Monday, June 25, 2007

Non-Muslim Aussies LUV Israel


Ignore this situation at your own peril, Australia.

I support Hezbollah: Aussie cleric
Richard Kerbaj
June 23, 2007

THE nation's most senior Shia Muslim cleric has attacked John Howard for backing Israel against Arabs and openly declared his allegiance to the Iranian-backed terrorist group Hezbollah.

Kamal Mousselmani -- head of the Supreme Islamic Shia Council of Australia -- said yesterday his entire community considered Hezbollah a "resistance group", not a terrorist network, and lashed the Howard Government over its support for Israel.

"They (the Australian Government) are encouraging terrorism," the Lebanese-born cleric told The Weekend Australian in an interview conducted in Arabic. "Australia is encouraging Israel to kill our people daily. Write that down, we are not afraid of anyone."
Sheik Mousselmani said all of Australia's approximately 30,000 Shi'ites were avid supporters of Hezbollah (Party of God) and haters of Israel.
"Shia in Australia consider Israel a terrorist organisation and also view those who support Israel in the same light," he said. "That's what we believe.
"If Australia supports Israel, they are defending terrorism. Because we believe terrorists come from Israel -- not from our people -- I support Hezbollah."
Hezbollah's military arm, the External Security Organisation, is a proscribed terrorist organisation in Australia, and supporting Hezbollah's political and military wings is illegal under UN counter-terrorist financing declarations.
Sheik Mousselmani said Hezbollah was responsible for financially assisting and providing food and shelter for victims of the 34-day war in southern Lebanon last year.
The cleric said neither he nor Hezbollah condoned suicide terrorism missions.
"We are against the suicide bombings going on around the world," he said.
"And Hezbollah is against it.
"Our opinion is that Hezbollah is not a terrorist group. We consider Hezbollah a resistance group. Put those words down, we are not afraid to say that."
Sheik Mousselmani's comments come as national security agencies step up their investigation into the Shia community in Australia, which until now has not been as closely monitored as the Sunni Muslims.
The Weekend Australian understands security authorities are monitoring financial transactions between community members and organisations abroad. Sydney's Arncliffe Mosque, the largest Shia place of worship in Australia, and Melbourne's Fawkner Mosque are also understood to be of interest to the authorities.
Sheik Mousselmani confirmed his community sent money to war victims in Lebanon following last year's conflict between Hezbollah and Israel, but said none of the money went to Shia militants. "People send money to their families ... just like Greek people and Chinese people send to their families," he said. "No one from our community sends money directly to Hezbollah.
Hezbollah is not expecting us to send them money. They don't need our money." Asked if his organisation would send money if Hezbollah were to ask for it, he said: "If they need it, that would be an entirely different matter." Sheik Mousselmani said there was no threat of his views radicalising young Shia men in Australia because Hezbollah's ideology was limited to Lebanon.
His community was law-abiding and would staunchly oppose any attack against Australia. "None of our people think this way," said Sheik Mousselmani, rejecting extremism. "We love Australia, we respect Australia, we are part of the multicultural society. We protect Australia and we work for Australia. "But it does not mean we like Israel.
If John Howard wants George Bush and Israel, that's his problem. We've got nothing to do with him." Sheik Mousselmani said Hezbollah did not have a branch in Australia. "Hezbollah is not operating outside of Lebanon," he said.
"Hezbollah is defending Lebanon against Israel. We either back Hezbollah or we back Israel, and Israel is killing our people." He said the Arncliffe Mosque, Al Zahra, in Sydney's inner south, was strictly a place of worship and was never used as a political platform.
The 36-year-old cleric dismissed claims his community received funds from Iran to spread the ideology of religious hardliners in Tehran. He said the Shia community in Australia took its religious orders and advice from Iraq's supreme Islamic leader, Grand Ayatollah Ali Husaini al-Sistani.
"The Shia community has nothing to hide."
from:

