Mufti comments on Howard - Not crazy.

I have found myself agreeing with Ricky yesterday and now I find that I am sort-of agreeing with the Mufti of Canterbury. Quote from the recent news story of a few hours ago:

"The sheik told The Australian he had spent 50 years promoting peace and accused the prime minister of running a dictatorship.

"It's a disgrace for the leader of a democratic country to be picking on religious people, especially one who is practicing a form of dictatorship that could almost be Saddam Hussein-like," Sheik Alhilali was quoted as saying.

"I respect Australian values more than he does."

I thing that Howard is not a dictator as perhaps Saddam, Marcos or Pinochet or Amin was but 11 years in power and lying through his teeth to win elections says to me that if we are not going to split hairs, then this constitutes a dictatorship well and truely, so I can't really fault the statement and/or at least the sentiment he had in mind.

Read it carefully and you will see that Hilaly does not say that he HAS more Australian values than the PM but that he respects them more than he does. Who are we to say that he does NOT?? It is an intangible thing so hard to put an absolute value on and so maybe he is right. Define them first anyway.

Also, he is right that Howard should not be picking on religious leaders. Very right. If he wants to castigate people, he should stick to those in politics or maybe economics but not religion.
Anyway, he forfeited his right to pick on Hilaly some time ago when he thought it was OK to make a very pro-Christian speech at the Hillsong Church, espousing the virtues of being a Christian. How dare he. What an outrage!! WE are supposed to see to it that Church and State are seperate, yeah?
If he going to do that, he can't go round criticizing religious leaders because it makes him look like he is getting involved in that area.

Let's all take a deep breath and see the Mufti's words in a different light instead of saying that he is a nutcase etc... That's the common line they always use when a comment is made that the govt feels uncomfortable about.

I am not a supporter of the Mufti or his rhetoric, nor am I am muslim or any affiliate of Muslims but just looking at things differently.

Ron.