition to Islamic fundamentalism. She met Ayub while studying the Koran, and the two married soon after. The couple's children include Mohammed, Abdullah and a daughter Aminah. After separating from Ayub, Hutchison travelled to Afghanistan with her children. The family lived for two years in Kabul, where Hutchison worked as a nurse.

During this time, Hutchison was so well trusted by the al-Qa'ida leadership that she was head-hunted by bin Laden's deputy, the Egyptian doctor Ayman al-Zawahiri, to help run a hospital in Kabul. With her top level al-Qa'ida connections, Hutchison was also a key conduit for young Australians who travelled to Afghanistan for paramilitary training in the al-Qa'ida camps.

Details of Hutchison's activities in Kabul were revealed by Melbourne man Jack Thomas, during his interrogation by Australian and Pakistani police following his arrest in Pakistan in January 2003. Thomas was convicted in March of receiving funds from al-Qa'ida, but his conviction was overturned on appeal after the interview conducted with him by the Australian Federal Police was found to have been obtained under duress. Thomas told the AFP that when he arrived in Kabul, he made contact with Hutchison, to whom he referred as "Umm Mohammed" meaning "mother of Mohammed".

Thomas knew Hutchison from Sydney, where he and his wife had attended the wedding of her daughter Rahma to Khaled Cheikho, one of nine men arrested in Sydney last year and currently facing terrorism-related charges. In Kabul, Hutchison provided accommodation for Thomas and his family and introduced Thomas to a senior Taliban commander with links to the al-Qa'ida leadership, who vetted Thomas then sent him to the al-Qa'ida training site Camp Faruq near Kandahar.

Thomas also told the AFP that Zawahiri asked him for a "character reference" for Hutchison in 2001. He said the al-Qa'ida deputy was planning to build a new women's hospital in Kabul and wanted Hutchison to help him run it. Thomas was happy to vouch for Hutchison, but by his account, the hospital never went ahead due to the US bombing of Afghanistan after September 11.

As a key strategist within al-Qa'ida, Hutchison's husband Hamid was party to the most significant meetings and discussions concerning al-Qa'ida's activities. But following the September 11 attacks, it appears he parted company with bin Laden. Hamid felt the attacks would take the organisation into an unwinnable head-on conflict with the US, and made his grievances public.

Through articles in the Arabic press, Hamid depicted bin Laden as an autocrat who ran al-Qa'ida as if it were his own tribal fiefdom. Bin Laden's was a "catastrophic leadership", said Hamid, who has been both questioning and scathing of bin Laden's inability to see how much he was underestimating George W. Bush's willingness to fight a war on terror. Hutchison did not respond to The Australian's questions yesterday.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,20707207-601,00.html

Petronas

11-05-2006, 11:18 PM

Police on alert over grenade launchers
November 06, 2006

THE line between domestic terrorism and organised crime is starting to blur, with suspected terrorists making increasing use of criminal networks to support their operations. Senior police have confirmed reports that detectives fear a number of rocket-propelled grenade launchers smuggled into Australia by criminal gangs might be sold to terrorist groups inside the country. The Russian-made weapons have reportedly been linked to at least one Sydney crime gang, but police do not know how they entered the country or where they are now, the sources said.

The head of NSW police counter-terrorism, Assistant Commissioner Nick Kaldas, said Western terrorist groups might follow the example of those in Iraq, where there was no longer an effective distinction between criminal and Muslim extremists. In Australia, "the line is blurring and is capable of blurring further", said Mr Kaldas, previously deputy chief police adviser to the Iraqi government. "Over there, there is no line any more," he said. "They are committing kidnappings to finance terror activities."

Mr Kaldas has called on other authorities to be alert for any irregular activity, such as money-laundering, that might be related to terrorism. "I don't think terrorism can exist without some kind of criminal support, whether it is money-laundering or purchasing the illegal material," he said. "You can class it as criminal, but really it's driven by an ideological theme."

The Sunday Telegraph reported in Sydney yesterday that as many as 20 shoulder-mounted B-7 rocket launchers had been smuggled into Australia, and said they might be available on the black market for upwards of $15,000 each.

NSW Premier Morris Iemma said he was deeply concerned by the reports, and criticised the federal Government for allowing such deadly weapons to be smuggled across Australia's porous borders. Several of the rocket launchers have been linked to members of the Darwiche family, who were at the centre of a series of shootings in western Sydney in 2002-03. In 2003, The Australian reported that police investigating the shootings knew that the gang had access to rocket-propelled grenades.

In August, four men, including Adnan "Eddie" Darwiche, were found guilty of a series of charges relating to shootings attributed to a feud between the Darwiche and Razzak families. The dispute was said to have erupted in 2001 as a result of a broken marriage between Darwiche's sister Khadige and Ali Abdul-Razzak, which ultimately escalated into a string of revenge attacks.

