Whoo-ee! Australian ministers suggest that radical Muslim preachers “clear off”

I must say, hearing VFR-type messages coming from the ministers of the Australian government gives me a slightly giddy feeling:

Treasurer Peter Costello, seen as heir apparent to [Prime Minister John] Howard, hinted that some radical clerics could be asked to leave the country if they did not accept that Australia was a secular state and its laws were made by 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 on national television.

“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 practises it, perhaps, then, that’s a better option,” Costello said….

Education Minister Brendan Nelson later told reporters that Muslims who did not want to accept local values should “clear off”.

These statements are only aimed at clerics, not at Muslim radicals per se (though the article is ambiguous on that point), and the apparent ultimatum could (and probably will) turn out to be mainly fluff and verbiage, allowing the radical imams to make some pro-forma statement of loyalty to Australia, which the government will then accept. Nevertheless, the fact that Western government leaders are even saying such things is a giant step forward for our civilization— or, should I say, a giant step backward from the suicidal liberalism of the postwar West.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at August 24, 2005 09:25 PM | Send