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19th February 2004
Christian seminar did not vilify Muslims: lawyer

By Barney Zwartz
February 19, 2004

A Christian seminar that Muslims say vilified them was a proper religious activity common to both religions, a barrister for the Christian group that ran it said yesterday.

David Perkins said the seminar was exempt under Victoria's Racial and Religious Tolerance Act 2001, and the case should be dismissed.

He told the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal that Catch the Fire denied vilifying Muslims, but even if it had, the act exempted conduct carried out for a genuine religious purpose.

"If a Muslim cleric were to say from the pulpit that homosexuals should be treated in a particular way, then that entire conduct is converted from something illegal to something perfectly legal, so that although there is vilification it is legal vilification," he said.

In the first case under the new law, the Islamic Council of Victoria has complained that Catch the Fire Ministries, pastor Danny Nalliah and speaker Daniel Scot vilified Muslims at the seminar in March 2002.

The complainants completed their case yesterday. Mr Perkins said the seminar was presented by a Christian pastor, in a church, on a subject of religion. It began with prayer and was attended by a big congregation.

"It was a proper, reasonable, religious Christian event, whether you agree with it or not," he said.

Mr Perkins said the purpose was to teach Christians to proselytise, an activity common to both faiths and a widely known civil right.

The hearing before Judge Michael Higgins continues today.

This story was found at: http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/02/18/1077072711163.html