------------------------------------------------------------------------


 Don,


This is 100% factual and accurate - even though it is old hat. 

Our Prime Minister, John Howard made a statement in a clear unequivocal 
speech on TV a few weeks back. This was followed up by an even stronger 
statement/message by our PM in waiting, Peter Costello - our current 
Finance Minister. When the main local paper issued a survey amongst its 
readers, and a similar survey on Sky TV, the response was the highest 
numbers ever recorded, and the actual votes were that 96% of respondents 
agreed with the government stance - the most one-sided vote ever.

All in all, makes me proud to be an Australian. 
I wonder if your "govermunt" would act accordingly.... I think not.


------------------------------------------------------------------------


Muslims who want to live under Islamic Sharia law were told [in 2005]
to get out of Australia, as the government targeted radicals in a bid 
to head off potential terror attacks. [post 7/7]

A day after a group of mainstream Muslim leaders pledged loyalty to 
Australia at a special meeting with Prime Minister John Howard, he and 
his ministers made it clear that extremists would face a crackdown.

Treasurer Peter Costello hinted that some radical clerics could be asked
to leave the country if they did not accept that Australia was a secular
state and its laws were made by parliament.

"If those are not your values, if you want a country which has Sharia 
law or a theocratic state, then Australia is not for you," he said on 
national television. "I'd be saying to clerics who are teaching that 
there are two laws governing people in Australia, one the Australian law
and another, the Islamic law, that this is false. If you can't agree 
with parliamentary law, independent courts, democracy, and would prefer 
Sharia law, and have the opportunity to go to another country which 
practices it, perhaps, then, that's a better option," Costello said. 

Asked whether he meant radical clerics would be forced to leave, he said
those with dual citizenship could possibly be asked to move to the other
country. Education Minister Brendan Nelson later told reporters that 
Muslims who did not want to accept local values should "clear off."

Basically, people who don't want to be Australians, and they don't want
to live by Australian values and understand them, well then they can 
basically "clear off," he said. 

Separately, Howard angered some Australian Muslims on Wednesday by saying
he supported spies monitoring the nation's mosques. 


------------------------------------------------------------------------


Slightly biased - yet not entirely untrue: See this.


------------------------------------------------------------------------


[Contributed by Martie Woods]

Religion is regarded by the common people as true, 
by the wise as false, and by rulers as useful.