Pro-terrorist Melbourne Age misses a few 'minor' details

Here is the full text of a piece in the Melbourne Age, a socialist rag in the style of the UK's morally malnourished The Guardian, in which they give space to a Saudi-funded Islamic group to complain that some of their speakers have been refused entry to Australia for a conference.

The organisers of an Islamic conference to be held in Melbourne this weekend have defended their decision to invite a controversial Muslim scholar who has been denied a visa to enter Australia.

The Department of Immigration refused a visa application by Dr Bilal Philips, a Canadian citizen who lives in Qatar, reportedly on the advice of national security agencies.

Adel Selman of Mercy Mission, the group organising the conference, expressed surprise that Dr Philips had been barred from Australia.

"We were obviously surprised, and disappointed of course, because we were looking forward to his attendance," Mr Selman told theage.com.au.

"We know that Dr Bilal Philips is one of those academics and scholars who has attracted a lot of attention in the past so we weren't surprised that the government went through the proper due diligence (but) the final outcome was a bit of a surprise to us."

The group today issued a statement saying the scholar did not pose a threat to Australians.

"Dr Philips is . . . a regular visitor to many countries, including the UK and Canada. To our knowledge, Dr Bilal Philips is not linked to any acts of terrorism, nor does he support any terrorist activities. Mercy Mission does not believe that Dr Bilal Philips represents any threat to Australia or Australians, and in fact, his presence at the conference would have been a positive development," the statement said.

Another academic invited by the group, Dr Jaafar Idris, has been asked by the immigration department to show cause why he should be allowed to enter the country.

Mr Selman said Dr Idris would not be issued with a visa in time to attend the conference, but he said the group hoped to arrange for both men to visit Australia in the future.

"We would not have invited those two speakers if we thought they would not bring value to our conference. "We still believe that their presence here would be of benefit to Australian muslims and the broader Australian society," he said. "So yes, we would hope that one day, God willing, that we would be able to bring them out to Australia."

The Australian Islamic Conference will run at Melbourne University from Friday to Sunday. Entry is free and organisers are encouraging interested members of the public to attend.

When the Mercy Mission claims "Dr Bilal Philips is not linked to any acts of terrorism" why does the Age then fail to mention that he is, in fact, an unindicted co-conspirator in the 1993 WTC bombing? He was also a featured Imam videoed in Channel 4's Dispatches program when they went undercover into Britain's mosques to listen to what was being preached. In one segment of the programme, Philips was covertly filmed telling Muslim men it was OK to marry 9 year old pre-pubescent girls, because the prophet Muhammad did it. Some of Phillips quotes include "The clash of civilizations is a reality. Western culture led by the United States is an enemy of Islam." When he was invited to New Zealand he was somewhat controversial, as exposed by Investigate Magazine.

The Age also missed the fact that Jaafar Idris was a professor of Islamic Studies and the director of the Research Center at the Institute of Islamic & Arab Sciences (IIAS) in Fairfax, Virginia. The IIAS wasa nonprofit educational institution affiliated with the Wahhabist al-Imam Muhammad Ibn Saud Islamic University in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Idris was also the president of American Open University in Alexandria, Virginia. Idris was deported in January 2004, along with 15 others affiliated with the IIAS, during a massive crackdown on Saudi extremism within the United States. He also founded the Islamic Foundation of America. The IIAS was shut down by federal authorities on July 1, 2004 because of its links to terrorism.

So who are these Mercy Mission people? They have a new website that lets us know that well established, Saudi-funded Islamic scholars are the order of the day. What an amazing surprise that is.

Is there anyone at The Age that has even the slightest clue about radical Islam and the danger it poses to our way of life? That this once fine paper has descended to such an appalling level is really disappointing. At least it still has a half decent sports section.