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Aussie anti-terrorism
outdoes Washington 
Government tells Muslims: If you don't back
country's values you are welcome to leave


A man whose terror-related conviction was quashed on appeal has been ordered to be on curfew and tell police where he is, in the first anti-terror control order issued by Australian authorities determined to take a hard line and prevent a terrorist attack.

The report by Reuters confirms the nation's no-tolerance stance toward any terror-related activities is much harsher than that of the United States.

The report said Joseph Terrence Thomas is subject to a midnight to 5 a.m. curfew even though an appeals court ruling on Aug. 18 concluded an interview he had with Australian police in Pakistan was inadmissible in the case because he had no lawyer's advice and it wasn't voluntary.

Australia's leadership long has held the position that if it's terror-related, it's not welcome in their nation.

Prime Minister John Howard earlier had said he supported monitoring the activities of those in Australia's mosques, citing a need for the government to know if members of the Islamic community supported or taught violence.

And Education Minister Brendan Nelson said those members of the Islamic faith who do not support Australian values are welcome to leave.

"We have a right to know whether there is, within any section of the Islamic community, a preaching of the virtues of terrorism, whether any comfort or harbour is given to terrorism within that community," Howard told Australian radio earlier.

In this week's case involving Thomas, a father of three, Ruddock reported the control order was issued to protect the community.

Thomas had been jailed in April on a five-year sentence for getting $3,500 and a plane ticket from senior al Qaeda agent Khaled bin Attash after being trained in Afghanistan in 2001 by a militant network affiliated with Osama bin laden, the report said.

The order was the first issued in Australia under anti-terrorist laws which have been tightened gradually since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.

Thomas' brother, Les Thomas, however, said it was just a "vindictive move" by police.

Joseph Thomas's lawyers said during his trial he had taken the money and plane ticket in order to get home, but he didn't intend to act as a resource for al Qaeda.

The tough stance has generated criticism, too.

Government leaders "have started playing an extremely dangerous game with the intent to control 'suspected' and public Muslim 'extremists' amongst Islam adherents" in Australia," according to Jack Smit, of the human rights group called Project SafeCom.

He said parallel cases could be built against "conservative Jews," who call non-Jews Gentiles as well as "the Church of the latter-Day Saints and the Jehovah Witnesses, who think that anyone who's not in their group will go to Hell and is damned."

Until now, Australia has been "a tolerant nation," he said.

There are an estimated 280,000 Muslims in Australia, mostly in population centers in Melbourne and Sydney.

Australia has maintained its position as a steadfast U.S. ally and just recently dispatched more soldiers to Afghanistan in the search of al Qaeda and Taliban fugitives. The nearly 200 special forces are bringing Australia back into the Afghanistan situation for the first time since 2002.

During an interview with the Courier Mail in Brisbane, Howard also said it's right for the nation to refuse entry to asylum seekers, because "you don't know who's coming and you don't know whether they do have terrorist links."

There has been concern that there might be a terrorist attack in Australia, and in a report Treasurer Peter Costello said some could be asked to leave the country.

"If those are not your values, if you want a country which has Shariat law or a theocratic state, then Australia is not for you," he was quoted as saying. "I'd be saying to clerics who are teaching that there are two laws governing people in Australia, one the Australian law and another the Islamic law, that that is false. If you can't agree with parliamentary law, independent courts, democracy, and would prefer Sharia law and have the opportunity to go to another country which practices it, perhaps, then, that's a better option."

Jihad Watch said even the suggestion that Australians preferred to keep their own laws and law-making procedures was too much for some.

The group said the Lebanese Muslim Association called that attitude "unjustified, unacceptable and hatred-instigating."

However, Jihad Watch said the reaction of the Lebanese Muslim Association "reflects a worrying mindset, a sense of grievance and entitlement influenced by hard-core generations of fundamentalist Muslim preachers…"