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Australian Pastors
Accused Of Attacking Islam
( ANS) -- The Voice of the Martyrs (VOM) has urged Christians around the world to pray for two pastors in Australia (Danny Nalliah and Daniel Scot) who could face a six month prison term and unlimited fines for allegedly inciting hatred towards Muslims, an official said. The case is being held at the Civil and Administrative Tribunal of Victoria state.

A request by lawyers for a two week adjournment of the case (because of additional Muslim complaints) was reportedly rejected by the court.

VOM Spokesman Todd Nettleton said in a published statment that the Islamic Council of Victoria has broadened its complaint to add not just the speakers and lecturers at a seminar about Islam but the entire meeting.

"This include it's "style, audience reaction and atmosphere," the organization added. Court hearings are scheduled to resume the first week of November.

The Islamic Council started the court case saying that the Christian ministry Catch the Fire of pastors Nalliah and Scot "vilified Muslims" at a seminar on jihad on March 9, 2002, a violation of Victoria's "Racial and Religious Toleration Act."

Nalliah and Scot, a native of Pakistan, were reportedly lecturing on the differences between Christianity and Islam, and quoted information about Islam directly from the Koran and other recognized Islamic sources.

VOM expressed concern that the two men will not be allowed to argue during their defense whether or not their statements were true, but only on whether or not they incited "hatred against, serious contempt for, or revulsion or severe ridicule" of Muslims.

"This case is a wake-up call for Western Christians," said VOM spokesman Nettleton. "These men are not on trial for telling lies. They are on trial--in what we would call a free nation--for telling the truth."

© 2003 Assist News Service
© 2003 Maranatha Christian News Service
http://www.mcjonline.com/news/03a/20031027d.shtml

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Case Pitting Muslims Against Christians Moves Forward in Australia
By Patrick Goodenough
CNSNews.com Pacific Rim Bureau Chief
October 27, 2003

Pacific Rim Bureau (CNSNews.com) - A legal tribunal in an Australian state will proceed with a case in which Muslims have accused Christians of vilifying Islam. The tribunal rejected arguments that it lacks the authority to hear the case.

The Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal is hearing the first case of its kind under Victoria's hate laws, which penalize anyone found guilty of inciting hatred, contempt or revulsion on the grounds of race or religious belief.

The Islamic Council of Victoria and three individual Muslims have brought the complaint against an evangelical Christian organization, Catch the Fire Ministries, which ran a seminar on Islam last year.

The complainants accuse the group of vilifying Islam during the seminar and on its Internet website, and want a retraction, an apology and compensation.

The Christians' legal counsel, David Perkins, argued that the tribunal could not hear the case because Australia's constitution, which is deemed to protect free speech, is in conflict with that state's Racial and Religious Toleration Act, under which the complaint was brought. The controversial Act was passed by the state's Labor government two years ago.

But presiding Judge Michael Higgins ruled that the state's legislation was not affected by federal laws, and the case is going ahead.

The Islamic Council of Victoria's legal representative, Brind Woinarski, told the tribunal seminar speaker Daniel Scot had alleged that the Quran encouraged violence, and that Muslims in Australia planned to turn the country into an Islamic state.

Scot, who claims to be an expert on Islam, told the audience Islam sanctioned lies and deceit when dealing with non-Muslims, he said.

Scot had also claimed that Muslims ascribe the same value to women as they do to a donkey or a dog, said Woinarski, who argued that the Racial and Religious Toleration Act was put in place to prevent such stereotyping.

Facing the complaints are Scot, an Islamic studies scholar who fled Pakistan in 1987 because of religious persecution; and Catch the Fire president Danny Nalliah, a Sri Lankan-born pastor. Both are now residents of Australia.

Perkins argued earlier that Catch the Fire's activities were exempt from the legislation.

The law includes several exemptions, including one for cases where it is established that a person acted in good faith, in discussion or debate for a genuine religious purpose.

Perkins said further that, while the law dealt with inciting hatred, contempt and revulsion, the ministry "exhorted Christians to love Muslims and pray for them."

In its lengthy defense statement, Catch the Fire has responded to each complaint in turn, asserting that the seminar had accurately reflected the Quran and other important Islamic texts.

