Best Have Your Bags Packed and Ready, Then

Well well well. How amusing. It's Australia's favourite hostage negotiator, Sheikh al-Hilaly, on the front page of the Oz calling for the deportation of radical Islamic clerics. Apparently he sees himself as a moderate. It just goes to show how out of touch he is with the Australian populace if he thinks a man with his views is a moderate. Let's revisit some of the intemperate ramblings old Grandpa Hilaly's come out with after popping one too many heart tablets...

"We are also proud of what Hamas and the Islamic Jihad are both doing in the occupied territories. We support the resistance and support, with all our might, the martyrdom operations carried out by the Palestinian liberation movements, operations that are a legitimate act against the cruel occupation, according to all international norms and conventions."

Martyrdom operations, Sheikh? So moderates support suicide bombers? How interesting...

"More dangerous yet are the sex education classes in the schools. In the West, the society is divided, generally speaking, into different parts in accordance with how interesting they are. First comes caring for dogs and cats. In second place is the woman, and in third place is the child, and in fourth place is the male. Australia is one of the Western societies, and it has recently enacted lawsallowing men to marry men and women to marry women. The church officially registers them… These are the dangers of freedom and permissiveness."

Sheikh, you have such a balanced, accurate, and - oh, bother, what's the word I'm looking for, Mr Hilaly? Ah, yes, precisely! - moderate insight into the nature of Western society.

"The dangers threatening the Muslim community emanate from the law that prohibits the family's guardianship over its sons from the moment they reach the age of 16. The father has no authority over his son or his daughter, and if you try to intervene in your son's private life, he brings in the police. The moment your son reaches 16, he takes his freedom and becomes independent."

Oh, the evil freedoms of the Western world! You know, I'm sure life's much better in unfree, hang-'em-from-the-cranes, moderate Iran.

"The media all over the world are controlled by Zionist fingers, particularly the Western media, and that includes Australia, in which the media are under Zionist hegemony."

So, Herr Hilaly, the Jews control the world media. What else? The banking system? The American President? The international trade in menorahs? Gott in himmel, it's about time we devised a Solution to deal with this Jewish problem, hey, Mr Moderate? This, once again from the good Sheikh, is about as incoherent as the last but much more sinister:

"The Jews struggle with humanity is as old as history itself; the present continuing struggle with the Islam nation is a natural continuation of the Jews enmity towards the human race as a whole. Judaism controls the world by…secret movements as the destructive doctrines and groups, such as communism, libertinism, Free Masons, Baha’ism, the Rotary clubs, the nationalistic and racist doctrines. The Jews try to control the world through sex, then sexual perversion, then the promotion of espionage, treason, and economic hoarding."

All I can do is butcher a famous cliche - with moderates like this, who needs radicals? And while I'm asking questions, how about another: Who granted this man citizenship? Change the law, revoke his Australian citizenship and deport him now. As The Australian headline screams: Deport the clerics of hate!

UPDATE: Read this sermon, given in Lebanon by the Moderate Sheikh (TM) and interpreted by the Australian embassy (not particularly TM) there. I'm sure it's genuine; it's published on an Australian Broadcasting Corporation server. Yup, our boy's a moderate all right.