At least Australia's Prime Minister has a backbone..

[Spec]

Prime Minister John Howard - Australia
Muslims who want to live under Islamic Sharia law
were told on Wednesday to get out of Australia ,
as the government targeted radicals in a bid to head
off potential terror attacks.

Separately, Howard angered some Australian Muslims
on Wednesday by saying he supported spy agencies
monitoring the nation's mosques. Quote:
'IMMIGRANTS, NOT AUSTRALIANS, MUST ADAPT.
Take It Or Leave It. I am tired of this nation worrying
about whether we are offending some individual or their
culture. Since the terrorist attacks on Bali , we have
experienced a surge in patriotism by the majority
of Australians.'

'This culture has been developed over two centuries
of struggles, trials and victories by millions of men
and women who have sought freedom'
'We speak mainly ENGLISH, not Spanish, Lebanese,
Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Russian, or any other language.
Therefore, if you wish to become part of our society .
Learn the language!'

'Most Australians believe in God. This is not some
Christian, right wing, political push, but a fact, because
Christian men and women, on Christian principles,
founded this nation, and this is clearly documented.
It is certainly appropriate to display it on the walls
of our schools. If God offends you, then I suggest you
consider another part of the world as your new home,
because God is part of our culture.'

'We will accept your beliefs, and will not question why.
All we ask is that you accept ours, and live in harmony
and peaceful enjoyment with us.'

'This is OUR COUNTRY, OUR LAND, and OUR LIFESTYLE,
and we will allow you every opportunity to enjoy all this.
But once you are done complaining, whining, and griping about Our Flag, Our Pledge, Our Christian beliefs, or Our Way of Life, I highly encourage you take advantage of one other great Australian freedom,

'THE RIGHT TO LEAVE'.'

'If you aren't happy here then LEAVE. We didn't force
you to come here. You asked to be here. So accept the
country YOU accepted.'

Spec.

[Japher]

[Maniac]

Howard prime minister???

[Heraclitus]

If only someone in Europe had it too...

[OzzyKP]

Wow, that's ballsy. I couldn't imagine a US President ever saying something like that.

[SlowwHand]

Oh, right. If Bush said that, you'd all be wailing. Bunch of hypocrites.

[rah]

When was this said, it sounds like something that came out a while ago?

[DinoDoc]

Originally posted by rah
When was this said, it sounds like something that came out a while ago?

http://www.snopes.com/politics/religion/australia.asp

[Arrian]

It reads as almost a carbon copy of the "I'm an Ugly American" email that makes the rounds every so often. I imagine DD's snopes link points that out.

-Arrian

[Imran Siddiqui]

Originally posted by OzzyKP
Wow, that's ballsy. I couldn't imagine a US President ever saying something like that.

Yeah, because he'd get pillored for saying "speak the language" when there is no official US language and we can put God on the walls of our schools because the country was founded on Christian principles (because it wasn't).

[DinoDoc]

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui
Yeah, because he'd get pillored for saying "speak the language"...

I doubt it.

[Harovan]

According to an email I got last March (with this text as attachment), it is a part of a Howard speech February '08 on the anniversary of the terror attacks in Bali.

EDIT... umm, which were in October as a quick Google research shows. Strange.

[Lorizael]

That's a pretty silly tirade.

...

As a concept, though, I'm totally okay with a particular country not being right for a particular person. I wish countries were more upfront about this sort of thing, actually.

I think states should be founded and based solely around ideological principles. Most states in the world, however, are still based around concepts of nationality and culture, which I think are pretty dumb.

[DinoDoc]

Originally posted by Lorizael
I think states should be founded and based solely around ideological principles.

Apparently they do to:

TONY JONES:

Now, over the past 24 hours you've been repeating the notion that migrants, evidently Islamic migrants, who don't like Australia, or Australian values, should think of packing up and moving to another country. Is that a fair assessment?

TREASURER:

What I've said is that this is a country, which is founded on a democracy. According to our Constitution, we have a secular state. Our laws are made by the Australian Parliament. If those are not your values, if you want a country which has Sharia law or a theocratic state, then Australia is not for you. This is not the kind of country where you would feel comfortable if you were opposed to democracy, parliamentary law, independent courts and so I would say to people who don't feel comfortable with those values there might be other countries where they'd feel more comfortable with their own values or beliefs.

TONY JONES:

I take it that if you're a dual citizen and you have the opportunity to leave and you don't like Australian values, you're encouraging them to go away; is that right?

TREASURER:

Well, if you can't agree with parliamentary law, independent courts, democracy and would prefer Sharia law and have the opportunity to go to another country which practises it, perhaps then that's a better option.

[Lorizael]

Originally posted by DinoDoc
Apparently they do to:

Kind of. Except for the part where they're all like, "Also, we're Christian and English. So there." Again, those are cultural rather than ideological differences, and I think only ideological differences should be important.