--UPDATE

Aussie Muslims unite against Israel
Richard Kerbaj
June 25, 2007
AUSTRALIA'S Sunni Muslims have pushed aside ideological differences with their Shia counterparts to form a united front against Israel and declare their support for the Iranian-backed terrorist network Hezbollah.
The unity among the two Muslim sects, which have been at war with each other for centuries, comes as the nation's Jewish community accuses top Shia spiritual leader Kamal Mousselmani of creating hatred towards Jews by calling Israel a "terrorist" state and expressing his allegiance to Hezbollah militants.
The Howard Government yesterday also accused Sheik Mousselmani of sending the wrong message to his followers through his adverse views on Israel.
Sunni Muslim leader and community spokesman Keysar Trad yesterday said his sect largely championed Sheik Mousselmani's support for Hezbollah (Party of God), which was revealed by The Weekend Australian.
"Sunnis outside of Lebanon, yes, they still have a great deal of respect for Hezbollah," he said.
But Mr Trad, who does not believe the Lebanese-based Hezbollah is a terrorist group, said Sunni Muslims in Lebanon were less inclined to back the terrorist organisation because of political differences with the Shi'ites.
"I don't believe that Hezbollah is a terrorist organisation," he said. "I agree with (Mousselmani) that the state of Israel has ... consistently engaged in acts of terror which have brought a great deal of pain to the poor Palestinian population and the Lebanese population."
The new mufti of Australia, Sunni spiritual leader Fehmi Naji el-Imam, last year called Hezbollah militants "freedom fighters" during an anti-war rally in Melbourne. Sheik Fehmi's spokesman said yesterday the cleric could not be reached.
Sunni Muslim spiritual leaders contacted by The Australian, including several who formerly served on John Howard's Islamic advisory council, yesterday refused to put their support for Hezbollah on the record for fear of upsetting the federal Government and jeopardising future community funding.
A senior Sydney-based cleric who refused to be named said "you won't see any Muslim standing with Israel against Hezbollah even if they hate Hezbollah's politics".
The Australia-Israel and Jewish Affairs Council executive director, Colin Rubenstein, said Sheik Mousselmani was an embarrassment to his community whose views brought into sharp focus the Shia extremism on which Hezbollah was founded.
"One would think that the sheik should be telling his followers to obey Australian law rather than being so supportive of such an organisation with such an appalling track record," he said.
Hezbollah's military arm, the External Security Organisation, is a proscribed terrorist organisation in Australia, and supporting Hezbollah's political and military wings is illegal under UN counter-terrorist financing declarations.
Dr Rubenstein said Hezbollah was committed to the destruction of Israel and espoused "genocidal intentions for Jews everywhere".
This follows The Weekend Australian's revelations in which Sheik Mousselmani attacked the Howard Government's support for Israel against Arabs and said Hezbollah was a resistance group, not a terrorist network.
It was also revealed that national security authorities have stepped up their investigations into the nation's Shia community, whose members were not as closely monitored as Sunni Muslims.
Attorney-General Philip Ruddock yesterday said Israel was entitled to exist and the federal Government's foreign policy was against any terrorist group that threatened Israel's sovereignty.
"Those who threaten its sovereignty do so, in our view, in breach of international law and we've always counselled not only Hezbollah but Hamas and Fatah to recognise the right of Israel to exist," he said.
--UPDATE :

