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Aust'n Deputy PM rejects calls for ban on Muslim immigration

Xinhua, July 21, 2016 Adjust font size:

Australia's Deputy prime minister on Thursday shut down calls from controversial Senator-elect Pauline Hanson for Muslim immigration to be banned and CCTV cameras to be installed in Australian mosques.

Barnaby Joyce, the nation's Deputy Prime Minister and leader of the Nationals Party, said the controversial One Nation policy of banning Muslim immigration into Australia and setting up surveillance cameras in existing mosques was preposterous, and that filtering immigration based on religious beliefs was against the values which Australia was built upon.

"I'm not into banning people on the premise of their belief," Joyce said in comments published in News Corp newspapers on Thursday.

"If you can put (surveillance cameras) in mosques, then I go to Mass, are we going to have one in the Catholic Church?"

Joyce's comments came after apparent Islamic State-led (IS) terror attacks occurred in Nice and in Turkey earlier this month.

The attacks were followed by controversial comments made by Hanson and leaving TV personality Sonia Kruger, who have both called for a ban on all Muslim immigrants coming into Australia. Endit