IT'S billed as the "largest, the biggest and the best-ever Islamic event in the history of Australia", a three-day festival for an expected 20,000 Muslims ... But the chief attraction is a Saudi imam who has called for violent jihad ... Dr Abdul Rahman al-Sudais who, as the man in charge of Islam's two holiest mosques in Mecca and Medina, could be considered the world's foremost imam ... (is) famous in the Muslim world for his recitations, "the Pavarotti of the Koran" ... Mr Razvi (the organiser) was surprised on Tuesday to hear of the allegations against Dr al-Sudais. "But he's just one speaker, and all he will do is recitation (of the Koran).
Sermon by Sheik Abdul Rahman al-Sudais, April 19 last year:
THE Jews of yesterday are the evil forefathers of the even more evil Jews of today: infidels, falsifiers of words, calf worshippers, prophet murderers, deniers of prophecies ... the scum of the human race, accursed by Allah, who turned them into apes and pigs ... These are the Jews - an ongoing continuum of deceit, obstinacy, licentiousness, evil and corruption ... The insult to and contempt of Arabs, Muslims ... reaches its height at the hands of the rats of the world, the violators of agreements, in whose minds abide treachery, destruction and deceit and in whose veins flow occupation and tyranny.
Vickie Janson, Australianchristians.com.au, January 7:
THE list of guest speakers announced for the March conference (includes) Dr Zakir Naik.
Kathryn Blaze Carlson, Canada's National Post, June 22, 2010:
AN Indian Muslim televangelist who was banned from Britain last week for "unacceptable behaviour" will not be allowed into Canada ... Dr Zakir Naik, who has said "every Muslim should be a terrorist" and that Jews are "our staunchest enemy" ... the 44-year-old medical doctor recommends capital punishment for homosexuals and the death penalty for those who abandon Islam as their faith. He has said that a man is within his right to beat his wife "lightly", though ... he cautioned against hitting her on the face or leaving a mark ... his view (is) that Western women make themselves "more susceptible to rape" by wearing revealing clothing ... (in a) 2007 video (he said): "If (Osama bin Laden) is fighting the enemies of Islam, I am for him ... if he is terrorising America the terrorist, the biggest terrorist, I am with him" ... Dr Naik ... (said) the (exclusion order was) "overzealous and islamophobic" ... (and his comments) were "taken out of context".
Geert Wilders, The Australian, Monday:
I ALWAYS make a distinction between Muslims and Islam ... Most Muslims are moderate, but people who reject Islam's violent and intolerant commandments are not practising "moderate Islam" - they are not practising Islam at all.
Will they protest at the peace-fest? Hamish Fitzsimmons, ABC online, Wednesday:
A LARGE group of angry protesters has scuffled with people attending a Melbourne speech by controversial Dutch MP Geert Wilders ... 200 protesters wrestled with those trying to access the venue ... took guests' tickets and pushed them to the ground ... Most of the protesters, who chanted "racism, no way, we're going to fight it all the way", then moved on.
Bring them to the conference? Robert Tait, Britain's The Telegraph, December 10 last year:
OFFICIALS in Sudan say they have captured an electronically tagged vulture suspected of being dispatched by Israel on a spying mission ... Sudanese officials concluded that the bird was a secret agent after discovering it was fitted with GPS ... (and) a tag attached to its leg with "Israel Nature Service" and "Hebrew University, Jerusalem" ... A similar discovery in Saudi Arabia last year prompted local media to report that a bird, later identified as a griffon, had been "arrested" under suspicion of spying as part of a suspected "Zionist plot". Saudi officials later (accepted) the bird was part of a migration study.
