No bridges from fear and hate

THE weasel-like Indonesian Islamic cleric Abu Bakar Bashir and his Australian doppelganger Sheik Taj el-Dene Elhilaly returned to form over Easter, reminding realists of the underlying hatred these so-called fundamentalist leaders hold for Western civilisation.

Hilaly, according to The Australian, was to preach a sermon echoing a recent threat from terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden of a "reckoning" with Europe over a series of Danish cartoons which depicted the Prophet Mohammed that bin Laden claimed formed part of "the framework of a new Crusade" in which the Pope "has played a large, lengthy role". In his sermon to be preached at Lakemba mosque, the newspaper said, Sheik Hilaly was to claim that the 2005 cartoons, republished last month, showed the "hatred and envy" felt by the West against Islam. "The West announces holding a competition for caricatures that insult the Messenger of God, may he be blessed," Hilaly said. "And the worst drawing, that succeeds in causing the most harm in order to provoke the Muslims and cause them hurt for their prophet, wins the competition. They are determined. They are hateful." While Hilaly was preaching against the fundamental principle of freedom of speech, Abu Bakar Bashir was calling for his followers to "beat up" Western tourists. In the sermon recorded by a Darwin-based political science PhD student Nathan Franklin a few kilometres from the home village of convicted Bali bombers Amrozi and Mukhlas, Bashir compared tourists in Bali to "worms, snakes, maggots", and specifically referred to the immorality of Australian infidels. In one of his more ludicrous assertions, he repeated the claim that access to beaches in Australia was conditional on being completely naked. Hilaly has in the past also made spurious claims about common beach attire. Far from ever going to a beach, both clerics should take a cold shower and contemplate the hatred they engender among their simple-minded followers and the ludicrous figures they cut with their patently false remarks. Still, it may be better to have them spouting their nonsense publicly rather than secretly communicating their tragically vile views to the deluded seeking salvation and a posse of virgins through martyrdom. While the hand of the Vatican cannot be detected in the publication of the Danish cartoons - he did in fact criticise them when they first appeared - the Pope did score a major public relations victory on Saturday with the conversion of Italy's most prominent Muslim commentator, Magdi Allam, to Roman Catholicism. Magdi, who has been critical of Islamic extremism and a supporter of Israel, said he had been a non-practising Muslim. "I never prayed five times a day, facing Mecca. I never fasted during Ramadan," he said. He also told AAP that he received death threats from the terrorist organisation Hamas after writing a book Viva Israel or Long Live Israel. "Having been condemned to death, I have reflected time on the value of life," he said. "And I discovered that behind the origin of the ideology of hatred, violence and death is discrimination against Israel. "(That ideology says) everyone has the right to exist, except the Jewish state and its inhabitants," he said. "Today, Israel is the paradigm of the right to life." While the Pope said that baptism reflected "a force for peace and reconciliation in the world: distances between people are overcome, in the Lord we have become close," his remarks followed an episode which showed how far apart much of the Islamic world stands from such a sentiment. Outraged by the Danish cartoons, a number of religious leaders in Saudi Arabia and Yemen, and others, proposed the introduction of an international law that would criminalise religious insults and enforce mutual respect of religions. During debate in the Majlis ash-Shura, the Saudi religious consultative body, it was recognised however that that would mean extending courtesy to polytheistic religions such as Hinduism, which are an anathema to Muslims, and recommending that Islam respect Buddhism, Qadianism, Baha'ism and even Judaism. That might have necessitated facilitating followers of these religions in Islamic nations, which, to borrow a number of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's favourite cliches, proved to be "where the rubber meets the road" on "a bridge too far". The push to take such a benign and tolerant framework for religious harmony to the United Nations was buried. Again, Islam, which we are repeatedly told is the ultimate in peace and tolerance, proved unequal to meet the challenges of modern civilisation. Another victory for such sterling leaders as Hilaly and Bashir and their legions of unenlightened, unreformed and unapologetic primitive tribalists. If Magdi Allam needed any justification for his conversion, he need look no further than the words of these clerics and the failure of the Islamists to seek legal protection for those who wish to follow the religion of their choice.