Opposition Leader Peter Debnam meanwhile said that Mr Watkins was told three years ago that the rocket launchers were available for sale in Sydney. "I personally rang the Police Commissioner's office and had several private conversations with senior police and the Government about the availability of rocket launchers on the black market in Sydney," he said.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,20707130-601,00.html

Petronas

11-06-2006, 06:28 PM

Grandmother to sue mufti over rape comment
November 05, 2006 12:00am

A MELBOURNE grandmother has accused Muslim cleric Sheik Taj el-Din el-Hilaly of inciting racial hatred and of sexual discrimination. Elaine Davidson made her complaint against the "divisive" mufti to the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission this week.

Mrs Davidson said she was deeply offended by el-Hilaly's reported comments in a service last month that claimed immodestly dressed women invited rape and were like "uncovered meat". "I'm a white, Western woman of high morals and I was offended," she said, adding that she wants a personal apology and may take civil action against the mufti. "I'm not doing this to be vindictive or anything else. As a woman I'm just sick of this man mouthing off. He's making sweeping generalisations. Anyone who's not a Muslim woman or of his ethnic origin is being hurled into this melting pot of meat thrown to the cats."

Mrs Davidson, 52, a recreational health lecturer from Melbourne's outer east who specialises in sexual health issues, said she had complained verbally to the commission. She would reinforce it with a letter this week. "I am incensed, disgusted, offended and I feel internally brutally bashed by him," she said. "He has incited racial, religious and sexual hatred. It's a human rights issue. I need to be protected as an Australian woman."

The mufti's Sydney friend, Keysar Trad, said the cleric "did not address the comments to her (Mrs Davidson), did not make them about her".

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,20704303-2,00.html

Petronas

11-26-2006, 12:16 AM

Islamic fears kill off children's thriller
November 25, 2006

A LEADING children's publisher has dumped a novel because of political sensitivity over Islamic issues. Scholastic Australia pulled the plug on the Army of the Pure after booksellers and librarians said they would not stock the adventure thriller for younger readers because the "baddie" was a Muslim terrorist.

A prominent literary agent has slammed the move as "gutless", while the book's author, award-winning novelist John Dale, said the decision was "disturbing because it's the book's content they are censoring".

"There are no guns, no bad language, no sex, no drugs, no violence that is seen or on the page," Dale said, but because two characters are Arabic-speaking and the plot involves a mujaheddin extremist group, Scholastic's decision is based "100 per cent (on) the Muslim issue".

This decision is at odds with the recent publication of Richard Flanagan's bestselling The Unknown Terrorist and Andrew McGahan's Underground in which terrorists are portrayed as victims driven to extreme acts by the failings of the West. The Unknown Terrorist is dedicated to David Hicks and describes Jesus Christ as "history's first ... suicide bomber".

In McGahan's Underground, Muslims are executed en masse or herded into ghettos in an Australia rendered unrecognisable by the war on terror.

Scholastic's general manager, publishing, Andrew Berkhut, said the company had canvassed "a broad range of booksellers and library suppliers", who expressed concern that the book featured a Muslim terrorist. "They all said they would not stock it," he said, "and the reality is if the gatekeepers won't support it, it can't be published."

In March 2004, Scholastic commissioned Dale to deliver "a tough, snappy thriller", with then publisher Margrete Lamond saying they wanted their child readers to "break out in sweats and their eyes to bulge without giving them actual nightmares". Dale, director of the Centre for New Writing at the University of Technology, said he wanted Army of the Pure to be a contemporary action adventure that would appeal to his son, "a book he could not put down".

Scholastic described his writing as "almost flawless" and the story about four children chased by Afghan terrorists after discovering a plot to blow up Sydney's Lucas Heights nuclear reactor a "gripping page-turner". Dale's agent, Lyn Tranter, yesterday branded the move "a gutless" publishing decision. "I am appalled that this is censorship by salesmen," she said.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,20817548-16947,00.html

pixikill

11-26-2006, 12:21 AM

im apalled too.

Petronas

12-07-2006, 07:22 PM

Imagine what would be happening now worldwide if Christians had done this to a Qur'an. One has to wonder what these boys learn at home and from their non-Muslim teachers about other religions... Perhaps what 8th grade Saudi school books currently teach: “The apes are Jews while the swine are the Christians”?

Muslim boys urinated on Bible
December 06, 2006 12:00am

TWO Muslim students have been expelled from an Islamic school in Melbourne for urinating and spitting on a Bible and setting it on fire. The explosive incident has forced the East Preston Islamic College to call in a senior imam to tell its 650 Muslim students that the Bible and Christianity must be respected. ...

The Bible desecration took place last week at a school camp held near Bacchus Marsh, about 50km west of Melbourne, attended by 33 teenage Muslim boys ranging in age from Year7 to Year 10. A school report of the incident, obtained by The Australian, says it happened late at night and involved three students and another two watching. "The main perpetrator (a Year 7 student) urinated on the Holy Bible, tore some pages from the Holy Book and burnt them then finally spat on the Holy Book," the report says. The second boy, from Year 9, "tore pages from the Holy Book and burnt them", while a third student, from Year 7, "tore pages from the Holy Bible and then he rolled it up like a cigarette and pretended to smoke it".

