Australia Makes it Clear

CANBERRA: Muslims who want to live under Islamic Sharia law were told
on Wednesday to get out of Australia, as the government targeted
radicals in a bid to head off potential terror attacks. A day after
a group of mainstream Muslim leaders pledged loyalty to Australia at
a special meeting with Prime Minister John Howard, he and his
ministers made it clear that extremists would face a crackdown.

Treasurer Peter Costello, seen as heir apparent to Howard, hinted that
some radical clerics could be asked to leave the country if they did
not accept that Australia was a secular state and its laws were made by
parliament. "If those are not your values, if you want a country which
has Sharia law or a theocratic state, then Australia is not for you,"
he said on national television. "I'd be saying to clerics who are teaching
that there are two laws governing people in Australia, one the
Australian law and another the Islamic law, that that is false.

If you can't agree with parliamentary law, independent courts,
democracy, and would prefer Sharia law and have the opportunity to go
to another country which practices it, perhaps, then, that's a better
option," Costello said. Asked whether he meant radical clerics would be
forced to leave, he said those with dual citizenship could possibly be
asked to move to the other country.

Education Minister Brendan Nelson later tol d reporters that Muslims
who did not want to accept local values should "clear off".

"Basically, people who don't want to be Australians, and they don't
want to live by Australian values and understand them, well then they can
basically clear off," he said. Separately, Howard angered some
Australian Muslims on Wednesday by saying he supported spies monitoring
the nation's mosques.
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HELLOOOOOOW! AMERICANS.....ARE YOU LISTENING?