Malcolm Turnbull’s spin on Islam hides a grim truth: Andrew Bolt

MALCOLM Turnbull tried to fool us about gay-hating and bigoted Islam when he held his end-of-Ramadan dinner on Thursday at Kirribilli house, writes Andrew Bolt.

MALCOLM Turnbull tried to fool us about gay-hating and bigoted Islam when he held his end-of-Ramadan dinner on Thursday at Kirribilli house.

With the bodies not yet buried from the latest Islamist attack – this time on a gay nightclub – the Prime Minister made sure he was joined at his head table by the most photogenic and least representative Muslims he could find.

On his right sat a white ex-Christian Muslim convert, academic Susan Carland, joined by her husband, TV star Waleed Aly.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull hosts an Iftar dinner celebrating Ramadan at Kirribilli House in Sydney on Thursday 16 June 2016. Guests included broadcaster Waleed Aly and his wife Susan Carland. Picture: AAP

On Turnbull’s left sat one of the ABC’s preferred Muslim interviewees, the be-turbanned engineer and “Islamic youth advocate” Yassmin Abdel-Magied.

That table setting made pretty pictures for the photographers – and a supposedly reassuring one for Australians afraid of Muslim extremists - but it was a con. A con that fell to pieces within hours.

In fact, none of Turnbull’s most favoured guests at this Muslim religious dinner was a Muslim preacher or holder of any elected position representing other Muslims. None represent Islam as it is preached in this country.

No, the few real preachers were tucked away in other corners of the room. But, despite the heavy vetting of Turnbull’s department, even they turned out to be the kind of people who made a mockery of Turnbull’s desperate claim yesterday that “we are the most successful multicultural society in the world” and “live together in remarkable harmony”.

The media has focussed on one of those preachers - Sheik Shady Al-Suleiman, who in online videos has vilified Jews, called on God to help “destroy the enemies of Islam”, declared the punishment for adulterers “is stoning to death”, damned Christmas parties as “worship of Satan” and accused gays of “spreading all these diseases” through “evil actions that bring evil outcomes to our society”.

Sheikh Shady Alsuleiman and Grand Mufti Dr Ibrahim Abu Mohammed leave the Kirribilli house dinner hosted by Malcolm Turnbull. Picture: James Croucher

Turnbull, caught out hosting a militant anti-gay bigot at our Kirribilli House, claimed it was all a mistake. Had he known of these views, he’d never have invited Sheikh Shady.

And the Prime Minister then tried to con you again about Islam.

He pretended the Sheikh was just some crazy out on his own: “It is also wrong to seek to define the views of all 500,000 Muslims because of the opinions expressed by one person, by one cleric.”

But note carefully: Shady isn’t some two-bit ranter from some street corner. He is actually the elected president of the Australian National Imams Council, representing the imams who actually preach the Islamic faith. He is more representative of Islam than Aly, Carland or Abdel-Magied will ever be.

Moreover, few of the other Muslim guests interviewed at Turnbull’s Iftar party would condemn Shady or his brand of anti-gay opinions, sourced as they are in Islamic teaching.

For instance, Hafez Kassem, the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils president, suggested people should abstain from homosexual acts or else treated with “medication”.

Kamal Mousselmani, head of the Supreme Islamic Shia Council of Australia, agreed that homosexuality was a sin, adding: “If my son for example would become gay I would not talk to him.”

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Opposition Leader Bill Shorten take part in the news.com.au Facebook debate with Joe Hildebrand in Sydney. Picture: Kym Smith

Grand Mufti Ibrahim Abu Mohammad, who arrived and left with Sheikh Shady, refused to comment. But this is the Mufti who not only blamed the West for last year’s Islamist terror attack on Paris, but previously wrote that homosexuality and lesbianism were “sexual perversions”.

These men - not Turnbull’s top-table pets - are the authentic representatives of Islam in this country.

And each way you look, Australia’s most senior Islamic clerics challenge everything Turnbull tried to tell you about Islam and “mutual respect”.

Former Grand Mufti Taj Din al-Hilali, for instance, has called suicide bombers “heroes” and praised the September 11 terror attacks as ”God’s work against oppressors”.

His successor as Grand Mufti, the “moderate” Fehmi Naji El-Imam, turned out to be a supporter of Hezbollah, which has a terrorist wing.

Then there’s Sheik Wahwah, head of Hizb ut Tahrir in Australia, who threatens Jews with “an eye for any eye, blood for blood”, claiming that where Jews live ”corruption abounds”.

Or take Sheikh Mohammed Omran, the Melbourne-based emir of the Ahlus Sunnah wal Jama’ah school of Islamic thought, who once described al Qaeda head Osama bin Laden as “a good man in some ways” and “I dispute any evil action linked to bin Laden”.

These are the real representatives of Islam in Australia. There is no one more senior.

Turnbull should address this grim truth, rather than create such a farcical for-television stunt to persuade you all is well.