Seven Aussies held in Lebanon
By Martin Chulov and Richard Kerbaj
June 25, 2007 12:00am
Seven Aussies held in Lebanon but not charged
Authorities suspect they have links to terror group
Two arrested after bloody 10-hour siege in Tripoli
SEVEN Australians suspected of involvement with an al-Qaeda-linked terror group have been arrested following raids by the Lebanese army in which 11 people were killed.
Foreign militants were among the dead, including one man who may be Australian. Lebanese authorities were working last night to establish his nationality.
Five of those arrested, among them Sydney accountant Ibrahim Sabouh, were seized during a round-up of foreigners near the northern city of Tripoli last Thursday.
Information believed to have been passed on as a result of that raid led the Lebanese military to an apartment building in the city.
Security sources said that as troops approached on Saturday morning, a militant posing as an ice-cream seller outside the building opened fire with an automatic rifle, sparking a 10-hour siege that ended with six extremists, a soldier, a policeman and three civilians dead. Fourteen people were wounded.
The policeman, his two daughters, aged four and eight, and his father-in-law died after being used as human shields.
Two Australians were captured as they attempted to flee across open fields.
It was reported last night that those arrested were not members of the al-Qaeda-linked terror group Fatah al-Islam, which has been engaged in a brutal insurgency in northern Lebanon for the past month.
But Lebanese authorities confirmed that the seven Australians were being held on suspicion of being members of a terrorist organisation, although no charges had been laid.
The Australian understands that Mr Sabouh, an accountant from Auburn in Sydney's west who migrated to Lebanon with his wife and three children more than a year ago, was arrested during a raid on his Tripoli home.
Sources said the other Australians were arrested in his home.
Mr Sabouh's wife is understood to have contacted relatives in Australia and told them the authorities had not found any weapons or other incriminating material at her home.
Last night, The Australian visited the house in Auburn were Mr Sabouh lived before he left for Lebanon and was told by a man that the family did not wish to comment.
It is believed Mr Sabouh is a follower of the Salafist brand of Islam – a hardline interpretation espoused by the Fatah al-Islam terrorist group which has been fighting to overthrow the Lebanese Government. The group claims the Government is un-Islamic and unrepresentative of the people.
The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade yesterday said the reasons for the arrests were still not clear but consular officials from the Australian embassy in Beirut were in contact with the Lebanese security forces and had requested consular access to the arrested men.
Consular officials in Canberra were also assisting the men's families in Australia, a spokesman said.
The arrests follow an announcement last Thursday that the uprising by Fatah al-Islam had been crushed.
Authorities had been battling the insurgency since last month after militants launched attacks on troops on the outskirts of the Nahr al-Barad Palestinian refugee camp in the north of the country.
In a statement issued last night, Lebanese authorities said the policeman and his daughters killed on Saturday were visiting the father-in-law, who lived in the building, when the militants stormed their flat and seized them at the start of the clashes. The militants later killed them.
The army said it had found weapons, ammunition and electronic booby-trap equipment in the apartment. Two floors of the five-storey building were blackened and burned in the fighting. Holes from shells, grenades and bullets punctured its facade. A pool of blood lay on the pavement.
Last week's declaration by Lebanese Defence Minister Elias Murr that Fatah al-Islam had been smashed followed a month of heavy fighting in which more than 60 Lebanese soldiers were killed.
from:


links:::::
Web ccomment from lgf:

Hizballah is an extension of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, and also has an extensive terrorist network around the world.
The Shiite Mahdaviat regime of Iran is seeking nuclear weapons in order to wage nuclear jihad and bring about the chaos in the world that they think will bring the 12th imam, the Mahdi, out of the well in Qom where he has been hiding for many centuries, and to establish the Islamist conquest of the world.
Their first effort, after they get nuclear weapons, will be to wipe Israel off the map, as they have already stated (without much veiling of their intentions). After that, they will seek dominance of the oil-rich region -- the Persian/Arab Gulf, making suitable threats. They are also a threat to Europe, and to the Western world in general.
If there is trouble with Iran, count on Sheikh Mousselmani to incite the tens of thousands of Shiites that he says are his flock, to carry out terrorist jihad against the kafir where they live (that is, in Australia).
Even before that happens, Sheikh Mousselmani might become involved in setting up Hizballah jihaditerrorist cells in Australia, or in helping that Hizballah enterprise.
Mousselmani should be regarded as an enemy agent.

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home