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July 11, 2006

Australia: Islamist Books Finally Banned

We wrote on May 15 that books promoting Jihad were freely available in Muslim bookshops in New South Wales. At that time, these books had been accepted as "legal" by the Australian Federal Police (AFP) and the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP).

While the Attorney General, Philip Ruddock, had said: "The test is, does it advocate the use of force or violence, and on this occasion the AFP and NSW Police with the DPP have deemed the material does not," at the same time, the Gideon's Bible was being banned from hospitals in the state of Victoria, lest it offend Muslims.

The books on jihad had been on sale in Lakemba and Auburn, suburbs of Sydney. Today, news from AAP via the Melbourne Age, ninemsn.com.au and news.com.au reports that now, two of these books have been banned nationally.

The books are Defence of the Muslim Lands and Join the Caravan. The Classification Review Board has decided that these two tomes advocate armed jihad, and have been refused classification. Which means that they can no longer be sold anywhere in Australia, and they cannot be imported into the country.

In Defence of the Muslim Lands had on its back cover an endorsement from Osama bin Laden, and advocated that a person should be "wiring up one's body" with explosives, for the purpose of "martyrdom or self-sacrifice operations".

Philip Ruddock had sought the Board's review in June, following the rulings by AFP earlier. However, there were more books which had given cause for concern, and these did not become censured by the Classification Review Board. Six more titles are still legal, including The Ideological Attack, which asserts that Jews, Christians and atheists are mounting a barbaric onslaught against Muslims.

Also deemed to be "legal" is the book The Criminal West, which claims that it is a matter of shame to be called an Australian, and said Western culture is a culture of wolves, injustice and racism. The author is an "Australian" Muslim called Omar Hassan, who also claims that Australian police are rapists and attackers of young boys, and says there is a campaign to turn Muslims into drug addicts.

The Classification Review Board said of In Defence of the Muslim Lands that it "promotes and incites in matters of crime, specifically terrorism acts, including the plan, action and execution of martyrdom operations".

It added: "The book is specific and explicit in its support for and encouragement of suicide bombing, including details for undertaking such crimes."

The other book to be banned, Join the Caravan "has the objective purpose of promoting and inciting acts of terrorism against disbelievers and is a real and genuine call to specific action by Muslims to fight for Allah and engage in acts of violence."

The chair of the board, Maureen Shelley, had consulted the "Mufti" of Australia, Sheikh Taj al-Din al-Hilaly, and also the NSW Council for Civil Liberties before passing its decision.

Philip Ruddock, the Attorney General, now said it would be for state governments to act. He said: "I would urge state and territory attorneys-general and police to ensure that they enforce the laws available to them and keep offensive material of this nature off streets."

Ruddock is also wanting to meet with state attorneys-general later this month to consult on whether censorship rulings need to be amended.

Waleed Ali of the Islamic Council of Victoria was not happy, and said on ABC Radio: "We understand that the literature is demonstrably unsavoury but that's different from saying that it necessarily causes a threat."

Maybe the endorsement of Osama bin Laden, and advocacy of wiring one's body up for explosives, in the case of In Defence of the Muslim Lands has something to do with the book being considered to be inciting terrorism.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at July 11, 2006 4:16 AM

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