Hanson's views on Islam take centrestage

Pauline Hanson didn't want her views on Islam to dominate her first press conference since the federal election, but the questions kept on coming.

election

One Nation's Pauline Hanson looks on during a live television cross at her election-night function in Ipswich, west of Brisbane, Saturday, July 2, 2016. Source: AAP

Pauline Hanson says Islam is not a religion of peace. In fact she doesn't believe it's a religion at all.

The One Nation leader, who's set to return to the federal parliament after almost 20 years, insists she's not out to offend Australian Muslims.

But she says it's time to turn the spotlight on Islam, and what's being preached in Australia's mosques and taught in local Islamic schools.

She's demanding a royal commission into whether Islam is a religion or a political ideology.

She wants to stop further Muslim immigration and halt the intake of Muslim refugees.

She wants surveillance cameras in all mosques and Islamic schools and for their teachings to be opened up to public scrutiny.

She advocates a ban on the construction of new mosques, and on the burqa and niqab being worn in public.

And she's calling for a referendum on changing the part of the constitution that offers protection for the free practice of religion.

"You have our values, our culture, and our way of life. You don't have a full burqa, you don't keep putting up mosques," she told reporters on Monday after learning she'll take a seat in the new Senate.

"I'd like to know what they are teaching in those mosques. You can't deny the fact that in these mosques they've been known to preach hate towards us.

"Is this a society we want to live in? I don't believe it is. Do you want to see terrorism on our streets here? Do you want to see our Australians murdered?"

Ms Hanson said she didn't want her views on Islam to dominate her first major press conference since the election.

She listed family law reform, job creation and putting the brakes on foreign investment as higher priorities for her One Nation Party, which she believes could win between four and six Senate seats.

But journalists pressed her on Islam, asking how she could invoke freedom of speech in defending some of her more controversial opinions while also saying Muslim Australians shouldn't be able to build mosques.

"It's got nothing to do with freedom of speech. We're talking about a political ideology," she said.

When it was suggested Australian Muslims would say Islam is a religion, she replied: "I know. And they say it's a religion of peace. We know that's not true either."

Ms Hanson also said some Australians were now seeing she was right almost two decades ago when she used her maiden speech to warn Australia risked being swamped by Asians.

"You go and ask a lot of people in Sydney, at Hurstville or some of the other suburbs. They feel they have been swamped by Asians," she said.

While saying she'd work with either a coalition or Labor government, she warned: "Have a look at the vote I've pulled and it will tell them they are clearly out of touch with the Australian people."


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Source: AAP


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