The boys come from a variety of ethnic Muslim backgrounds - one is believed to be an Albanian/Malaysian, another Lebanese and another Indonesian. ...

... the desecration incident has shaken the nerves of the school's teachers, about half of whom are non-Muslim. A petition signed by 22 teachers expressed "anguish and dismay at the grave incident of the desecration of the Holy Bible".

"This whole incident implies a deep hatred inculcated in the students towards the Christians/non-Muslim teachers," it says. The petition said there had been "previous incidents of students misbehaving towards non-Muslim teachers".

It called on the school to "take steps to rectify this explosive situation" to ensure the safety of teachers.

Mr Doutie said the school had tried to contact the parents of the expelled boys to find out why they had desecrated the Bible. But he said the school had not received a response. ...

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,20880249-1243,00.html?from=public_rss

pixikill

12-07-2006, 07:46 PM

"This whole incident implies a deep hatred inculcated in the students towards the Christians/non-Muslim teachers," it says. The petition said there had been "previous incidents of students misbehaving towards non-Muslim teachers".
there seems to be some video tapes in the library from some freaky imam which preach the islamic hate ideology. they were donated from the m.e....i cannot find a link. but its been all over the news here yesterday.

Petronas

12-14-2006, 03:47 PM

Free speech win for Islam critics
December 15, 2006 12:00am

A TRIBUNAL decision seen as gagging critics of Islam has been torn up in a decisive victory for two fundamentalist preachers facing jail. The Islamic Council of Victoria had complained that comments by Catch the Fire Ministries pastors had exposed Muslims to hatred and ridicule.

Yesterday's unanimous decision by three Victorian Court of Appeal judges was widely applauded as a win for freedom of speech.

The Victorian Civil and Administrative Appeals Tribunal had agreed with the Islamic Council that pastor Daniel Scot had engaged in conduct that incited hatred, contempt, revulsion or ridicule. VCAT's Judge Michael Higgins said Mr Scot had caused 250 Christians to laugh at Islam during a 2002 seminar.

But yesterday the Court of Appeal set aside the orders and returned the case to the tribunal for decision by a different judge, without the rehearing of evidence. Justice Geoffrey Nettle said a recording of the seminar had left him unconvinced that Mr Scot had incited hatred. He said that though Mr Scot's style sometimes ridiculed Islam and resulted in cynical laughter, his plea during the seminar to love Muslims seemed sincere, as did the audience's reaction to it.

Mr Scot allegedly "made fun of Muslim beliefs . . . in a way which is essentially hostile, demeaning and derogatory of all Muslim people, their God, . . . the Prophet Mohammed and, in general, Muslim religious beliefs and practices." It was alleged he stated that the Koran promotes violence, killing and looting and treats women badly; that the faith considers women, dogs and donkeys of equal value; that domestic violence in general is encouraged; and that Muslims are liars and demons.

Judge Higgins had ordered Mr Scot and fellow pastor Daniel Nalliah to correct the statements and apologise in full-page newspaper advertisements. But the appeal court said Mr Scot had been taken out of context, and had been quoting from the Koran.

Outside the court, Mr Scot said he would rather have gone to jail than apologise. "Muslims have got to hide the truth to convert more people to Islam," he said. "We are not afraid to tell the truth. We can't be muzzled." Mr Scot said the money the Islamic Council had spent on the case would have been better spent educating Muslims to better assimilate.

The Moderator-General of the Presbyterian Church of Australia, the Rt Rev Bob Thomas, was pleased the case had been returned to VCAT. He said the pastors' alleged comments were not that serious and did not warrant the persecution they had suffered.

"I feel sorry for Islam," he said. "It appears not to be a religion that can be examined. If this sort of thing were said about us, we would just absorb it. There are some who want one rule for themselves . . ." He said Australians had been tolerant before the introduction of the controversial Racial and Religious Tolerance Act 2001.

The Islamic Council of Victoria was ordered to pay half the pastors' legal fees.

Waleed Aly, of the Islamic Council of Victoria, said the ruling was not a victory for anything and was only a decision on a legal technicality. "They haven't said that the conclusion the tribunal reached was wrong: they've just got an issue with some of the (VCAT) reasonings," Mr Aly said.

If Justices Nettle, David Ashley and Marcia Neave had decided the pastors had not broken the law, they might have dispensed with the case altogether, he said.

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,20930620-2862,00.html

Petronas

12-20-2006, 12:15 AM

Army link to stolen weaponry
December 15, 2006

ROGUE elements in the Australian military are feared to be behind the blackmarket sale of a cache of rocket launchers and guns to terrorist and criminal groups. NSW counter-terrorism police are overseeing an investigation by the Middle Eastern Crime Squad, which is trying to locate eight of nine anti-tankweapons it suspects may have been stolen from the army for use within Australia. The Herald can reveal that the police measures have extended to cutting a controversial deal with one of Sydney’s main underworld figures, who is in a high security prison.

