MELBOURNE, Australia

An Australian candidate for the ruling Liberal Party was dismissed on Wednesday due to his Islamophobic comments.

Australian Muslims have an ideology “demanding the killing or enslavement of non-Muslim Australian citizens,” Jeremy Hearn wrote last year in the comment section of an online magazine.

He added that Australian Muslims should be refused citizenship as they wanted to overthrow the government and bring in Sharia law, in the comments unearthed by a local daily.

Hearn later apologized for his comments.

Victorian Liberal leader Michael O'Brien said the comments were "appalling", adding: “I absolutely refuse them, these views have never been in the Liberal Party.”

Australia goes for general elections on May 18. The polls will decide if the conservative Liberal Party will continue its term or the Labor Party will take over.

* Writing by Erdogan Cagatay Zontur