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26th February 2004
Cleric told of Islam violence
By Mark Russell
February 26, 2004
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/02/25/1077676831022.html

An Assemblies of God minister told a Christian seminar in Melbourne that violence was common in Muslim homes in Australia, he said yesterday.

Daniel Scot said he believed the Koran allowed Muslim men to beat their wives.

Pastor Scot told the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal that a female teacher at an Islamic school claimed the principal admitted bashing his wife every day.

The pastor, giving evidence in Victoria's first religious hatred case, said domestic violence was common in all cultures, but Islam allowed it.

The Islamic Council of Victoria has alleged that Catch the Fire Ministries, minister Danny Nalliah and Pastor Scot had vilified Muslims at the seminar in March 2002.

The council says Muslims were described as terrorists and rapists.

The seminar was arranged after the terrorist attacks in the United States on September 11, 2001, to increase understanding of Islam.

Pastor Scot, a guest speaker at the seminar, was questioned at length yesterday by Islamic Council barrister Brind Woinarski, QC, over his speech.

Pastor Scot, who was born to Christian parents in Pakistan, says he has read and re-read the Koran in its entirety at least 100 times and extensively read and studied commentaries on it.

He admitted telling the seminar that the Koran suggested women had little value, prostitution was acceptable, Muslims controlled the Australian immigration department, and it was an open secret that Muslims wanted Australia to become an Islamic nation.

Pastor Scot said he told the seminar that Australian Bureau of Statistics figures showed the Muslim population in Australia had increased from 201,000 in 1996 to 350,000 in 2001.

He now accepted this was incorrect and that the Muslim population in 2001 was in fact 280,000 and growing at 8 per cent a year.

Pastor Scot denied exaggerating the figures to alarm his audience.

The hearing, which began in October and may finish next week, is a test case for Victoria's Racial and Religious Tolerance Act 2001. Judge Michael Higgins will continue hearing the case today.