The Australian government has condemned a Muslim cleric who urged children to become martyrs for Islam and mocked Jewish people as pigs

BBC News:

The Australian government has condemned a Muslim cleric for making offensive comments in videotaped lectures.

Sheikh Feiz Mohammed, head of the Global Islamic Youth Centre in Sydney, urged children to become martyrs for Islam and mocked Jewish people as pigs.

Police are said to be investigating the tapes, which were exposed in a British TV documentary earlier this week.

Top Australian Islamic cleric Sheikh Hilali also sparked controversy, with remarks on women and white Australians.

Sheikh Feiz Mohammed, who has spent the past year living in Lebanon, talks on the controversial videotapes of his desire for children be offered "as soldiers defending Islam".

"Teach them this," he says, "that there is nothing more beloved to me than wanting to die as a Muhajid.

"Put in their soft, tender heart the zeal of jihad and the love of martyrdom."

He also ridicules Jewish people as pigs and makes snorting noises, saying they will go to hell.

His comments were shown on a British television documentary called Undercover Mosque, which says it found children selling Islamic tapes in a car park behind a UK mosque.

Australia's acting attorney-general Kevin Andrews described Sheikh Feiz Mohammed's comments as "offensive, unacceptable and outrageous".

Leader of the opposition Labor party, Kevin Rudd, said the sheikh should not return to Australia.

"These are appalling statements and they have no place in Australia," he said.

The federal police said they were investigating whether the cleric had breached anti-terrorism laws and incited acts of violence, according to Australian media reports.

Australia's Islamic Friendship Association president, Keysar Trad, said the remarks did not reflect the views of the wider Muslim community.

"They certainly give the public an erroneous impression about Islam and Muslims," he said.

The latest controversy follows a furore over comments by Australia's top Muslim cleric last year.

Sheikh Taj el-Din al-Hilali caused a storm of protest after comparing scantily-dressed women to "uncovered meat", comments he said were taken out of context.

He hit the headlines again recently when he told Egyptian television that Muslim Australians had more rights to the country than white Australians whose ancestors arrived as convicts.

'Jihad' sheik to face new police probe

Canberra denounces cleric's jihad call

Preaching death and dishonour

Round-up all the Muslim clerics and deport them out of Australia