The $50,000 paid to a member of the family of the Lakemba murderer Adnan ‘‘Eddie’’ Darwiche, who acted as a go-between, has so far yielded only one of the Light Anti-Tank Weapons and about 20 kilograms of explosives.

While police suspect the launcher is from the army, the serial numbers on the weapon have been filed off, complicating their investigation. Variations of the rocket launchers – essentially light fibreglass tubes capable of firing one armour-piercing explosive – are widely used by terrorism groups overseas.

It is the suspected army link that has unnerved NSW police and federal intelligence agencies, suggesting that the underworld has found a way of bypassing elaborate border checks aimed at preventing terrorist weapons making their way into the country. Senior police have dismissed earlier media reports about the existence of smuggled launchers of Chinese or Russian origin as being ‘‘wide of the mark’’.

Suspicion of a blackmarket military ring comes amid concern that police and security forces are ill prepared for a terrorist attack at next year’s Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation summit in Sydney. This week, the director-general of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation, Paul O’Sullivan, warned there was ‘‘an over-arching and persistent threat of terrorism’’ surrounding events like the September APEC meeting, which will involve 20 of the world’s most powerful politicians.

NSW police staged a counterterrorism exercise on Sydney Harbour on Wednesday, stressing they would use unprecedented measures, including locking down parts of the city and deploying helicopters, bomb and dog squad units, to prevent trouble.

The $50,000 was paid to a relative of Darwiche, who was sentenced to life imprisonment last month for a double murder committed with three others during a bloody inter-family drug feud in Sydney’s south-west. It is believed police explored a possible indemnity certificate for the go-between that would prevent him or Darwiche being prosecuted over possession of the rocket launcher and explosives. The indemnity proposal, which foundered, would also have protected the two men from prosecution over Darwiche’s alleged knowledge of the whereabouts of another four launchers.

It was through Taskforce Gain, set up three years ago to end a bloody series of drive-by shootings involving two families, the Darwiches and Razzaks, that police first heard talk that one of the weapons had fallen into criminal hands. It was dismissed as an urban myth until a suspect ‘‘rolled over’’, informing them of a plot by Darwiche to fire two rockets into a Razzak family gathering.

The launcher was recovered in negotiations between police and Darwiche – the latter hoping for a reduction in his double life sentence for the murders of Ziad Razzak and Mervat Nemra at a Greenacre home in 2003. Ms Nemra was an innocent bystander. Ziad Razzak was using her home as a safe house while on the run from Darwiche and three cohorts who were also found guilty of roles in the killings.

More than 100 bullets were fired into the house where the two were sleeping – two from Russian military AK-47 assault rifles and the other matched to a M-1 machine-gun, capable of firing 30 rounds a second.

Police have not been able to find the source of the M-1, but suspect it too may have been stolen from the military. Darwiche got his relative to also give police between 18 and 20 kilograms of Power-Gel explosive that he had stockpiled for use in his war against the Razzak family. He has never revealed how he came by it, but Power-Gel can be commercially obtained with a licence and is used in mining and by farmers to remove tree stumps when clearing paddocks.

It is also believed that before the police deal with the Darwiches was aborted, authorities at one stage offered to allow him the unprecedented use of a mobile phone while in prison. The use of such devices by inmates is banned in all jails.

The Supreme Court trial this year was told that that the dispute between Eddie Darwiche and Bilal Razzak erupted in 2001 over drug-dealing boundaries and a broken marriage between Darwiche’s sister, Khadige, and Ali Abdul-Razzak. In August, 2003 Ali Abdul-Razzak was shot dead by three gunmen as he walked from prayers at the Lakemba mosque. His killers have not been found. Eddie Darwiche has also been found guilty of the attempted murder of Farouk ‘‘Frank’’ Razzak and the shooting of Bilal Razzak. He is now in the Super-Max high-security prison at Goulburn and is believed to be refusing to co-operate further.

Although authorities have not been able to say which armoury the rocket came from, they have not discounted the possibility that it and the M-1 machine-gun were smuggled into Australia.

Police had hoped the $50,000 payment would lead them to the arms dealer, and, in turn, to the outstanding rockets and possible terrorist cells in possession of them.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/army-link-to-stolen-weaponry/2006/12/14/1165685828177.html

Petronas

12-21-2006, 03:53 PM

Terrorist warning from top Aust spy
20 December 2006

Australia's foreign spy agency chief has warned New Zealand about the increased risk of "home-grown" terrorism and the likelihood of further deadly terrorist attacks abroad. The warning came at a secret gathering late last month in Wellington of the chiefs of six intelligence agencies – including Britain's MI5, MI6, the United States Central Intelligence Agency and Canadian Security Intelligence Service.

