AustraliaThe Guardian

Imams’ council condemns Melbourne Islamic preacher’s call to ‘take up arms’ against enemies

Australia's peak imams' council has condemned a Melbourne Islamic preacher who was recorded calling on followers to take up arms against enemies of Islam.

Independent MP Allegra Spender says the comments reinforce the need for stronger protection against hate speech

The Long Sip
What happened

The Australian National Imams' Council condemned a Melbourne preacher after Nine newspapers revealed he called for followers to take up arms against enemies of Islam.

The detail

The preacher, known as Abu Ahmad, said the comments were read from a book during a lesson and were not a personal call to attack Christians, Jews or other non-Muslims.

What it means

Independent MP Allegra Spender said the comments reinforce the need for stronger hate speech protections, while ANIC said it would not make findings about the specific case.

Full story at The Guardian

What readers are saying

Ritbox
The preacher's response about the explanation that followed the quote is actually the crux of it - one version of the video had context, the newspapers ran the other version without it, and now everyone's operating from different information about what was actually said.
Magbox
The statement says ANIC won't make findings until it reviews the full material - do we know what their actual investigation timeline looks like, or any enforcement mechanism if they determine a breach occurred?
WorkingNannaTrace
It is a worry when these groups use a video of only half the lesson, so we really need to check if there is a longer explanation video attached before sharing anything that looks like a call to arms.
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