“I also strongly agree with your point that Hilali, should have been sacked, many many years ago when he made stupid, anti-Jewish remarks, which were no more than crude racist and unforgivable. He restated those remarks during the recent Lebanese conflict. It was unforgivable that the LMA has not shown him the door. It reflects very badly on all Muslims”

and again

“I also agree with non-Muslim commentators that some Muslim men do have a problem with their attitudes to women, attitudes that have clearly been fostered by their parents and religious leaders like Hilali.”

Costello

“PETER COSTELLO accused Australia’s Muslims of tolerating a message of hate by Sheik Taj el-Din al Hilaly for a decade too long as the leading cleric stood down yesterday from preaching duties at Lakemba Mosque.

The Treasurer said tolerating Sheik Hilaly’s speeches against women, Jews and the West had allowed him to influence behaviour in Australia, and could have contributed to the Cronulla riots and crimes such as the gang rapes led by Bilal and Mohammed Skaf.”

“These kinds of attitudes have actually influenced people,” Mr Costello said in an interview with the Herald. “So you wonder whether a kid like Bilal Skaf had grown up hearing these kind of attitudes”

I also think that the discussion here on Austrolabe is being used by pollies as a template to attack muslims, so you guys should be careful what you say here

How is that the case?

http://www.smh.com.au/articles.....?from=top5

1) This is will be an attack on Australia’s immigration policy; Muslims and Islam are incidental to such advocacy. In decades past east Asian immigrants were the focus of individuals wanting to open a debate on Australia’s immigration policy. Indeed, in the 1980’s it was the Asian community that was in the sight of John Howard, then in the opposition. So in summary this debate which is ongoing and is likely to flare-up has little to do, in a specific way, with Muslim Australians, apart from the inconvenience that it creates because they will be the focus of a new articulation of an old debate.

2) The debate is not unique to Australia. Right wing groups around the world are advocating a similar thing. For example there is a vigorous xenophobic attack on French liberal traditions by the right in France.

3) The Muslim community must not be dragged into defending Islam against such an onslaught on immigration . The best way to counter such advocacy is to identify it for what it is: a desire to return to the White Australia policy. For this reason, in my opinion the best counter advocacy
is

This is a debate on Australia’s immigration policy. It has as much to do with Muslim community in Australia as any other Australian community. It predates the main part of Muslim migration to the country. In fact, it has traditionally been a debate motivated by racism against the south east Asian community in Australia.

Many people are still not happy with how far we have moved away from the White Australia policy and the little-apartheid that Australia used to be.

The question here is do we want a fair immigration policy that does not discriminate based on race and culture, or do we want to return to the White Australia policy. We believe that a non-discriminatory immigration policy is a basic Australian value, and that those who want to return us to the days of White Australia are not in tune with contemporary Australian values.

BTW do you have any sources on the talibans being strict hanafi followers?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nurse_Ratched