A Muslim woman who won the NSW Young Australian of the Year award is now the target of a hate campaign by followers of the Religion of Tolerance™: Vilified over sip of bubbly. (Hat tip: LGF readers.)

THE state’s most promising young Muslim leader has become the victim of a hate campaign because she celebrated with a glass of champagne after being named NSW Young Australian of the Year.

Iktimal Hage-Ali, 22, has been targeted on Muslim websites for drinking alcohol and declining to wear the traditional hijab.

Her anonymous attackers condemned her after she drank the champagne to toast her award at the NSW Art Gallery last Thursday.

“It’s true, I was celebrating. Bloody hell, I had a glass of champagne in my hand – so what?” Ms Hage-Ali told The Daily Telegraph yesterday.

The Islamic youth website Muslim Village posted dozens of messages berating Ms Hage-Ali. “A person who drinks champagne, especially unabashedly, cannot represent the Muslim community,” one member wrote.

Another added: “She knows we don’t appreciate her representing us – but it’s the power that drives her. Drinking champagne, that is sick.”

The cowardly accusers also berated Ms Hage-Ali for wearing “revealing” clothes, nail polish and make-up. “Her matching nails, eye shadow and top … were not … how Islam would like to portray a Muslim female to the wider community,” one said.

UPDATE at 12/12/06 9:02:02 am:

The plot thickens: Young Muslim leader arrested. (Hat tip: WriterMom.)

YOUNG Muslim leader Iktimal Hage-Ali – a handpicked adviser to the Prime Minister – was arrested in a cocaine bust eight days before receiving the NSW Young Australian of the Year award.

The Daily Telegraph can reveal Ms Hage-Ali, 22, was one of four people arrested by detectives from the Middle Eastern organised crime squad on November 22 as part of Strike Force Kirban. She was arrested at her Punchbowl home and taken to Bankstown police station, where she was questioned over a cocaine supply ring allegedly operating in Sydney’s southwest.

The leading member of John Howard’s Muslim Community Reference Group was released without charge.

Police seized what is believed to be prohibited drugs, cash and ammunition from several of the homes. Ms Hage-Ali’s home was not searched, but she had been identified by police as a suspect.

The Daily Telegraph first learned of her arrest last week, but Ms Hage-Ali vehemently denied any involvement or links to alleged drug suppliers.

“If it is true, why hasn’t it come out?” she said. “I am a high-profile person, I have no idea why people would be saying this.”

The prominent youth leader has worked full-time as a personal assistant in the NSW Attorney-General’s department for three months.

A frame-up?