In a speech, Paul O'Sullivan, Director-General of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO), said an increasing number of Australians and New Zealanders would probably be caught up in bombings such as those in London, Bali and Madrid. "Unfortunately, there are likely to be more innocent people who will lose their lives," he said.

One of the most concerning trends was the emergence of home-grown terrorists, a reference to those blamed for the London underground bombings last year. Several were identified as British-born Muslims inspired by extremists abroad. "Although attacks occurred only in Britain, none of us are immune from this insidious threat," he said.

The speech was delivered during a gathering marking the 50th anniversary of the New Zealand Security Intelligence Service (NZSIS). The November gathering was attended by Prime Minister Helen Clark and Governor General Anand Satyanand. O'Sullivan said detecting threats was getting more difficult, making it vital security services worked more closely and kept their methods secret. NZSIS Director Warren Tucker, who took on his current role on November 1, declined to comment yesterday. So did the Foreign Ministry's ambassador for counter-terrorism, Dell Higgie.

However, analysts said the fear of home-grown terror attacks was greater for Australia. Victoria University religious terrorism expert Jim Veitch said O'Sullivan's warning was a general one. "There is nothing that has happened here to trigger them off. You look for triggers in society, you look for the race issue, poverty issues, frustration," said Veitch. He said Australia faced different problems and threat levels and regular warnings helped justify the existence of security services. "The Muslim communities in Australia are much larger and more diverse, and that means the contacts backwards and forwards with counterparts overseas are more intense."

Issues investigated over the past year by the NZSIS have included alleged links between New Zealanders and international terrorists and the activities of individuals in New Zealand assessed as being Islamic extremists, according to the service's annual report. But New Zealand security agencies regarded the vast majority of Muslims in the country, both immigrants and those born in New Zealand, to be law-abiding members of the community.

Peter Cozens, director of the Centre for Strategic Studies in Wellington, said the threat internationally of a major terrorist attack appeared to have lessened in recent months, rather than increased. He cited US moves to find a way out of Iraq, as well as the damage done to South-east Asian militant groups in the war on terror, as among the reasons for optimism. "But we must be vigilant, and that doesn't just mean going through the motions. It means actively and proactively reviewing the situation," he said. "Perceptions often mask the real problems. We may be just lulled into a false sense of security."

http://www.stuff.co.nz/print/3905285a11.html

Vancouver

01-05-2007, 09:44 AM

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,21017005-2,00.html?from=public_rss

Excerpt:
"THE nation's only nuclear reactor and the Australian headquarters of American Express were likely to be targeted by terrorist clients of an accused arms dealer arrested in Sydney yesterday over the theft of five shoulder-fired rocket launchers."

pixikill

01-05-2007, 11:01 AM

Petronas

01-10-2007, 01:24 AM

Watch the video, it is worth the 3 minutes.

Advert for: Khilafah Conference 07.
Location: Sydney, Australia
Date: 10 AM; 27th January 2007.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=koA5hdnMCLQ

pixikill

01-10-2007, 09:31 AM

if this bloke (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3vXilCoMuw&mode=related&search=) (the moslem one) was a chick, he would be kdfk.
jhmo

pixikill

01-21-2007, 09:53 PM

http://www.theage.com.au/ffximage/2007/01/22/wbTOONpetty2101_gallery__470x333,0.jpg

Petronas

01-27-2007, 02:02 PM

Islamic exhortations to violence defended
January 24, 2007 5:00 p.m. Eastern

The Australian government, whose leaders have invited Muslims who believe religious law should trump the nation's secular constitution to leave, now has launched an investigation into recordings of messages urging Muslims to kill enemies of Islam. According to a report in the daily newspaper The Australian, members of the Federal Police force have begun looking into the DVD recordings by Sheik Feiz Mohamed. They collected a copy of the recordings recently from a 4,000-member Muslim youth center founded by Mohamed. Officers who arrived at the Global Islamic Youth Center at Liverpool, in Sydney's western suburbs, declined to comment, but Muslims are defending even the references to violence and martyrdom in the messages.

Australian leaders, as WND has reported, have taken a much harder stance than leaders in other free nations against those would suggest that Islamic law, or Sharia, should be observed.

Prime Minister John Howard has said he believes activities of those in Australia's mosques should be monitored, citing a need for the government to know if members of the Islamic community supported or taught violence. "We have a right to know whether there is, within any section of the Islamic community, a preaching of the virtues of terrorism, whether any comfort or harbour is given to terrorism within that community," Howard told Australian radio earlier.

Education Minister Brendan Nelson said those members of the Islamic faith who do not support Australian values are welcome to leave. Treasurer Peter Costello, who is seen as heir apparent to Howard, also has made similar suggestions about those who do not accept Australia's Constitution and the laws created by its parliament. "If those are not your values, if you want a country which has Sharia law or a theocratic state, then Australia is not for you," he said. He continued: "I'd be saying to clerics who are teaching that there are two laws governing people in Australia, one the Australian law and another the Islamic law, that that is false. If you can't agree with parliamentary law, independent courts, democracy, and would prefer Sharia law and have the opportunity to go to another country which practices it, perhaps, then, that's a better option."

