Hardline Muslim group should not be allowed to defame Oz values: Opposition leader

MELBOURNE - Opposition Leader Tony Abbott has said that an extreme Muslim group he describes as “peddlers of hate” will not be allowed to “defame Australian values” if he came to power through next Saturday’s federal election.

He was making a reference to the radical Hizb ut-Tahrir.

“We need to take a strong stand against the peddlers of hate,” the Herald Sun quoted Abbott, as saying while on a campaign in Victoria.

“Organisations such as Hizb ut-Tahrir are stirring up hatred against people of the Jewish faith, and people of Jewish faith ought not feel threatened or persecuted in their own country, Australia,” he added.

“But that’s what inevitably happens when you’ve got organisations such as this stirring up a viciously anti-Semitic message,” Abbott said, adding he was “really distressed” by the “apparent enthusiasm of at least 1000 Australians” who attended an Israel-bashing conference organised by the group in Melbourne.

He said he was disappointed the international speakers who attended the conference were given visas to come and “defame the Australian way of life and attack values that 99.9 per cent of Australians hold dear”.

“We wouldn’t give them visas and I’m disappointed the foreign speakers at this particular conference did get visas,” Abbott said. (ANI)