Aussie Saudi Mosque Funding Shock!
Charles Johnson
Tue Jan 9, 2007 at 6:56 pm PST • Views: 408
Our friends the Saudis are shocked—shocked!—that Australia’s foreign minister would have the audacity to suggest there might be extremists in Saudi Arabia: Downer shocks Saudis with extremist-mosque link. (Hat tip: LGF readers.)
FOREIGN Minister Alexander Downer has been forced to smooth over relations with the Saudi Embassy after saying federal authorities were investigating links between Islamic extremists and mosques in Australia.
The embassy said yesterday it had been “shocked” by Mr Downer’s Monday statement on ABC radio that investigators were probing possible funding from “extremist groups in Saudi Arabia” for Australian mosques.
Later, Mr Downer said the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade had “expressed a view” about an application by the Saudi Government to invest in the development of a $750,000 new mosque in the southern Adelaide suburb of Park Holme. As a result of that advice the Saudis blocked the funding.
Iraqi Kurd Warya Kanie, 39, was a member of Park Holme Mosque congregation before his capture by coalition forces in Baghdad last month for allegedly engaging in anti-coalition activities. The Saudi embassy in Canberra said officials had “no knowledge of the content of the statement of the Australian Foreign Minister”.
“If there is, as the minister says, any money, it has not come from Saudi Arabia,” an embassy spokesman said. “We are very strictly watching the money which goes out of Saudi Arabia, the Saudi authority I mean.”
Frank says: