Costello to violent Muslims: get out

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Costello to violent Muslims: get out
By John Garnaut
February 24, 2006

THE Treasurer, Peter Costello, has criticised "confused, mushy, misguided multiculturalism" and told Muslim immigrants to leave violent cultural baggage at the door.

His criticism of Muslims who do not respect Australian values appears designed to present a conservative social image to repair his damaged leadership campaign.

"Before entering a mosque visitors are asked to take off their shoes," he told the Sydney Institute last night. "This is a sign of respect. If you have a strong objection to walking in your socks, don't enter the mosque.

"Before becoming an Australian you will be asked to subscribe to certain values. If you have strong objections to those values, don't come to Australia."

Mr Costello said those who broke the compact should be stripped of citizenship, if another country would take them.

His speech contrasted with an earlier warm welcome to immigrants by the Prime Minister.

"I thank all of those who weren't born in this country for coming here and making a contribution to Australia," John Howard told a Woolworths function yesterday, also in Sydney. "We are the least discriminatory country in the world, in my view."

Mr Costello's speech was his first on a matter outside the Treasury portfolio since he renounced the right to challenge Mr Howard for the leadership. Embattled by the Robert Gerard tax-avoidance affair, he said on December 7: "I will be a candidate for the leadership if there is a vacancy, but there is no vacancy." Until then, Mr Costello's supporters had encouraged a belief that he would challenge Mr Howard before this year's budget.

Last night he said Australia was an immigrant country whose success was built on respect for political and cultural institutions.

He attacked Muslim Australians who supported violence or did not recognise the primacy of Australian law, such as those who supported violent protests against blasphemous cartoons of the prophet Muhammad

"I do not like putrid representations like Piss Christ. I do not think galleries should show them. But I do recognise they should be able to practise their offensive taste without fear of violence or a riot," he said.

The speech was framed as a response to politicians who encouraged immigrants to maintain their old country's culture but neglected to ask them to respect the values of Australia.

Among those values he listed were economic opportunity, security, democracy, personal freedom, the physical environment and "strong physical and social infrastructure". Those who did not pass the values test should "stay away", lest Australia face a cultural "twilight zone" among second-generation immigrants.

Eligible Australians did not include terrorists. "Terrorists and those who support them do not acknowledge the rights and liberties of others - the right to live without being maimed, the right to live without being bombed - and as such they forfeit the right to join in Australian citizenship."

www.smh.com.au

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If you want sharia law, move: Costello
Friday Feb 24

Anyone who believes Islamic sharia law can co-exist with Australian law should move to a country where they feel more comfortable, Treasurer Peter Costello says.

All Australian citizens must adhere to the framework in society which maintains tolerance and protects the rights and liberties of all, he said.

It is a pre-condition for citizenship of Australia.

Mr Costello was giving a speech on the meaning of Australian citizenship to the Sydney Institute.

The Treasurer told the Nine Network's Today that receiving Australian citizenship was "undemanding".

"You don't have to give up anything, you don't have to give up love of other countries. We don't ask anything of you.

"But that's not right. Australian citizenship is a great privilege. And to take it out we do demand things. We demand a love to this country, and a loyalty to it."

Mr Costello said there were some second-generation Australians who had lost values of their parents and didn't embrace those of Australia, existing in a "twilight zone".

"We have to explain Australian values to that generation, and get them to observe them" he said.

"We have to preserve a way of life that makes us the greatest country in the world."

Last night, Mr Costello said there was one law everyone was expected to abide by.

"It is the law enacted by the parliament under the Australian constitution.

"If you can't accept that, then you don't accept the fundamentals of what Australia is and what it stands for."

Mr Costello, the son of a Methodist lay preacher and who was raised a Baptist, emphasised that Australia is a secular state under which the freedom of all religions is protected.

"But there is not a separate stream of law derived from religious sources that competes with or supplants Australian law in governing our civil society," he said.

"The source of our law is the democratically elected legislature.

"There are countries that apply religious or sharia law - Saudi Arabia and Iran come to mind.

"If a person wants to live under sharia law these are countries where they might feel at ease.

"But not Australia."

Mr Costello said there were some beliefs and values which were so central to Australian society that those who refused to accept them refused to accept the nature of Australian society.

"If someone cannot honestly make the citizenship pledge, they cannot honestly take out citizenship," he said.

"If they have taken it out already they should not be able to keep it where they have citizenship in some other country."

It was more difficult for those born in Australia or who had no dual citizenship, Mr Costello said.

"In these cases, we have on our hands citizens who are apparently so alienated that they do not support what their country stands for," he said.

"Such alienation could become a threat to the rights and liberties of others.

"And so it is important to explain our values, explain why they are important and engage leadership they respect to assist us in this process.

"Ultimately, however, it is important that they know that there is only one law and it is going to be enforced whether they acknowledge its legitimacy or not."

news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=88387