The Australian Federation of Islamic Councils (AFIC) have (yet again) undergone another change in leadership, with the previous president Mr Ikebal Patel being removed; followed, as is now almost ritual, with the traditional internecine bloodletting taking place on the pages of the nation’s newspapers.

Mr Patel, who migrated from Fiji in 1992, has been replaced by Haset Sali, a Sunshine Coast commercial lawyer who once likened the actions of former mufti of Australia Taj Din al-Hilali to those of Hitler.

As fans of old school hyperbole, there’s nothing quite like an over-the-top Hitler comparison from one of our Muslim overlords.  Reductio ad Hiterlum: the argument of champions!

And, as we all know, the second stage of the Ousted Muslim Leader Grieving Process is for the deposed party to run to the courts, crying foul, and demanding their reinstatement.

Following a coup last week deposing Ikebal Patel and his executive team, the former AFIC president has taken legal action in the NSW Supreme Court seeking reinstatement, alleging the removal was unconstitutional.

After a brief hearing on Thursday, the court appointed a receiver-manager to run the federation until the matter comes back to court in July.

As Irfan Yusuf told Radio Australia:

YUSUF: I guess there’s really not much AFIC can do. I think it’s pretty much a rotting carcass and I guess the best thing that can happen is if it’s perhaps buried.

Town planners in Sydney’s Camden have recommended that a proposed Islamic school in the area not be allowed to go ahead:

A Muslim society’s plans to build a school in Camden have been dealt a severe blow after the local council’s planners today recommended against the development on planning grounds.

The Qu’uranic Society Dar Tahfez El-Quran had lodged plans with Camden Council to build a 1200-pupil school at Burragorang Road, Cawdor but drew angry protests from a group called the Committee for Public Affairs Education.

The Herald revealed the group was organised by members of Reverend Fred Nile’s Christian Democratic Party.

The business papers [pdf], already on the Council website, detail the findings and reasons for their decision.

Theodore Dalrymple, writing in The Spectator, offers an, err, interesting litmus test for communities:

I realised that the town was a true community as soon as I heard a rumour that an old lady, a herbalist, had poisoned one of her neighbours. That is what community means: caring enough to poison people. In cities, contact with neighbours is so fleeting and impersonal that antagonism can be expressed only with baseball bats, a crude method requiring little cunning. If Marx were alive today, he would speak of the idiocy of urban life.

Green Left Weekly are reporting on the RMIT prayer room issue: the apparent decision of the university administration to convert the Muslim prayer room into a “multi-faith spiritual centre”.

For decades, the campus had prayer rooms for Muslim students, including separate rooms for males and females. In 2005 Muslim students pointed out that the existing rooms were too small and unsafe to use. In 2006/07, RMIT approved a new proposal to design and build a replacement Muslim prayer room.

On March 18 word broke out that RMIT had broken its promise to build a bigger Muslim prayer room and had instead decided to make it a multi-faith spiritual centre. It was only at the first Student Services Religious Advisory Committee meeting that students heard of this intention. Ironically, advertising brochures for international students are still being published at RMIT promoting the new “Muslim Prayer Room”.

A letter from the president of the university’s Muslim Student Association can be read here, along with additional commentary.

Given the growing numbers of students from the Gulf attending the university and the fact that the university is actively spruiking for students from the Muslim world, it seems a rather curious decision. As far as we can tell, the incident hasn’t been covered in the Arab press yet but if/when it does, it is unlikely to make RMIT appear a more attractive study destination than it’s local competitors (who have, as of yet, not taken steps to reduce their accommodation of Muslim students or converted their prayer rooms into unisex multi-faith prayer halls).

Mufti Taqi Usmani explains how the Islamic Fiqh Academy and Shariah Council of AAOIFI operate (over the fold):

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Over the fold, a recently screened television debate between Mark Steyn and three of the Canadian Muslims who have brought action against Macleans magazine.

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Marginal Revolution’s Professor Tyler Cowen explains in the New York Times:

RISING food prices mean hunger for millions and also political unrest, as has already been seen in Haiti, Egypt and Ivory Coast. Yes, more expensive energy and bad weather are partly at fault, but the real question is why adjustment hasn’t been easier. A big problem is that the world doesn’t have enough trade in foodstuffs.

The damage that trade restrictions cause is probably most evident in the case of rice. Although rice is the major foodstuff for about half of the world, it is highly protected and regulated. Only about 5 to 7 percent of the world’s rice production is traded across borders; that’s unusually low for an agricultural commodity.

Sniffing chairs, yes, but having inappropriate dealings with a small marsupial known as a quokka is a bridge too far for West Australian Opposition Leader Troy Buswell.

West Australian Opposition Leader Troy Buswell says there is “absolutely no substance” to reports he once did something inappropriate to a quokka, a small marsupial found on a holiday island off Perth.

Mr Buswell, who has admitted to sniffing the chair of a former Liberal party colleague and snapping the bra of a Labor staffer, was questioned on the rumours today while attending a press conference at Parliament House.

The Canadian Islamic Congress has decided to use Canada’s hate speech legislation to go after the Canadian magazine Macleans for publishing an extract from columnist Mark Steyn’s book America Alone.

Here’s a video of Steyn himself talking about the issue on Canadian television:

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