Australia’s Grand Mufti Ibrahim Abu Mohamed showing his “moderate” side in an interview last year.
Australia’s Grand Mufti Ibrahim Abu Mohamed showing his true colors a few days ago.
AUSTRALIA’S Grand Mufti Ibrahim Abu Mohamed has met with the hierarchy of Hamas, the Palestinian party listed by the Gillard government as a terrorist organisation.
Last week Dr Mohamed led an Australian delegation of Muslim scholars to the Gaza Strip, where they met Hamas senior political leader Ismail Haniyeh.
Mr Haniyeh, who has been pushing for the US and the EU to remove Hamas from its terrorist watchlist, last year described former al-Qaeda chief Osama Bin Laden as “a Muslim and Arabic warrior” while condemning the US for killing the terrorist leader.
Dr Mohamed, who has been styled as a moderate since taking the top Australian Muslim post, last week expressed his happiness at being in Gaza, describing it as the land of pride and martyrdom.
“I am pleased to stand on the land of jihad to learn from its sons and I have the honour to be among the people of Gaza where the weakness always becomes strength, the few becomes many and the humiliation turns into pride,” he told local news agencies.
“We came here in order to learn from Gaza. As I said in my speech, we will make the stones, trees, and people of Gaza talk, in order to learn steadfastness, sacrifice, and the defence of one’s rights from them.
“We feel like we are on cloud nine. We feel like we are on top of the world.” Images of the visit were shown on local TV and hailed as a PR coup by Hamas, the fanatical ruling party in Gaza.
Attempts to contact Dr Mohamed, who has insisted radical Muslim extremists in Australia need to be corrected, were unsuccessful.
According to the Department of Foreign Affairs, Australia has listed Hamas as a terrorist entity subject to financial sanctions since 2001.
The military wing of Hamas is also listed as a terrorist organisation under the Criminal Code Act 1995.
In July 2009, Prime Minister Julia Gillard, then deputy prime minister, said: “Hamas obviously is a terrorist organisation that has been engaged in violent actions against the Israeli people.”
Australia, I fear Grand Mufti has been playing you like a fiddle.
