PM accuses Waleed Aly of ‘appalling lie’ over Muslim comments

Scott Morrison has ripped into The Project host Waleed Aly, accusing him of spreading a “disgraceful smear” after the NZ massacre.

When Scott Morrison took on Waleed Aly, he challenged Australia’s most familiar Muslim voice and face.

And in the emotional aftermath of the Christchurch mosque murders, there was added heat in the clash.

It must be stressed the Prime Minister did not take on Aly because of his faith. He did it because of what he today claimed was “a disgraceful smear and an appalling lie”.

The PM has ripped into Aly after The Project host repeated claim that Mr Morrison urged the Coalition in 2011 to exploit concerns about Muslims in Australia to win votes.

The extraordinary showdown between the two high-profile figures may have ended up in court had the Prime Minister not pulled back from the threat today.

The stark disagreement between the two underlined the volatility of the post-Christchurch debate, and the unprecedented presence of a pro-Muslim figure in popular culture.

The combination of these two factors plus social media created a force of opinion even a Prime Minister could not easily counter.

Waleed “Nails-It” Aly is a panellist on Channel 10’s popular current affairs show The Project, co-hosts an ABC Radio National program, natters about sport on ABC TV’s Offsiders, has a newspaper column and is an academic at Monash University.

That is a formidable media spread a prime minister and all the resources of government would have difficulty matching, let alone achieving parity in popularity.

The Project’s Waleed Aly is a Gold Logie winner.

On the Friday evening of the New Zealand atrocity, Aly spoke directly down the camera barrel to viewers of The Project.

“You’ll have to forgive me, these won’t be my best words,” he said with a lump in his throat.

“The truth is, I don’t want to be talking today. When I was asked if it was something I wanted to do, I resisted it all day until finally I had this overwhelming sense that it was something in my responsibility to do so and maybe that’s misguided.”

Aly, who had attended Friday worship at his local mosque, said he was gutted, scared, overcome with utter hopelessness — but not shocked by extremists’ violence.

“There’s nothing about what happened in Christchurch today that shocked me,” he said.

READ MORE: Waleed emotional message in the wake of Christchurch attack

“I wasn’t shocked when six people were shot to death at a mosque in Quebec City two years ago. I wasn’t shocked when a man drove a van into Finsbury Park mosque in London about six months later and I wasn’t shocked when 11 Jews were shot dead in a Pittsburgh synagogue late last year or when nine Christians were killed at a church in Charleston.

“If we’re honest, we’ve know this has been coming.”

Turning to comments which riled the Prime Minister, Aly said there had been “media reports going back eight years at a shadow cabinet meeting in which another senior politician suggested his party should use community concerns about Muslims in Australia failing to integrate as a political strategy”.

“That person is now the most senior politician we have,” he said, clearly referring to Mr Morrison.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has accused Waleed Aly of spreading an ‘appalling lie’. Picture: AAP Image/Andrew Taylor

The comment’s source was a 2011 article in The Sydney Morning Herald that pinned the Muslim strategy idea on Mr Morrison, then Coalition immigration spokesman under Tony Abbott.

The Prime Minister’s office quickly complained to The Project and denied the Aly allegation.

“Update: Scott Morrison’s office has contacted The Project to deny the 2011 report on comments he has alleged to have made within a shadow cabinet meeting,” the program tweeted.

But the charge against Mr Morrison, which wasn’t denied in reports eight years ago, was off and running. Hundreds of thousands heard it while watching The Project or replaying the Aly clip.

Mr Morrison reportedly considered suing for defamation but — probably to his long-term benefit — he said today he would not proceed with the threat.

“I have no intention of doing that; I just simply want people to report the truth and that is an ugly and disgusting lie. I reject it absolutely,” Mr Morrison told ABC TV.

“Over the last decade I have spent my time as a public figure working with the Muslim community in southwestern NSW.

“I have walked the Kokoda Track with my Muslim brothers and sisters, I’ve done it on the Sandakan Death March. I have done it on the Salamaua Track in Papua New Guinea and organised, together with my good friend Jason Clare, similar visits to Turkey for the centenary of Anzac.

“That’s why I’m welcomed when I attend mosques in southwestern Sydney, with warm embraces.

“Perhaps if people focused a bit more on the story they don’t want to tell about my relationship with people of all faiths in this community, then perhaps they wouldn’t leap to make prejudiced conclusions.”