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April 11, 2006

Australia: Claims That Hardline Muslim Teacher Is "Peaceful"

We reported in December last year that Islamic scholar and teacher Yahya Ibrahim was refused entry to the United States when he tried to enter via Detroit. He was detained for five hours, denied an entry visa, and bundled on a plane bound for Canada, the place of his birth.

Currently, he is based in Perth, western Australia, where he is the deputy principal of the Australian Islamic College. Of Egyptian extraction, his biography claims that he was born in Waterloo, Ontario in Canada. He is proficient in Arabic and English and has acted as translator for visiting Islamic dignitaries. He memorised the Koran in its entirety, he claims, having begun the task when he was 16 and completing the task 20 months later. He started preaching in Toronto mosques at age 17.

An interesting article by David Quelette in Judeoscope reports that following his denial of entry to the United States, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) started to demand explanations from the US authorities, in typically CAIR-ite fashion.

Quelette states that Yahya Adel Ibrahim refers in his numerous lectures (available on CD) to his host country Australia as having a society that is "evil". He also claims that kufr (Kaffirs, or unbelievers) use drugs, alcohol and prostitution to lure Muslims from the righteous path of Islam. He has worked in the Saudi Embassy in Washington DC, where he has translated for Abdulrahman al-Sudeis, senior imam of the Grand Mosque in Mecca.

As we reported in January, Sudeis is a rabid antisemite. He condemns Israel in such terms as "When the oppressor Zionist enemy uses its war of smart bombs and tanks against our brothers in Palestine, violating our holy sites, that's not terrorism to their mind -- but defending land, religion and honor is."

Quelette states that 29-year old Yahya Adel Ibrahim has translated for "some of Salafism's most radical scholars". He says that Inrahim is considered a bridge-builder between Muslims and non-Muslims, but writes sermons which indicate he is a hardcore activist of the Wahhabi ideology spreading Salafist extremism. He warns that Ibrahim "should not be welcome in free societies fighting Islamic extremism."

It appears that Yahya Ibrahim's international reputation is now coming home to roost, according to The Australian, which discovered that some of his sermons have condemned Christians and Jews as "enemies".

Ibrahim has lived in Australia for four years, and has recently married an Australian. As well as being a deputy principal of the Australian Islamic College, he also teaches more mundane studies at the (Islamic) Kewdale High School in Perth, where he is the deputy assistant principal. There he teaches geography and maths.

But his sermons are not easy on the ear. One states: "Allah tells us never, never will the Jews and the Christians be satisfied or content or pleased with you until you follow them and their religion." Yahya told the Australian that the sermon in which those words were spoken could be blamed on his youthful "inefficiency of language". He said: "It's a mistake in, maybe, the verbalisation or maybe the statement."

Yes, and my nephew is covered in hair and eats bananas. The internet is littered with sites where one can purchase Ibrahim's CDs, or listen to his lectures in Real Player format. I clicked onto Islamic Invitation Centre's Yahya page, where amongst other sermons, I found one entitled "Hijab", about Muslim women's head coverings. For the first 1 minute and 40 seconds of the half hour sermon, he ululates prayers (?) in Arabic before starting to speak in English. He then waffles until 2:63 when he actually begins his sermon. Unfortunately, though Ibrahim loves the sound of his own voice, I do not, so I switched it off.

I had more luck with an easy-to use slideshow presentation about Sharia law, where he states that Sharia is wonderful, and for everyone who is Islamic. I managed to last a bit longer reading this before I started to feel nauseous.

For those of a truly masochistic or suicidal disposition, if you click here, there is a page filled with links to 62 of Ibrahim's droning sermons.

Now, the Australian publishes a defence of Ibrahim, made by Mark Debowski, head of Kewdale High School. Debowski claimed: "I know the man's heart, I've seen the man's actions - he is a peaceful man."

When asked how parents may react when they discover Ibrahim's hardline interpretations of Islam, the principal responded: "I'll leave that to the parents to decide." As the school is already Muslim, I expect the parents (and Debowski himself) probably encourage and wholeheartedly support the views espoused by Yahya Adel Ibrahim.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at April 11, 2006 10:09 PM

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