Prime Minister John Howard called yesterday for the help of Muslim leaders in uncovering extremists cells promoting hatred in Australia while assuring the Islamic community they were not under attack. Howard said that he would be asking Muslim leaders to help "bust open" radical cells as part of their assistance in the fight against terror at a summit to be held in the next few weeks.
But the conservative Australian leader said that making Muslims feel like they were under attack would not only be counterproductive, "it would be quite unjust because the overwhelming majority of them share the abhorrence that we do about violence and terrorism."
"[But] they do have responsibilities and we have to guard against this country going down the path of other societies where you have closed cells, where you have people who are the product of being able to operate with a degree of immunity within their own communities, and that really is something that we have to bust open," he said.
Howard said that he felt some members of Britain's Muslim community were aware of the planning of the terror attacks which took place in London's transport system on July 7 and killed more than 50 people.
"What happened in Britain was that you had British-born people [involved in the attacks]," he said.
"Their communities must have known something of it. I find it hard to accept that they didn't, and the reality is that there was no human intelligence suggesting otherwise."
The meeting with Muslim leaders will take place ahead of next month's emergency anti-terror summit between state and federal leaders which will discuss tightening Australia's laws on inciting terrorism and deporting extremists. Howard, who has said he will consider the tougher laws introduced in Britain following the July 7 attacks, said he would not "make up a new criminal code on the run."
Attorney-General Philip Ruddock said that it was very difficult to deport Australian passport-holders unless they had lied on their citizenship applications. But Howard said there was a mutual obligation on people once they became Australian residents to accept the country's values.
"You receive the benefits of living in Australia and in return you have an obligation to embrace and imbibe the values and attitudes unconditionally... of this society," Howard said."I think that's a fair balance and most Australians would see it in those terms."
Howard, who was meeting with British Prime Minister Tony Blair in London when the July 7 attacks occurred, is reportedly not committed to imitating Britain's new anti-terror laws.
But Australia's security agencies are working with the British officials to produce a list of suspected extremists who would face deportation, the Sunday Telegraph said.
"The list would include overseas-born extremist Islamic clerics, people inciting terrorism on websites, and those known to have trained in Pakistan or Iraq," the paper said without naming sources.
CONDITIONS: The Russian president said a deal that was scuppered by ‘elites’ in the US and Europe should be revived, as Ukraine was generally satisfied with it Russian President Vladimir Putin yesterday said that he was ready for talks with Ukraine, after having previously rebuffed the idea of negotiations while Kyiv’s offensive into the Kursk region was ongoing. Ukraine last month launched a cross-border incursion into Russia’s Kursk region, sending thousands of troops across the border and seizing several villages. Putin said shortly after there could be no talk of negotiations. Speaking at a question and answer session at Russia’s Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok, Putin said that Russia was ready for talks, but on the basis of an aborted deal between Moscow’s and Kyiv’s negotiators reached in Istanbul, Turkey,
SPIRITUAL COUPLE: Martha Louise has said she can talk with angels, while her husband, Durek Verrett, claims that he communicates with a broad range of spirits Social media influencers, reality stars and TV personalities were among the guests as the Norwegian king’s eldest child, Princess Martha Louise, married a self-professed US shaman on Saturday in a wedding ceremony following three days of festivities. The 52-year-old Martha Louise and Durek Verrett, who claims to be a sixth-generation shaman from California, tied the knot in the picturesque small town of Geiranger, one of Norway’s major tourist attractions located on a fjord with stunning views. Following festivities that started on Thursday, the actual wedding ceremony took place in a large white tent set up on a lush lawn. Guests
Four days after last scanning in for work, a 60-year-old office worker in Arizona was found dead in a cubicle at her workplace, having never left the building during that time, authorities said. Denise Prudhomme, who worked at a Wells Fargo corporate office, was found dead in a third-floor cubicle on Aug. 20, Tempe police said. She had last scanned into the building on Aug. 16 at 7am, police said. There was no indication she scanned out of the building after that. Prudhomme worked in an underpopulated area of the building. Her cause of death had not been determined, but police said the preliminary
‘DISCONNECTED’: Politics is one factor driving news avoidance, a professor said, adding that people who do not trust the government are more likely to tune it out Hannah Wong cried when the Hong Kong government effectively forced the territory’s Apple Daily and Stand News out of business three years ago. Among the last news firms in the territory willing to criticize the government openly, many saw their end as a sign that the old Hong Kong was gone for good. Today, the 35-year-old makeup artist says she has gone from reading the news every day to reducing her intake drastically to protect herself from despair. Four years into a crackdown on dissent that has swept up democracy-leaning journalists, rights advocates and politicians in the territory, a lot of people
RSS