Aussie Moslems

Mmmm. I’m not convinced. Todays Australian has this article that smells of cannonisation. Hey, I’d love to think that our local Moslem fundamentalists are different from the overseas variety but in my opinion the jury is still out. Australia’s leading radical Islamic cleric has revealed he was told of a planned terrorist attack in Australia only months before the Sydney Olympic Games. Sheik Mohammed Omran, the Melbourne-based leader of the fundamentalist Ahl Sunnah wal Jama’ah Association, claims he advised against a plot to bomb targets in Australia in 2000 and threatened to go to the police. Threatened to go to the police? An old friend of mine phoned a week or two ago and told me of a conversation he had with a young aborigine that started with the predictable ‘got a smoke, mate’ and finished with a statement by the young bloke about people of middle east appearance approaching aborigines in North Queensland looking for malcontents and others to recruit to their evil cause. My friend, coincidently of dark appearance thought he should talk to the police. I agreed emphatically. Of course you should…NOW!. The police took him serious and a four hour interview ensued. (if there is any outcome that can be made public I’ll mention it here later) That’s what one does when you hear of people talking about terrorism – not just threaten. Disable the bastards if you can and call 000 straight away. In interviews with The Weekend Australian, Sheik Omran’s followers said they would go to him ahead of ASIO if they suspected one of their group was planning a terrorist act. Wrong. On his current form Sheik Omran would only threaten to tell the police and time wasted threatening and responding could have fatal consequences. I can’t help thinking the article is an attempt to make the Shiek appear responsible and anti-terrorist. Sheik Omran says he does not support terrorism and claims he is a force for peace within Australia’s fundamentalist Muslim community. But he admits to knowing many people who have been jailed for terrorist activities around the world. These include his long-time friend Abu Qutadar, the suspected head of al-Qa’ida in Europe, who is under arrest in Britain, and Bashir, who is serving a jail sentence in Indonesia. Sheik Omran was recently named in Spanish court documents as having links with the suspected leader of al-Qa’ida in Spain, Abu Dahdah – claims which the sheik has denied. Watch him!