Oz Jihadis Face Justice

Australia's longest running criminal trial ended today, with five Muslim would-be terrorists getting hefty jail sentences of up to 28 years:

It took Justice Anthony Whealy more than three hours to read out his judgement in the case of the five men, who were found guilty by a jury last year of plotting a large scale terrorist attack.

Four of their co-conspirators had already pleaded guilty to being part of a plot.

Justice Whealy described the motivation for what he called a criminal enterprise.

"Each was driven by the concept that the world was, in essence, divided between those who adhered strictly and fundamentally to a rigid concept of the Muslim faith - indeed a medieval view of it - and those who did not," he said.{...}

And while the intended target was never revealed and plotting had in fact been interrupted by the men's arrests, Justice Whealy says it was clear.

"An intolerant and inflexible fundamentalist religious conviction was the principal motivation for the commission of the offence," he said.

"This is the most startling and intransigent feature of the crime.

"It sets it apart from other criminal enterprises, motivated by financial gain, by passion, by anger or revenge."

Justice Whealy sentenced the five men to terms in jail from 21 up to 28 years, with long non-parole terms.

But here's the important part. Aside from what can best be characterized as resentful silence from a good chunk of Australia's Muslim community, the only other Muslim public reaction was rage at the sentences, not the crime:

Outside the Parramatta court, the sister of one of the men read a poem for her brother, who was sentenced to 23 years in jail.

"They handcuffed your spirit, they stole your freedom, they locked you up for a crime you didn't commit. They locked you up because you fit the perp's descript," she said.

And she lashed out over the prosecution.

"Which family in this world wouldn't be surprised? Which family? Twenty-three years, that's half of his life," she said.

"That is half of his life. This is not fair. This is not fair to our community nor to our religion.

"My brother is innocent. Yes I am saying that he is innocent."

When asked if her brother was plotting mass murder, the woman accused ASIO officials of being "extremists".

"No he was not planning no mass murder, he was not planning any terrorist attacks," she said.

"No plots and he's not an extremist. The only form of extremists are the people like ASIO. They go deep.

"They go way deep into this. The whole case was extreme."

Never mind that four out of the five confessed!

And that's the problem. Far too many Muslims have exactly this attitude towards Islamist terrorism. And until the majority of Muslims are willing to stand up in support of a free and tolerant society , people are simply going to assume that they support Islamic fascism as in fact far too many of them do.

Imagine, for instance, if Jews had been arrested committing or planning an act of terrorism here in America, perhaps as a protest against Obama's anti-Israel policies.

Not only would the Israeli government harshly condemn their actions and actively assist the US government in rounding up any Israelis involved, but does anyone doubt that Jewish celebrities would fall over each other condemning the terorrists and that every major US Jewish group would place huge ads around the country expressing their love for America and their disdain for any Jew trying to hurt the country? Does anyone doubt that Rabbis all over the nation would be preaching sermons on the same subject and urging their congregants to inform the FBI of anything information or suspicions they had on other extremists?

And would it be different in Australia, in Canada, or in any other country?

For that matter, would it be different with any other religious or ethnic group...except Islam?

Personally, I reluctantly gave up on the idea of a reform leading to a 'moderate Islam' after the Mumbai massacre. Although not on the idea of moderate, decent Muslims.

Either Geert Wilder is right, and we're in a war with at least a major part of Islam that we must win, or the majority of Muslims are going to have to take measures to prove him wrong.

For Muslims and for the rest of us, the days of voting present are drawing to a close, I think.

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