Guardian: A federal government frontbencher has warned against “simplistic” calls for a reformation within Islam, arguing “megaphone politics” could jeopardise Australia’s relations with regional neighbours such as Indonesia.
In a rebuke to former prime minister Tony Abbott, Concetta Fierravanti-Wells said calls for reform within Islam required “a reality check and some basic facts being instilled into the debate”.
The assistant minister for multicultural affairs also chided MPs who had indulged in a “public flogging” of Australia’s grand mufti, Ibrahim Abu Mohamed, for “their own political ends”.
Abbott, who has been playing an increasingly assertive role in national security debates, called last week for a reformation within Islam and argued that not all cultures were equal. The former prime minister said Islam needed “a reformation, an enlightenment, a well-developed concept of the separation of church and state”.