I have previously written about Islamist influences on the advice provided Australian intelligence (see http://www.terrorfinance.org/the_terror_finance_blog/2007/03/islamist_influe.html)
I have also written that Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs via an agency named AUSAID, runs a programme in Indonesia named LAPIS (www.lapis.or.id) which involves spending AUD 30 million(about USD 24 million) with the objective of improving the management of madrasahs in Indonesia. AUSAID runs a similar project in Mindanao called BEAM (see www.beam.org.ph).
(see http://www.terrorfinance.org/the_terror_finance_blog/2007/03/this_article_is.html)
This note serves as an update.
In mid-November the Australian High Commission in Brunei sponsored a tour of Brunei by one Waleed Aly,an Australian academic previously mentioned on this website. (see again link http://www.terrorfinance.org/the_terror_finance_blog/2007/10/further-evidenc.html)
Aly is a member of the committee, the Islamic Council of Victoria( see http://www.icv.org.au/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogsection&id=4&Itemid=26)
The activities of the Islamic Council of Victoria have been funded in part by the Muslim Community Co-Operative Australia , which is led by Dr Rahim Ghouse, whose dealings with the SDGT Sheik Yassin Al-Kadi have been documented on this website (see for example www.terrorfinance.org/the_terror_finance_blog/2006/08/yassin_alkadist.html as well as at www.abc.net.au/rn/backgroundbriefing/stories/2006/1754286.htm)
According to Ruth Adler, Australian High Commissioner to Brunei:
The visit of Mr Aly was an initiative of the Jerudong International School and the Australian High Commission in Brunei and was part of the High Commission's public diplomacy program for 2007-08. Mr Aly spoke at schools and other venues on a broad range of themes, including globalisation and Islam, globalisation and identity: promoting dialogue between different communities, and his book People Like Us: How Arrogance is Dividing Islam and the West.
On September 1 2007 Waleed Aly and wife Susan Carland (a convert to Islam) spoke at a conference in Malaysia organised by the Muslim Professionals Forum (MPF), Malaysia (see http://www.mpf.org.my./)
The MPF considers the Muslim majority in Malaysia an oppressed lot,and regularly speak in favour on tightening the laws in this Islamic state to ensure that Islam and Muslims can continue to practise their religion freely.(see for example http://www.aliran.com/oldsite/monthly/2005b/10f.html)
The MPF is also a proud supporter of HAMAS,inviting at least once Dr Azzam Tamimi to speak on the hypocrisy of the “democratic west” and the web of misconceptions and fallacies about HAMAS.
( see http://www.mpf.org.my/news-end-20060328.html)
High Commissioner Adler has refused to say why Waleed Aly in particular was chosen to speak in Brunei.
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