SYDNEY - NSW Premier Morris Iemma has urged whatever action is necessary against controversial Sydney cleric Sheik Feiz Mohammed, including criminal charges or a ban from living in Australia.
Australian born Sheik Mohammed, the leader of the Global Islamic Youth Centre in Liverpool, in Sydney's west, sparked outrage
with a DVD urging young Muslims to become holy warriors and calling Jewish people pigs.
The Australian Federal Police yesterday announced it was investigating whether the comments constituted a breach of sedition laws by inciting racial hatred or acts of terror.
Mr Iemma welcomed the police probe, saying he was "offended and outraged" by the sheik's comments.
"The federal police ought to test whether this material or these statements come into the new laws," Mr Iemma told ABC Radio.
"We toughened up the laws to meet these changed circumstances and the dangerous world that we live in today with the threat of international terror.
"Leaders of communities, clerics and others inciting, exhorting, encouraging people to commit acts of violence and terror are precisely why we need to take these steps."
The premier also called for the Islamic accreditation authority to take action against the outspoken cleric.
"They make these statements as individuals, but they also make them as leaders and they have official standing," Mr Iemma said.
"Well that standing ought to be removed.
"He has authority from this accreditation, this sanction that he's given, and it ought to be removed."
Mr Iemma rejected the sheik's claim he had been taken out of context and misunderstood.
"I don't accept that from watching him in action," he said.
"What I find him very clearly saying 'jihad' (this) meant 'rise up, commit an act of violence, a suicide act, to kill others'."
Mr Iemma said the community needed to continue supporting moderate Muslims to stand up to extremists such as Sheik Feiz.
- AAP
