The Jewish owner of a gym that teaches counter-terrorism style firearm training to regular people has demanded The Project host Waleed Aly apologise for a ‘racist comment’.
The Channel Ten program broadcast a segment about the IDF Training school’s ‘tactical shooting program’ on Tuesday evening.
The class at the gym in Caulfield, Victoria, in Melbourne’s south-east, teaches people Israeli Army combat techniques to ‘take down terrorists’.
During a panel discussion after the segment was aired, Aly, a Muslim, raised his eyebrows, smiled and asked: ‘If I rocked up with my mates Mustafa and Hamoudi, do you reckon they’d let us train?’
But the Krav Maga program’s founder, Avi Yemini, said a Muslim had been enrolled in that same class and demanded the TV host take back his ‘underhanded’ remarks.
‘Someone on national TV shouldn’t be saying comments like that which is assuming we’re not going to accept a Muslim,’ Mr Yemini told Daily Mail Australia.
‘The funny thing is, the course he was talking about had a Muslim in it. We didn’t say that because it doesn’t matter.
‘It doesn’t matter what religion you are. We do background checks. If you’re an extremist on any level you’re not welcome to our training.
‘He’s making it an issue, which is not OK’.
However, Waleed Aly told Daily Mail Australia he wanted to set the record straight about his comments.
‘If I’d said “do you think that Jewish business would ever accept Muslim clients?” then I would have apologised immediately and unreservedly.
‘But I wouldn’t, and I didn’t. The fact they were Jewish didn’t even occur to me during the discussion.
‘My question was about the suspicion that generally surrounds Muslims, which would no doubt be heightened in the context of military training.
‘If anyone thinks Jewish businesses exclude Muslims, they’re wrong, and I’d like to take this chance to set them straight.
Mr Yemini said the company’s Facebook page received ‘hate messages’ following the program, one which called him a ‘f***en Jewish dog’.
A change.org petition he started demanding the ‘racist comment’ be retracted had more than 1000 signatures at time of publication.
He said Aly and his mates were welcome to come down and participate in his program. ‘We publicly said he could come down and bring his two mates,’ Mr Yemini said.
‘He should take back that comment publicly… you can come down and do it (participate in the program).
‘Show that Jews and Muslims in Australia can live side-by-side, enjoy the same places, the same gyms.’
Mr Aly said he ‘greatly appreciated’ the invitation to train with them, but ‘it’s not really my thing.’ ‘Maybe we can have coffee instead,’ he said.