The West was still underestimating the evil of Islam, an influential Muslim thinker has warned.

On a two-week “under the radar” visit to Australia, Syrian-born Wafa Sultan secretly met both sides of federal politics and Jewish community leaders, warning them that all Muslims needed to be closely monitored in the West. She insisted that Australia and the US have been duped into believing there is a difference between the religion’s moderate and radical interpretations.

In an interview with The Australian, Dr Sultan – who shot to recognition last year following an interview on al-Jazeera television in which she attacked Islam and the prophet Mohammed – said Muslims were “brainwashed” from an early age to believe Western values were evil and that the world would one day come under the control of Sharia law.

The US-based psychiatrist – who has two fatwas (religious rulings) issued against her to be killed – warned that Muslims would continue to exploit freedom of speech in the West to spread their “hate” and attack their adopted countries, until the Western mind grasped the magnitude of the Islamic threat.

“You’re fighting someone who is willing to die,” Dr Sultan told The Australian in an Arabic and English interview. “So you have to understand this mentality and find ways to face it. (As a Muslim) your mission on this earth is to fight for Islam and to kill or to be killed. You’re here for only a short life and once you kill a kafir, or a non-believer, soon you’re going to be united with your God.”

Dr Sultan, who was brought to Australia by a group called Multi-Net comprised of Jews and Christians, met senior politicians, including Attorney-General Philip Ruddock, Foreign Minister Alexander Downer and Labor deputy leader Julia Gillard.

Private security was hired for Dr Sultan, who left Australia yesterday, and state police authorities were also made aware of her movements in the country. The organisers of her visit asked the media to not publish anything about her stay until she had left the country because of security-related concerns.

Dr Sultan said Islam was a “political ideology” that was wrongly perceived to have a moderate and hardline following. “That’s why the West has to monitor the majority of Muslims because you don’t know when they’re ready to be activated. Because they share the same basic belief, that’s the problem,” said the 50-year-old, who was last year featured in Time magazine’s list of the 100 most influential people in the world.

The Australian, 21 August 2007

“Freedom of speech is one of the cornerstones of our democracy. The open exchange of views and the expression of controversial opinions are bulwarks against tyranny. Yet the British tradition of liberty is now increasingly under threat because of the state’s cowardly policy of trying to appease radical Islam.

“In the name of promoting a spirit of tolerance, our civic institutions have become ruthlessly intolerant of anyone who dares to challenge some of the most repellent features of hardline Islamism, such as misogyny, the contempt for human rights and the resort to violence for political ends. Blanket accusations of racism are regularly used to suppress debate about the problems caused by Islam.

“Britain fought the last war against an anti-semitic, book-burning, totalitarian regime. Yet in a bizarre twist, the modern British Government now acts as the guardian of those Muslims who want to see an Islamic version of just such a regime in this country. In a monstrous inversion of our values, those seeking to uphold our freedoms against Muslim fundamentalism are now the target of state repression.

“The British bobby, once a symbol of robust common sense, is rapidly being transformed into an agent of the race-fixated thought police. Perhaps the most worrying recent example of this trend was the outrageous conduct of the West Midlands police over a Channel 4 investigation into extremism within Birmingham’s mosques – Undercover Mosque.”

Leo McKinstry in the Daily Express, 20 August 2007