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Treat Muslim cleric as 'joke': Howard
 Prime Minister John Howard on Friday suggested that Australians should treat the countrys senior Muslim cleric as a joke. Howard made the comment after Egyptian-born mufti Sheikh Taj Aldin al-Hilali reportedly said he was more Australian than the prime minister whom he likened to Saddam Hussein."'At's right! I can hop like a kangaroo! I got more abdomen than an aborigine! I'm infested with vegamites!" The clash is the latest in a series of controversies to embroil Hilali, who has described scantily-clad women as uncovered meat. The sheikh is a walking testament to the dangers of wearing your turban too tight... Howard, in a radio interview, said he was not bothered by Hilalis latest comments. "It doesn't bother me when a platypus farts, either." Im tempted to say we should start treating the man as a joke and in relation to his comments about me ... well, Ive been insulted by experts so Im rather untroubled by them, Howard said. He repeated an earlier call for Australias Muslims to sack Hilali as mufti because he is bringing ridicule upon them. The fact that they haven't dumped him lends credence to my contention that they don't feel shame like we do. Hilali told The Australian newspaper that he had spent 50 years promoting peace and accused Howard of running a dictatorship. Its a disgrace for the leader of a democratic country to pick on religious people, especially one who is practising a form of dictatorship that could almost be Saddam Hussein-like. "Wanna hear me play the didgeridoo?" Posted by: Fred 2007-04-14 |
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