Islamic cleric Abu Hamza says Australians are boozers hooked on gambling and prostitution By Mark Dunn Herald Sun January 23, 2009 02:53am * Cleric's latest rant attacks Aussies * "Hooked on booze, hookers and gambling" * Video: Watch the latest lecture <http://player.video.news.com.au/news/#x1v952VtBqPeRj7y2fhuGyTYvOppCqsy> OUTSPOKEN Islamic cleric Abu Hamza has branded Australians as boozers who are hooked on gambling and prostitution. In another sermon broadcast over the internet, the Melbourne cleric urged followers to spread the word of Islam to save Australians, the Herald Sun reports <http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,24950294-661,00.html> . "They think happiness can be achieved by being intoxicated, by going to the casino and blowing your money away, by going from one prostitute to the other," he said. "They don't know what life is all about, that's why they are on the booze, why they are binge drinking ... why unfortunately suicide has skyrocketed, murder, anxiety and depression." Prime Minister Kevin Rudd <http://search.news.com.au/search/0/?us=ndmnews&sid=1243&as=news&ac=search&q =Minister%20Kevin%20Rudd> yesterday demanded the cleric apologise after the another web sermon telling Muslim men they could hit their wives and demand sex. An overwhelming majority of news.com.au readers criticised the cleric. "These remarks have no place in modern Australia at all," Mr Rudd said. "I would call upon this Islamic cleric to publicly apologise and repudiate his remarks. Under no circumstances is sexual violence permissible or acceptable in Australia ... nor are they acceptable, in my view, to mainstream Muslim teaching. "So I say Australia will not tolerate these sorts of remarks. They don't belong in modern Australia and he should stand up, repudiate them and apologise." But Mr Hamza, also known as Samir Mohtadi <http://search.news.com.au/search/0/?us=ndmnews&sid=1243&as=news&ac=search&q =Samir%20Mohtadi> and who has previously spoken out strongly against terrorism, would not offer further comment on his views yesterday. Mr Hamza, born in Lebanon, moved to Australia as a youth with his parents. He has delivered contradictory lectures, at times telling his followers they should be grateful to live in Australia because it had a fair system of justice, welfare safety nets and the rights for individuals to express their views. His comments on the treatment of women have been condemned by the Islamic Women's Welfare Council of Victoria and Muslim community leaders, including Yasser Soliman. "To claim this is Islamic, or that the Koran forces wives to do things such as (these) lectures suggest, is quite insulting to most of the Muslim world," Mr Soliman said ------------------------------------ -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? Head on over to our discussion list, [email protected]. -------------------------- Brooks Isoldi, editor [email protected] http://www.intellnet.org Post message: [email protected] Subscribe: [email protected] Unsubscribe: [email protected] *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. OSINT, as a part of The Intelligence Network, is making it available without profit to OSINT YahooGroups members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of intelligence and law enforcement organizations, their activities, methods, techniques, human rights, civil liberties, social justice and other intelligence related issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. We believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtmlYahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: mailto:[email protected] mailto:[email protected] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [email protected] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
