15 July 2005

Extreme Islam

The Australian editorial, “Homegrown terror raises tough issues”, (14/7/05) notes the murderous ideology of the “radical undercurrent within Islam” and the need for Australia’s imams to denounce it absolutely.

But there is a real problem here, and that problem is the Koran itself. A close friend of Leeds suicide bomber Shehzad Tanweer said the Tanweer family is “100% devoted to the Koran” (The Australian, 14/7/05, p 1). Shehzad recently spent some time in an Islamic madrassah school in Pakistan where he learned about the Koran in more detail – including its many passages about jihad.

Pastor Daniel Scot – born in Pakistan in 1951, son of Ahmed Siddiqi – is an expert on Islam and the Koran. As a Christian, he suffered discrimination in employment. In order to gain his position as mathematics lecturer in a Pakistan university he was required to pass an examination in Islamic Studies. He gained full marks – more than any Muslim applicant – and got the job.

But in 1986, after a military coup had ushered in sharia law in Pakistan, Scot was pressured to convert to Islam. He politely declined, citing verses from the Koran, the Hadiths (sayings and life of Mohammed) and the Bible. His belief that Jesus rather than Mohammed gave him assurance of salvation was deemed to have insulted the Prophet. This is a capital offence in Pakistan, and Scot had to flee for his life.

He found refuge in Australia, where he believed he would find freedom of speech and freedom of religion. He lectured in mathematics in two Queensland universities before leaving academia in 1994 to conduct seminars on Islam.

I have heard Pastor Scot lecture on Islam on several occasions and was impressed by his detailed knowledge of the Koran and the context in which it was written. He explained that the Koran was first recited in ancient Arabic and this is the holy language in which it is proclaimed in mosques today. Most Australian Muslims can recite some verses from the Koran in ancient Arabic but are not familiar with its full teaching.

Pastor Scot explained passages about jihad, the low value of women and the punishment of thieves, but said the “vast majority” of Muslims do not believe this. However those who closely follow the Koran and the Hadiths – eg in Pakistan madrassahs – do believe it and desire to live under a system of Islamic or sharia law where the testimony of a woman is worth half that of a man and thieves are punished by having their hand cut off.

I believe Pastor Scot’s inside knowledge of Islam as practised in Pakistan and several other Islamic nations today would be most helpful to Australia’s intelligence agents. But they would have to consult him very rapidly.

For a judge of the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal has decided that Daniel Scot’s seminars on Islam constitute vilification against Muslims. The judge said that the Koran passages Scot expounded are not relevant to Islam in Australia in the 21st century. Scot has been ordered to publish a full statement of the findings against him, twice in two Melbourne newspapers, and to undertake never again to give similar teaching on Islam.

Pastor Scot says he cannot in good conscience publish statements which he believes are in error. Nor can he promise never again to tell what he believes is the truth about Islam. Yet if he does not obey the judge’s orders, he could be facing a prison sentence within the next two weeks.

I have been wondering if the judge has read the newspapers in recent days – and whether he now regrets some of his findings. Even more, I have been wondering whatever happened to freedom of speech and religion in this country.

by Roslyn Phillips

Roslyn Phillips is the research officer of Festival of Light Australia. In February this year she accompanied Pastor Daniel Scot in London where he addressed a meeting peers of the House of Lords on religious vilification. The peers, who had been given transcripts of Pastor Scot’s seminar on Islam, were astounded to hear that a judge had deemed him guilty of inciting religious hatred. Not long afterwards they opposed a UK government bill to ban religious vilification, and some cited the Scot case in their speeches.

Mrs Roslyn Phillips, B Sc Dip Ed Research Officer, Festival of Light Australia Website http://www.fol.org.au