Mohamed, who was described as a "firebrand" in one report, has defended the messages on the DVD, which call children to jihad, urge Muslims to kill enemies of Islam and praise martyrs. The messages include a statement that inmates at Guantanamo Bay, where those suspected of being involved in Islamic terrorism are detained, are "better" than Muslims in Australia, who would not forsake their lifestyles for martyrdom. "The brothers in Cuba are better than us," the newspaper quoted him saying. "They are being examined through the best examination (a reference to God's judgment)."

Mohamed, who now lives in Lebanon after leaving Australia in 2005, said his followers should seek the honorable death of a believer. "They fight in the cause, they kill others – the enemies who fight Islam and they themselves are killed as martyrs," he said.

He gives the example of a mujaheddin who fought in Bosnia in the 1990s who spoke of nothing but jihad and was killed on the battlefield. "What a beautiful person to be associated with. Would you not like to be an associate of this person?"

The messages were recorded several years ago, officials said, and tell Muslims how they should live their lives. "This is our intention that we want to have children and offer them as soldiers defending Islam, loving Islam," Mohamed said.

A former student of Muhamed, Zeky Mallah, described the sermon as "normal with any Islamic scholar."

Muhamed denied to the Australian that his jihad references meant violence. But the newspaper reported the DVD is "littered" with references to violence and a call to arms. ...

http://wnd.com/news/printer-friendly.asp?ARTICLE_ID=53922

Petronas

01-30-2007, 09:33 PM

Sydney conference speaker demands Islamic state
Sunday, January 28, 2007. 3:14pm (AEDT)

A speaker at a conference in Sydney's south-west says a revolution or a civil war may be necessary in order to create an Islamic state, or caliphate. The meeting has been organised by the controversial Muslim group Hizb ut-Tahrir, which is banned in several countries overseas. A number of politicians have called for the group to be banned here.

One of today's speakers, Ashraf Doureihi, told the audience action needs to be taken to ensure an Islamic state is created. "It is important... [to move] collectively in the Muslim world to demand this change from such influential people in our lands, even if it means spilling onto the streets to create a revolution or staging a military coup," he said.

Hizb ut-Tahrir spokesman Wassim Doureihi has told the audience a number of speakers will address the meeting today and discuss ways of establishing an Islamic super-state. "As we were here today, what is at stake is not just the destiny of the Muslim world but indeed the whole of mankind," he said. The conference runs all day.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200701/s1834944.htm

Petronas

02-14-2007, 10:01 PM

Radical Islamic cleric in Australia ...
23 January 2007

In series of videotaped lectures by Sheik Feiz Mohammed, head of the "Global Islamic Youth Center" in western Sydney, Jews were called "pigs" and pronounced "on their way to hell", in addition to children being urged to become martyrs for Islam. The Sheik made his remarks on a series of videotaped lectures for sale in Australia and overseas, but drew widespread condemnation. “We want to have children and offer them as soldiers to the jihad”, the Australian-born cleric said on a portion of one of the tapes, aired on Australian television.[1] The cleric said many parents were stopping their children from attending Islamic lessons for fear that they “might create a place in their hearts, the love, just a bit of love, of sacrificing their lives for Allah”. “We want to have children and offer them as soldiers defending Islam”, he added. “Teach them this: There is nothing more beloved to me than wanting to die as a Mujahid.” ...

http://www.instituteforcounterterrorism.org/apage/9410.php

Petronas

03-11-2007, 11:26 AM

From the 2007 Intelligence Summit:
Australia has a homegrown terrorist problem almost a large as that in the UK.

Petronas

03-17-2007, 09:36 PM

Hardline Muslim clerics urge tax cheating
March 13, 2007 12:30am

HARDLINE Muslim clerics are encouraging their followers to cheat the tax system because they consider paying income tax contrary to Islamic law. Muslim leaders have warned that fundamentalist imams who put sharia law ahead of Australian law are also condoning welfare fraud and the cash economy as tax-evasion methods.

Sydney-based Islamic leader Fadi Rahman told The Australian that the extremist clerics who were preaching messages against paying income taxes were also staunchly opposed to Western ideologies, including the Australian way of life. He said he had heard hardline clerics at Friday sermons in Sydney highlight the importance of cheating the tax system. "I mean, just like how you've got clerics (with) extreme views who are telling the Muslims in the Western world to declare war against the very country that they live in and the very country that is paying for their day-to-day life, you'll find that these are the clerics who are telling them to dodge the tax system," said Mr Rahman, a youth leader and the president of the Independent Centre for Research Australia. Tax, itself, is not allowed in Islam. So they (clerics) encourage them that if there's any way that you can dodge paying the tax, then you should do it."

