Further to http://jmm.org.au/articles/10311.htm

a Net friend wrote (28 October 2002):

I did a bit of research on this when my brother-in-law was urging my wife and I to sign a petition. There was no web-based info about the conference itself, but the sponsoring Ministry (Catch the Fire Ministry Inc Australia) had a web site. Interestingly, the page “Insight on Islam” had been taken down without explanation (whether for legal reasons or because they realised it made them a sitting duck, I don’t know), but Google had a cached copy, so I saved and read that.

The tone of the page was clearly insulting to Muslims, with suggestions that the Koran allowed infidels to be assaulted, raped and killed. It was also suggested that there was a clear linkage between Muslim beliefs and terrorism.

There was certainly no outright incitation to violence against Muslims and of course it was all couched in terms of concern for their eternal souls, but it clearly would have been offensive to Muslims. Whether it was grounds for legal action is, I guess, up to the courts.

Below are some quotes so you can get the flavour. I have a copy of the web page in question if anyone is interested.

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“The True Nature of Islam

We are being told that what these “rouge terrorists groups” are doing is a perversion of true Islam, not the true embodiment of it. We have people in our nation who are continually trying to separate Islam from these ‘terrorist’ groups. There are many people who recently stated on the airwaves that Islam is a religion of love and peace. But do yourself a favor sometime, and ask any Muslim to give a reference for this love from the Koran itself (their religious book). Undoubtedly, they will state that “Allah is compassionate and merciful.” To which you can ask them to give some example of this. Good luck – it doesn’t exist. In fact, the Koran clearly states the opposite:

The Qur’an, – Surah 9:5 “Fight and slay the Pagans wherever ye find them, and seize them, beleaguer them, and lie in wait for them in every stratagem (of war)…”.

[Snip…]

The Koran un-apologetically states that its founder and his men killed whole tribes of Jews, taking the women, and selling the children into slavery. They also raided numerous trading caravans, carrying away the plunder, took over entire cities, and beheaded anyone that stood in their way. The founder himself had a least 19 wives and concubines (conservative estimate), one of which was a 9 years old. [Is this not the definition of a pedophile?]

The reality is that the Koran clearly calls for such atrocities on civilization, and terrorism is not the abuse of their belief, but the very nature of Islam itself. Please – if you disagree – do yourself the greatest favor and read the Koran for yourself. And while you’re at it – read the Bible and do some comparative study. I believe you’ll be absolutely shocked at the contrast – I was! And by the way, rarely is there a person who can actually read the whole book because it is so boring – so good luck. If you want to save some time, there is a good book summarizing the Koran listed at the bottom of this article.

And how often it is said today that Islam is a religion of peace! They can only get away with such stupidity because of the ignorance of American people.

[Snip…]

As you can see above, Islam clearly calls for the destruction of people wherever they may be found.

[Snip…]

For the Koran clearly teaches the killing of the innocent in order to further their cause is absolutely OK. And yet I am not saying that all Muslims are murderers – only that Islamic teaching condones the idea completely. Remember, one of the rental cars left behind by the ‘terrorists’ contained flight maps, Arabic documents, and a Koran. If the Koran contained so much good for mankind, don’t you think that having read it for years before hijacking the plane, it would have convinced them to change their minds? Think about it.

[Snip…]

Thank God that most Muslims don’t follow Islam literally or seriously! But woe to the world because it only takes a few that do.

[Snip…]

Remember, of course not all Muslims are terrorist, BUT, make no mistake about it, Terrorism is intimately tied to Islamic ideals, and it is impossible to be divorced from it – and Saudi Arabia is the fuel behind it.”

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If this is the kind of stuff that Catch the Fire were putting out at their conference it is little wonder they have been brought to brook. We did not sign the petition!