People like Omran and Hilaly have harmed the image of Muslims in this country. People used to be tolerant of Islam and Muslims but after hearing the rubbish that has come out of their mouths, we’re all just getting a bit fed up. If you want to fix things up the first thing you need to do is tell these people to shut up and keep them away from the cameras. No offence.

this is not utter rubbish so please respect yourself

The PM has rolled out his greatest hits so far this year (personal smear, economic fear campaign), so there is no reason to doubt that he will reheat security and Anti-Muslim bigotry to the mix.

But over the longer term I agree with PG; I do think that Muslims will prosper in the West and the rate of conversion will go up. In a scientifically advanced and increasingly west, Christianity will have a very short shelf life.

What utter rubbish.

The sidelining of Hilaly and the recommendations of Tom Zreika are two important steps forward for Muslims in Sydney. People will only look down on you if that is what you want.

“Can anyone name a Victorian imam who has caused as much controversy as Sh Hilaly??”

Sheikh Omran

first of all , say it 2 his face please

2nd – actually the journalists are turning everything he says into a controversy , he ain’t the one causing trouble. Matter of fact, he is doing his best. If you go to www.iisca.org you will see the reality of how the media is twisting his words and just how innocent and bubbly Sh.Omran actually is.

Allah yehmi.

p.s. r u better than him to talk about him? he is a sheikh for the love of God!

To begin with the author (apparently a lawyer) has not written an executive summary nor references. Stylistically the language is stilted.

our fragile womenfolk are being attacked in broad daylight”

( is there any other form of daylight?)

and

“muslim garbed brothers and sisters are being spat on from moving vehicles”

(i.e. its bad enough to be spat on from a stationery car, but the height of indignity is to be spat on from one that is moving)

“we are not at war and we need to stop some of our Imams being negligent”

(for the rest, its ok to be negligent, but if we were at war it would be permissible for all to be negligent)

Overall it has a mawkish quality that makes me wonder if the author was weeping as he wrote it. The “way forward” (that awful blairite word) as outlined by the author , is also unhelpful.

The author makes a series of recommendations. In the first of these he conflates Imamship with religious scholarship.

The rest of the recommendations are a series of motherhood statements that Rodney King would have been proud of.

They appear to be the first draft of an employment agreement between a mosque committee and the Imam. He hasn’t required an Imam to tackle global warming but he is not far off doing so.

For example page 11 point 4: 12. How is an Imam expected to manage Islamic media? Does that mean Austrolabe?

The most fanciful part of the document is that he has password protected it so that it cannot be plagiarised.

As if anyone would.

Sheikh Omran