It is understood that the clerics pushing for tax evasion espoused a fundamentalist form of Islam called Wahabbism. While sharia law does not require Muslims to pay taxes, it does require them to pay zakat (alms) towards charitable causes.

Prominent Islamic cleric Khalil Shami, who said he had heard of imams encouraging tax evasion but had no direct knowledge of it happening, warned spiritual leaders to abide by Australian laws, saying tax evasion was a form of "theft" that would serve only to undermine the government help given to the Muslim and mainstream communities. "They have to give the right advice to the people because we come to this country and we have to follow the law of this country," said the imam of Penshurst mosque, in Sydney's southwest. "Everything that the Government do, we have to support it, we have to stand behind it ... to help the land and to help the law of the land."

The fundamentalist Ahlus Sunnah Wal-Jamaah Association, which is headed by Australia's most radical cleric, Mohammed Omran, hit back at suggestions that its imams - including Abdul Salam Mohammed Zoud, who heads the group's Sydney branch - were among those calling on their flock to cheat on their taxes.

"Of course we pay taxes and we go as far as to collecting money from our Muslim communities and donating it to organisations (such as the Royal Children's Hospital) to help," said the Wahabbi organisation's spokesman, Abu Yusuf. He said the authorities should deal with tax cheats "as they would with anyone else breaking the law".

Muslim community leader Keysar Trad, who worked at the tax office for 14 years, said he believed some Islamic fringe groups would include "cheating on taxes" as part of their teachings. "We know that some fringe groups within the community have some aberrant teachings," the president of the Islamic Friendship Association said.

"If one of those fringe groups was giving a message that did not serve society as a whole such as cheating on taxes, I would not be surprised." Mr Trad said he was often told by "conservative" clerics to quit his former job at the tax office because they considered it contrary to sharia law.

Mr Rahman, who helps young Muslims turn away from radical Islam and steer clear of criminal activities, said hardline Muslim clerics were not fazed that their followers were "double-dipping" by working cash-in-hand to avoid paying tax and collecting social security benefits on the side. "While we work hard to pay our taxes, it's not fair on the rest of us," he said.

http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/story/0,22606,21369966-911,00.html

pixikill

04-05-2007, 12:28 AM

Last Updated 04/04/2007, 14:52:46
Select text size: http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/i/text_big.gif (http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/news/stories/s1889170.htm#)http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/i/s.gifhttp://www.radioaustralia.net.au/i/text_med.gif (http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/news/stories/s1889170.htm#)http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/i/s.gifhttp://www.radioaustralia.net.au/i/text_sm.gif (http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/news/stories/s1889170.htm#)

A Canadian Muslim cleric has been refused entry to Australia on security grounds.

Sheikh Bilal Philips, a Canadian citizen who lives in Qatar, was scheduled to speak at an Islamic conference in the southern city of Melbourne this weekend, and had applied for a short stay visa.

Immigration Minister Kevin Andrews has confirmed the cleric was refused the visa Australia on security grounds.

He says the Sheikh's name is on an alert list of people deemed to be of concern.

"In this case it was judged, on security grounds, that there was risk that the entry of the person into Australia is directly or indirectly a risk to national security," Mr Andrews said.

Reuters reports the Sheikh was deported from the United States in 2004 after being named an "unindicted co-conspirator" in the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Centre in which six people died.

Correspondents say he supports a conservative form of Islam that approves of stonings and public execution for crimes, as well as marriage to young girls.

The website for the organisation running the Australian conference, Mercy Mission, says it still plans to bring the Sheikh to Australia at some stage if the government relents and he receives a visa.

Vancouver

04-13-2007, 09:27 AM

Bilal Philips
بلال فيليبس

alias Abu Ameenah
أبو أمينة

is a backward but popular televangelist around the Gulf, based in Dubai. He's originally from Jamaica. He has at least one honky convert in his group

عثمان باري
Uthman Barry, ex-Irish, alias Abu Khalid.

It is true that Philips is an unindicted co-conspirator in the trial of Omar "Blind Sheikh" Abdur-Rahman for the 1993 World Trade Center attack, but there were around 150 others. I haven't heard Philips being pumped up by any Sunni terrorist, but only by Wahhabi wannabe-Arabs like himself. He visited Canada 2 or 3 years ago, receiving little attention pro or con. But it's a good idea for Australia (or any democracy or any secular nation) to keep him out of the country.

Petronas

11-30-2007, 09:18 PM

Al-Qa'ida 'plot' on local US base
November 30, 2007

AN al-Qa'ida leader who visited Australia on a lecture tour in the late 1990s was involved in a plot to attack a US military base on Australian soil, according to secret documents made public for the first time this week. An Algerian terrorist known as Abu Sheema and his associates allegedly revealed their plans to the former Guantanamo Bay detainee Mamdouh Habib when he was in Afghanistan just weeks before the September 11 attacks.

