The Royal Australian Navy is now advertising for devout Muslims:

It is so desperate to secure their services that it is even kitting out mini-mosques on every base for them. Presumably, they get space at sea to pray as well.

This pro-Islamic attitude is far different from the one shown towards Defence members who are Christian.

Here is an excerpt from a letter sent to me by the former Chief of Defence Force, Lieutenant General David Hurley, about my expression of my Catholic faith:

This much is clear. The ADF hierarchy will sack Defence members for expressing Christian beliefs regardless of whether they are on duty or in uniform. And they will actively recruit Muslims and set aside work spaces so that they can pray.

It is a blatant case of double standards and hypocrisy.

That is bad enough.

But this politically-correct endorsement of Islam is also dangerous. That’s far worse.

We have already seen one Australian soldier go AWOL and end up fighting in Syria for jihadi groups. And we have seen a US major go postal at Fort Hood and kill 13 US soldiers dead. Prior to this he even handed out business cards announcing that he was a ‘Soldier of Allah’.

No one said anything lest they be accused of racism. Or bigotry. Or even bigoted Islamophobic racism.

That happened in 2009 and it is by no means an isolated example. There have been numerous other similar cases and even Islamic French SF soldiers have signed up to fight for the Islamic State.

No doubt, all of these people claim they are devout Muslims.

One would have thought that the ADF might have learnt from its previous embarrassing mistakes promoting Islam.

For instance, the Guide to religion and belief in the ADF used to have a link to a website that promoted the page islamqa.info.

And this website has the very helpful question:

“What is the ruling on Muslims serving in the military of non muslim country ? What is the evidence for its permissibility or prohibition?

And lastly, what is the status of a Muslim working to help those in the military to fulfill their obligations to Allaah while serving in the Army, Navy, or whatever?”

It’s a good question. Are Muslims allowed to serve in non-Muslim militaries?

Well, the answer is yes, provided it benefits the Islamic world. And learning the secrets of non-Islamic militaries is one way that such service can benefit the Islamic world.

See the full response below:

Praise be to Allaah.

We put this question to Shaykh Muhammad ibn Saalih al-‘Uthaymeen, may Allaah preserve him, who answered as follows:

“Praise be to Allaah, the Lord of the Worlds. Military matters are problematic, because they involve helping these kuffaar to wage war against the Muslims or those who have entered into a treaty with the Muslims. If no such thing is involved, it may be advantageous for Muslims to work in these armies so as to learn their secrets and be aware of their potential evil. In other words, if working in these armies could be of benefit, it may be permissible, otherwise it is not allowed.”

On this basis, if a person works as a preacher or daa’iyah or imaam or muezzin, serving the Muslims and calling non-Muslims to Islam, then there is nothing wrong with this.

This was brought to the attention of the ADF by Michael Smith. It refused to respond to him. It also refused to learn from its embarrassing mistake.

Instead of assessing the suitability of the ADF’s promotion of Islam, the hierarchy instead removed the link to this website from the Guide to religion and belief in the ADF.

This whole approach is known as burying one’s head in the sand. It’s what people do when they are too afraid to address danger, or too incompetent to understand danger.

Either way, it leaves danger free to roam. And that always causes harm.

We are headed for a situation where members of the Australian Defence Force will be harmed by its promotion of Islam. When that happens, the responsibility will lie entirely on the shoulders of our senior generals.