PM STANDS BY MUSLIM COMMENTS
1.9.2006. 14:42:21

Prime Minister John Howard says he has no need to apologise for telling Muslims they need to embrace Australian values.

Mr Howard sparked controversy yesterday by saying on talk-back radio a small group of Muslim migrants had refused to accept their adopted country's values and had not learned English.

He told Macquarie Radio Australia had benefited greatly from immigration, but “there is a section, a small section, of the Islamic population ... which is very resistant to integration”.

"What I want to do is to reinforce the need for everybody who comes to this country to fully integrate," Mr Howard said yesterday. "Fully integrating means accepting Australian values, it means learning as rapidly as you can the English language if you don't already speak it.

"And it means understanding that in certain areas, such as the equality of men and women, the societies that some people have left were not as contemporary and as progressive as ours.

"People who come from societies where women are treated in an inferior fashion have got to learn very quickly that that is not the case in Australia."

Rest of the story at this link.

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