Mr Habib revealed his knowledge of the alleged plot in a number of interviews with US officials after his arrest in Pakistan in October 2001. Questioned by ASIO agents during his detention at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba in 2002, Mr Habib said Abu Sheema had recruited people to go to Australia to carry out the operation and that Abu Sheema's offsiders had also asked him to smuggle dangerous chemicals into Australia but he had refused.

He said Abu Sheema's men claimed they had sleeper agents in Australia ready to act and had talked about having a "switch" in Australia, something he thought related to missile control systems. In the interview, Mr Habib told the agents: "These people said if anything happens from America to Afghanistan, they have people with connection in Australia. They gunna do something."

He claimed Abu Sheema's associates - known as Abu Ibrahim and Abu Yusef - had talked to him about their plans to launch a strike on a US facility somewhere in Australia. Mr Habib said he could not recall where the targeted base was, but he thought it was either in Perth, Darwin or Brisbane. There are no US military bases in the three cities, although there could be smaller facilities with some US military staff. Mr Habib said he could not remember if the biggest US base in Australia, Pine Gap near Alice Springs, had been targeted.

The interview was made public for the first time during Mr Habib's defamation action against Nationwide News in the NSW Supreme Court. Judge Peter McClellan is hearing evidence on defences and damages in Mr Habib's case after a jury found that an opinion article in Sydney's The Daily Telegraph by columnist Piers Akerman defamed Mr Habib by implying he made false claims.

Mr Habib was arrested in Pakistan in early October 2001 on suspicion of terrorism offences as he was attempting to make his way back to Australia. He told the court he was regularly beaten, tortured and drugged during three years in detention in Pakistan, Egypt and Guantanamo Bay. Mr Habib was released in January 2005 and returned to Australia without being charged.

Mr Habib also told ASIO he had met Abu Sheema in a house in Kabul, Afghanistan, and he had recognised his face from the streets of Lakemba in Sydney's west. But he said that at the time he was in Australia, Abu Sheema was known by another name. He described Abu Sheema as being tall with curly hair, a thin face, black eyes and a short beard. He said he was about 27 years old and spoke good English and French and had told Mr Habib he had travelled in and out of Britain many times. When he saw Abu Sheema in Lakemba, he was in the company of a lot of young men and Mr Habib said he might have met people from the Islamic Youth Movement.

Mr Habib said Abu Sheema had delivered lectures at a Lakemba mosque and with an associated mosque in Brisbane, and Abu Sheema had told him that he knew a lot of people in Brisbane and Sydney. When they met in Kabul, Abu Sheema had asked him about getting refugees into Australia and stated that immigration in Brisbane appeared to be easier than in other capital cities. Mr Habib said he told Abu Sheema that Australia was no longer accepting refugees.
The interviews also revealed that Mr Habib had seen David Hicks, who was known as Abu Muslim, in Pakistan before he travelled to Afghanistan looking for somewhere to relocate his family and to set up a gemstone dealing business.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,,22845681-2702,0%200.html

Petronas

12-03-2007, 12:34 AM

Inmates studying al-Qaeda manual
December 2, 2007

ISLAMIC extremists are using an al-Qaeda training manual to give them instructions for taking over the state's toughest jails, prison authorities have alleged. Up to 40 inmates had established an internal organisational structure to maintain morale, resist interrogation and recruit members to Islam.

The prisoners had set up leadership groups in several maximum-security jails, with their activities governed by the code outlined in the al-Qaeda manual for incarcerated followers. A number of Corrective Services staff have been targeted, some with violent threats by inmate groups. Other staff have been singled out for conversion to Islam.

NSW Attorney-General John Hatzistergos said an undisclosed number of inmates had been transferred to other jails in an attempt to disrupt the leadership groups. Mr Hatzistergos said he was extremely concerned about the broader attempts to infiltrate the jail system, which were uncovered after sweeping changes to prison regulations allowed 24-hour monitoring of Muslim inmates.

The latest crackdown followed the disclosure this year that a third of the state's most dangerous criminals held in the highest-security jail in Australia, the Super Max facility inside Goulburn jail, were Muslim fundamentalists or converts to Islam. "The insidious nature of these activities remind us we have to be constantly vigilant to these types of threats for the security of our correctional system," Mr Hatzistergos said.

NSW Corrective Services Commissioner Ron Woodham said international prison authorities had alerted Australian authorities to the existence of the manual three months ago. Corrective Services staff had since uncovered patterns of behaviour among inmates consistent with instructions in the manual, including hunger strikes, group protests and claims of mistreatment, he said. "There were hunger strikes and organised complaints about their treatment," he said. "We have detected the leadership in groups across our maximum security jails [and] have moved in to segregate them and split them up.

"There is nothing wrong with conversion to Islam for the right reasons, but we believe there has been conversion taking place for the wrong reasons." The Security Threat Group Intervention Program, established in 2003 to stop ethnic and other criminal gangs exerting control within NSW jails, is now being used to identify and relocate the ringleaders who are applying the code outlined in the al-Qaeda manual, to counter the growing threat of terrorism.

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/12/01/1196394682263.html