Christian groups working in the Muslim world have voiced concern about the case.

An organization called Voice of the Martyrs, headquarters in Oklahoma, said Nalliah and Scot would not be allowed to argue on the basis of whether or not their statements were true, but only on whether or not they incited hatred against Muslims.

"This case is a wake-up call for Western Christians," said the group's spokesman, Todd Nettleton. "These men are not on trial for telling lies. They are on trial - in what we would call a free nation - for telling the truth."

Earlier a UK-based Christian organization called the Barnabas Fund, headed by a respected expert on Islam, also decried the case.

"This is an indication of the growing trend to place Islamic teaching and Muslim actions beyond the bounds of criticism, not only in the Islamic world, but also, as a result of misguided ideas of political correctness, in the West as well," it said.

Originally set down for three days, the ICV versus Catch the Fire case was already on its seventh day Monday and was continuing, a tribunal spokesman said.
http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewForeignBureaus.asp?Page=\ForeignBureaus\archive\200310\FOR20031027c.html

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Australian Muslims Take Pastors to Court over 'Vilification'
By Patrick Goodenough
CNSNews.com Pacific Rim Bureau Chief
September 16, 2003

Pacific Rim Bureau (CNSNews.com) - Two Christian pastors in Australia will appear in court next month to face complaints brought by Muslims who accuse them of vilifying Islam.

Their appearance in a legal tribunal in the state of Victoria is the culmination of an 18-month dispute between a Christian group that organized a seminar on Islam and three Muslims who attended it.

The three claimed a speaker at the seminar had incited "fear and hatred" against Muslims and, backed by the state's Islamic Council, took their case to a special state commission operating under controversial new hate legislation.

The Christian group, Catch the Fire Ministries, denied the vilification claims, saying the seminar had merely informed Christians about Islam and its teachings, as set out in the Quran and other religious texts.

Acting under Victoria's new Racial and Religious Tolerance Act, the complainants took their case to the state commission, but attempts to resolve it through conciliation failed.

The matter was then referred to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT), a body which operates like a court and can impose fine of up to $3,900 for individuals and $19,800 for organizations.

Facing the complaint is Catch the Fire pastor Danny Nalliah, who has worked with the underground Christian church in Saudi Arabia, and seminar speaker Daniel Scot, an expert in Islamic studies who migrated from Pakistan to Australia to escape religious persecution.

Bringing it is three individual Muslims and the Islamic Council of Victoria (ICV), whose representative dealing with the case, Philip Knight, declined to comment Monday.

A spokesman for leading Australian law firm Allens Arthur Robinson, confirmed that it was acting on behalf of the Muslim complainants in the case, but was under client instructions not to comment further.

Nalliah said in an earlier interview the three Muslims had attended the obviously Christian seminar uninvited, and evidently took offense at what they heard.

"We will not bow down to any pressure, as we have the right to stand for what we believe, in a free and democratic country," he said in a statement this week.

"As an Australian, I love my nation. I would not compromise the truth, as the word of God states that the truth will set us free."

Catch The Fire is calling on Christian supporters to pray and fast ahead of the tribunal hearing.

Mark Durie, an Anglican minister in Victoria who has lived and undertaken research in an Islamic society, is helping Nalliah and Scot to prepare their arguments.

He said by phone from Melbourne the pastors hoped to obtain expert witnesses to present evidence in what was expected to be "quite a complicated case."

"One of the things we're doing is documenting Islamist theological statements in the Australian Muslim community. One of the issues here is 'What is Islam,' and we will most likely present a detailed report on what Muslims in Australia have been saying about issues such as jihad and democracy.

"Why take a Christian to court for what Muslims themselves are saying right here in Melbourne?"

Durie said the Muslims who attended the seminar were "Anglos" - Australians of European origin - who were relatively recent converts to Islam. As such, they were likely genuinely offended by what they heard.

"People who convert from those backgrounds are not normally familiar with Islamist ideology. They normally buy into a more defensive view of jihad, for example. Some of the things they found offensive [according to their complaint] were just things quoted from the Quran. So it's partly a particular interpretation of the Quran that they were reacting to."

"I believe they sincerely believe that what was being taught was not true, so they are probably ill-informed."

