More on the growing global jihad against Buddhists from the Herald Sun
"National News - Adelaide-based Shiekh Sharif Hussein free to preach race hate
by TORY SHEPHERD & ANDREW HOUGH
"POLICE say they will not act against a radical preacher who publicly prayed for the slaughter of Hindus and Buddhists, leaving him free to spread his messages of hatred.
A sermon videotaped in South Australia last year also showed Sheikh Sharif Hussein accusing Australian troops, whom he called “crusader pigs”, of helping to rape tens of thousands of women in Iraq, but SA police say he has broken no laws.
This has prompted outspoken SA conservative senator Cory Bernardi to demand changes to race-hate laws, or the way they are enforced.
He says the police decision proves that Australian freedoms are “being used against us” and claims that any similar attack on the sheik’s fundamentalist Muslim ideologies would be met with outrage.
Buddhists and Hindus have expressed shock at the police decision and say the sheik will lash out again.
According to a translation of the Arabic video, published by the US-based Middle East Media Research Institute, the sheikh publicly prayed: “Oh Allah, count the Buddhists and the Hindus one by one. Oh Allah, count them and kill them to the very last one”.
A police investigation was launched after The Advertiser last year revealed details of one lecture recording, believed to have been delivered, in part, at the Islamic Da’wah Centre of SA, in Torrensville.
In the video clip, posted online in August last year by the research institute, the preacher also attacked Jews, former prime minister John Howard and US President Barack Obama, speaking in Arabic.
Senator Bernardi said the fact Sheikh Hussein had not been prosecuted showed that Australia’s freedoms were “being used against us to further a dangerous cause”.
“I can only imagine the political and legal repercussions if similar statements were made about adherents to Mr Hussein’s ideology,” he said.
“Frankly, the Australian public have had enough of the double standards that seem to apply to people like Sharif Hussein. They appear free to spread their poison, while those who challenge their world view are condemned as bigots or racists.”
A South Australia Police spokesman said the matter had been investigated and that “in this instance, no criminal offending occurred and no charges (were) laid. No further comment will be made on this matter.”
The controversial Senator Bernardi has previously come under fire for his views on banning the burqa and what he calls the “totalitarian” ideology of Islam, as well for as his views on abortion and “traditional families”.
His comments come as debate rages over free speech. The Government wants to repeal part of the Racial Discrimination Act that makes it illegal to insult, offend or humiliate people based on their race. It says protections against racial vilification would still be strong enough.
Senator Bernardi said that if South Australian vilification laws, or the way they were enforced, did not stop Sheikh Hussein, they need to change.
“We are now faced with a challenge for law makers and law enforcers alike,” he said.
“If our anti-vilification laws can’t or won’t be upheld against someone who encourages the killing of those who don’t subscribe to a particular religious and political system, I can only conclude things need to change.”
State Attorney-General John Rau pointed to the Government’s policy on the Racial Discrimination Act.
“Presumably Mr Bernardi is outraged that (federal Attorney-General) Mr Brandis proposes to water down relevant federal laws further,” Mr Rau said.
Sheik Hussein, who in the video singled out Mr Howard and Mr Obama, had preached at the Islamic Da’wah Centre of SA and was previously connected to the Marion mosque in Park Holme.
He has previously been under surveillance by the Australian Security and Intelligence Organisation and the Australian Federal Police.
In 2007, the Federal Government blocked $250,000 in funding from Saudi Arabia for the Park Holme mosque, amid “security concerns”.
It is not known if Sheik Hussein has preached in SA since the video went public last year. His friends have claimed the video was heavily edited and misrepresented him, while he has declined to comment.
“I have told you many times before I don’t want to do any interviews,” he told The Advertiser. The Islamic Society of SA has condemned his comments in the past but declined to comment when approached by The Advertiser.
Australian Buddhist Councils Federation president Kim Hollow was flabbergasted that Sheikh Hussein could “get away with” his comments.
“It is disappointing … because they would have had to look at the video,” he said.
“I personally thought it was abhorrent. How someone could get away with it is beyond me. Chances are he will lash out again, I would be surprised if he doesn’t.
“It just beggars belief. It is just horrible to have people make these sorts of statements in this day and age. It is just ridiculous. Words escape me.”
Mr Hollow has previously said that Tunisian-born Mr Hussein should be deported."
I disagree with Senator Bernardi and Kim Hollow. Sheik Hussein should not be prosecuted because...
1. Buddhism is NOT a race.
Whatever the Skeik was preaching, it wasn't 'race hate'.
There are grave dangers to freedom of speech in racializing religion, which mostly work to the jihadists' advantage, as this article describes, with "the possibility of people being sent to prison for up to seven years for saying such things as "the Koran is full of violence and aggression". We are talking about a law which seems intent on freeing Islam from all criticism, as has been the case in parts of the Muslim world for up to 1,400 years'.
2. Praying for violence is not necessarily the same as inciting violence.
Sheik Hussein didn't actually tell Australian Muslims to go out and attack Buddhists, he just prayed for Allah to do it, so no direct incitement to violence was involved. Invoking a mythical bronze age warlord to slaughter the unbelievers is as likely to produce any real effects as requesting the tooth fairy to smite the infidels with caries, gum boils, and root canal inflammation.
3. Freedom of expression means freedom to express abhorrent views.
People should not be prevented or discouraged from preaching the basic doctrines of their religion, even (especially?) if those doctrines are murderous.
It's better we should know what the jihadists are thinking and plotting by having it out in the open, rather than behind the closed doors of mosques and madrassahs.
Perhaps if the citizens of the democracies had been more aware of the Nazis' true intentions (published in Mein Kampf as early as 1926), they might have stopped them earlier, with the saving of millions of lives.
Just as Mein Kampf views Jews as 'Untermenschen', the Koran regards Buddhists as 'idolators' and 'mushrikun', who must be exterminated (Surah 9, ayah 5). So the Sheik is merely expressing the orthodox teachings of his religion.
See No future for Buddhism in an Islamized World
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