Sydney, Australia - Australian Treasurer Peter Costello, favourite to become the country's next leader, has called for Muslim extremists to be stripped of their citizenship while denouncing multiculturalism as "mushy and misguided".
The comments from Prime Minister John Howard's anointed successor have outraged Australia's Islamic minority, with leaders saying it is the latest in a stream of unfair criticism from a conservative government out to marginalise their community.
Costello demanded new citizens accept Australian laws rather than attempt to live by alternative codes such as sharia (Islamic) law, saying it was a sign of respect in the same way that taking off one's shoes before entering a mosque showed deference towards Islam.
"If you have strong objections to walking in your socks, don't enter the mosque," Costello told a function in Sydney late Thursday. "If you have strong objections to (Australian) values, don't come to Australia."
Prominent figures in the Muslim community, which numbers about 300,000 or 1.5 percent of Australia's 20 million population, said they could not understand why they were being targeted by Costello and the Howard government.
Shaken by racial rioting between white youths and Arab-Australians on Sydney's beaches last December, many Muslims have been frustrated by strong government support of the US "war on terror" and draconian counter-terrorism measures introduced after the 9/11 attacks.
Muslim leaders said their community was being further isolated by a string of criticism from government members, including Howard.
In remarks published this week ahead of his 10th anniversary in power, the prime minister criticised a minority of Muslims who "rave on about jihad" and hold extreme views "utterly antagonistic" to Australian values.
Government backbencher Danna Vale also said last week that Australians were aborting themselves "almost out of existence" and the country could become a Muslim nation within 50 years as a result. She later apologised.
Islamic Council of Victoria representative Waleed Aly said he believed there was a deliberate government attempt to scapegoat Muslims.
"It seems quite clearly calculated at marginalising a part of mainstream Australia that's been part of mainstream Australia for 50 years, but suddenly it's some sort of hideous problem," he said.
Australia has for decades had a policy of multiculturalism, offically defined as "supporting the right of each Australian to maintain and celebrate, within the law, their culture, language or religion".
But critics such as Howard believe it should place more emphasis on specific Australian cultural values.
Costello said he was surprised when attending a recent citizenship ceremony to hear a politician extoll multiculturalism's virtues by saying new citizens need not give up their culture, language, religion or love of their birth country.
"I realized that this confused, mushy, misguided multiculturalism completely underestimated the audience," he said. "Becoming a citizen of another country changes their identity."
Costello stood by his comments Friday, reiterating his view that migrants with dual citizenship who scorned Australian values should have their citizenship revoked and go to a country where they would feel more comfortable.
Howard backed him, saying Costello's comments were "fundamentally accurate" and accusing Muslim leaders of being too sensitive to criticism.
"He's not trying to stir up hostilities with Islamic people," Howard told commercial radio.
"For some to throw up their arms in horror and say that there's something wrong in even talking about this issue is ridiculous," he said.
The oppositon Labor Party said Costello's remarks were an attempt to shed his reputation as a liberal and endear himself to Howard's conservative supporters.
He succeeded in winning over Pauline Hanson, the right-wing populist who stood on a platform of anti-Asian immigration in the 1990s. She urged Costello to back up his rhetoric and expel people who refused to embrace Australia.
"If Peter Costello is wanting to be a future prime minister of this country he needs to take a tough stand on this, he needs to deal with it harshly," she told public radio.