As for the ICV, he said, it was no doubt well aware of the differences of views within the Muslim community. "I can't comment on what their agenda is."

In its written response to the complaint, Catch the Fire Ministries rejected allegations that his teaching incited hatred.

"It cannot be regarded as controversial that there are passages in the Quran ... [and other important religious texts] which could and do incite believers in Islam to violence and hatred of non-Muslims. These passages are well-known, and widely cited by terrorist groups," it said.

"Exposing the roots of this problem within Islam is not the same thing as inciting hatred. Since Christians are one of the named targets of jihad fighting in the Quran, they have a right and a duty to be well informed about this aspect of Islam."

'Western political correctness'

The Barnabas Fund, a UK-based Christian charity working in Islamic societies, is closely watching the Australia case.

In a briefing, it said the fact that Scot was one of the defendants was "bitterly ironic," as he was forced to flee to Australia after he became "one of the first victims of Pakistan's notorious blasphemy laws."

In 1986, the college he worked for threatened to bring a charge of insulting the prophet Mohammed - an offense carrying the death penalty - unless he converted to Islam.

"The charge was brought after he refused to do so and explained his belief that his spiritual salvation could come only from Jesus Christ, and not Mohammad," the Barnabas Fund said.

"Having fled religious discrimination in Pakistan, Scot again finds himself accused of a similar crime in Australia, the country in which he originally found refuge.

"This is an indication of the growing trend to place Islamic teaching and Muslim actions beyond the bounds of criticism, not only in the Islamic world, but also, as a result of misguided ideas of political correctness, in the West as well."

The Barnabas Fund also pointed to a possible, unintended consequence of the case in Australia.

If the tribunal rules that some of "the more unpalatable teachings" of a particular religion constitute vilification, the next time an adherent of that faith expounds those same views, he could surely also be prosecuted under the same law, it argued.

"Muslims in Victoria may, in the future, find this law being used against them."

One Muslim commentator who has been critical of the case being brought against the two pastors is Australian Muslim Public Affairs Committee executive director Amir Butler.

Writing in a Victoria-based tabloid newspaper last June, Butler questioned the wisdom of what he called an attempt to use legislation "to bash these Christians into silence."

"The effect was the exact opposite: the ideas were given an airing that they would never have received had the Muslims not responded in this way ... we were left with the impression that Muslims, unable to respond with intellectual arguments, had resorted to a kind of bullying."
http://www.cnsnews.com/ForeignBureaus/Archive/200309/FOR20030916b.html

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Contentious law

Nalliah said he and many other Christians had objected strongly to plans to introduce the Racial and Religious Tolerance Act, which can impose fines of $3,380 on individuals and $16,900 on groups found to have vilified others on the grounds of religion or ethnicity.

"We said it would not unite the people but divide them," he said. "It think this will be a very big test case. Possibly the [state] government is regretting passing this law, because it has already caused quite a hassle in the community."

A Christian ethical action group called Saltshakers spearheaded opposition to the bill. The group's research director, Jenny Stokes, said Thursday it had argued that offenses such as slander and defamation were already covered by common law provisions.

But the anti-discrimination legislation was trying to "enter the realm of thought, especially in the field of religion."

"This is where we thought the bill would go," Stokes said, referring to the Islamic Council's complaint.

Stokes herself attended the seminar at the center of the protest.

She said the complainants, who had not been present for the entire meeting, had taken a number of points out of context from Scott's detailed study on Islam, based on the religion's texts and the life of Mohammed.

"The idea of the seminar was that the Muslim faith is based on the Koran, and we need to know what the Koran says."

Both Nalliah and Scott have first-hand experience of Islam's approach to Christians. Scott and his wife left Pakistan in 1987, amid persecution after the introduction of Islamic (shari'a) law there.

According to Nalliah, Scott was condemned to death under Pakistan's controversial blasphemy laws but had managed to flee the country.

Nalliah, who in the 1990s held meetings with U.S. congressmen during the process leading up to passage of the 1998 International Religious Freedom Act, worked in Saudi Arabia for two years from 1995-97.

He said he had had close shaves with security agencies in a country where "you cannot mention the name of Jesus, you cannot have a Bible in your house."

http://www.cnsnews.com/ForeignBureaus/Archive/200205/FOR20020530b.html