(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - "By having Australians unwittingly eating Halal food we are all one step down the path towards the conversion, and that is a step we should only make with full knowledge and one that should not be imposed upon us without us knowing," Mr Simpkins told Parliament.
Mr Simpkins said he had carried out an unofficial survey in his northern-suburbs electorate of Cowan and had discovered that most meat at major chains such as Coles or Woolworths had been killed under Halal conditions, but had not been labelled as such.
He tabled a petition demanding that all Halal meat be clearly identified, complaining people could not buy meat for their "Aussie barbecue" without the influence of the "minority religion".
Mr Simpkins said that Prophet Mohammed (s.a.w.w) had talked of how Islam could be expanded around the world by getting people to eat Halal meat. "He reportedly said, 'The non-believers will become Muslims when, amongst other things, they eat the meat that we have slaughtered'. This is one of the key aspects to converting non-believers to Islam," Mr Simpkins said.
The petition tabled by Mr Simpkins had been organised by the Barnabas Fund, an organisation that supports Christians living in Muslim countries.
Immigration Minister Chris Bowen said Opposition Leader Tony Abbott should pull Mr Simpkins into line. "All members of Parliament should be looking to promote understanding and harmony between religions. Mr Simpkins has done the complete opposite," he said.
Interesting to hear that Simpkins takes his inspiration from the Barnabas Fund, whose international director Patrick Sookhdeo has indignantly denied that he is an Islamophobe. Indeed, such is Sookhdeo's concern that anyone should mistake him for an anti-Muslim bigot that Islamophoba Watch recently received an email from the Barnabas Fund threatening to sue us for libel unless we posted a link to the Charity Commission's bizarre decision in response to a complaint about Sookhdeo's booklet Slippery Slope: the Islamisation of the UK.
Perhaps Sookhdeo might like to demonstrate his opposition to Islamophobia by condemning Simpkins' paranoid nonsense? Unlikely, I think. You can consult the Barnabas Fund's halal petition here. It states: "The spread of halal is part of a Muslim commitment to Islamic mission (dawa) and the Islamisation of non-Muslim societies. The imposition of sharia practices on non-Muslims may be interpreted as an assertion of Islamic supremacy."
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