Peter Lindsay (Herbert, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I think it is time for a bit of plain speaking about what is going on in the Middle East at the moment, and particularly in relation to the conflict in Israel and its neighbours, Palestine and Lebanon. On the weekend I saw some rallies in Australia and I saw some people who were supporting the Lebanese make some very provocative comments in relation to Israel, indicating that Israel was the culprit and Israel should be condemned. Israel has been trying to live peacefully in the Middle East for a long time now and the world had a bit of hope that perhaps things were getting better, with Israel withdrawing from Gaza and the temperature coming down a bit on the border with Lebanon. Then we saw Hamas move to kidnap a soldier in Israel and we saw the resultant reaction to that by Israel. At the same time, we saw Hezbollah in Lebanon kidnap two Israelis.

The plain fact of the matter is—and I say this to those who were at the demonstration—if these kidnappings did not happen, we would still have peace in the Middle East. They do not seem to understand that. What they have got to understand is that, instead of criticising Israel for something beyond its control, what they should be saying is that all members of moderate Islam should rise up and utterly condemn the terrorist and fanatical element of Islam—which is not Islam. In the many Islamic countries in the world, all of the good, moderate people should be making very public statements utterly rejecting what is going on in the world.

If that happens, there may just be some hope that we will not see these attempted terrorist bombings of aeroplanes, this mass murder in the United Kingdom, for example. We will not see what has been going on with Iran and Syria controlling Hamas and Hezbollah. We will not see that, and perhaps the world can be a safer place. I really do ask the good people of Islam: look at the Koran. Look at it and understand and know it does not preach these sorts of things. It does not preach the hatred that exists in the Middle East at the moment. We have to do something about that and I ask all Islamic people around the world to rise up against the fanatics who are operating at the moment.