CANBERRA: Muslims who want to live under Islamic
Sharia law were told on Wednesday to get out of Australia, as the
government targeted radicals in a bid to head off potential terror
attacks. A day after a group of mainstream Muslim leaders pledged
loyalty to Australia at a special meeting with Prime Minister John
Howard, he and his ministers made it clear that extremists would face
a crackdown.
Treasurer Peter Costello, seen as heir apparent to 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
this 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 practices it, perhaps,
then, that’s a better option,” Costello said. Asked whether he meant
radical clerics would be forced to leave, he said those with dual
citizenship could possibly be asked move to the other country.
Education Minister Brendan Nelson later told reporters that Muslims
who did not want to accept local values should “clear off”.
“Basically, people who don’t want to be Australians, and they don’t
want to live by Australian values and understand them, well then they
can basically clear off,” he said. Separately, Howard angered some
Australian Muslims on Wednesday by saying he supported spies
monitoring the nation’s mosques.
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