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| Down Under |
| Hardliners target Aussie mosques |
| 2005-08-03 |
| Hardline Muslim fundamentalists are targeting mosques, universities and high schools across Melbourne in a battle for the hearts and minds of local Muslim youth. Mainstream Muslim leaders have identified three groups operating in Melbourne promoting radical forms of Islam and who they fear may turn rhetoric into violence. One of the groups is building a mosque in Broadmeadows, another is a radical group of young Bosnians loosely attached to high-profile radical cleric Mohammed Omran, and the other comprises local members of the radical international political organisation Hizb ut-Tahrir. One Muslim leader warned that some more extreme elements had left Sheikh Omran's group, claiming it was not radical enough. These were mostly Arabs, Algerians and Somalis. Another political leader told The Age that radicals were causing problems and grief at mosques across Melbourne. "They are trying to take over executives, pamphleting, trying to recruit outside mosques," he said. "They are full of vitriol and poisonous rhetoric, and see the rest of Islam as corrupted." Several local mosques have succumbed to the radicals in recent years, including Preston mosque, one of Melbourne's most prominent. Leaders of other suburban mosques say they continually have to fend off attempts by hardliners to take control. Three weeks ago members of one of Sheikh Omran's groups, the Islamic Information and Support Centre of Australia, were asked to leave the Doncaster mosque after distributing leaflets to members as they came to pray, according to the mosque's secretary, Rahil Khan. "We are very, very strict on that, based on experience," he said. The Bosnian mosque in Noble Park took out an intervention order against members of the same group in 2000 after disturbances prompted by radicals handing out leaflets, books and videos preaching hatred against the West. Imam Ibrahim of the Noble Park mosque said: "They are hardliners. They tried every mosque, but it depends on the imam. If he is strong and stable and has followers, there is no problem." At Preston, the radicals engineered an election and amended the constitution in the 1990s while the imam, Sheikh Fehmi el-Naji, was away on a pilgrimage to Mecca. Supporters of Sheikh Fehmi, Melbourne's most prominent imam, worked hard over the next decade to regain ground, and members say there is now an uneasy balance. But Sheikh Omran claims his supporters still control Preston mosque. "Nothing has changed since that day," he told The Age. Of the wider cultural war among Melbourne's Muslims, Sheikh Omran said: "I would say I'm winning. The Muslims are winning, and Islam in the end. Our message is winning hearts." An imam said radical youths spoke to people coming to pray. "They tell them there's an attack on Muslims everywhere and a violent response is needed. If it's public, these guys are shouted down and kicked out. But if it's a conversation between two people who happen to be praying and one is an agitator, that's more sinister," he said. Few leaders were willing to be named. One said: "A lot of people are scared of these people. The same sect is blowing places up around the world, and it wouldn't be too difficult here." |
| Posted by:Paul Moloney |
| #7 Article has to indicate they are losing ground: too confronting otherwise and newsltd papers are not to be confronting. the truth is these groups are flourishing as our PC laws let them. Jihadi schools get funded with Aussie tax dollars, nobody questions curriculum or you are racist. same with the mosques. And no cultural profiling allowed here either. |
| Posted by: anon1 2005-08-03 11:21 |
| #6 One Muslim leader warned that some more extreme elements had left Sheikh Omran's group, claiming it was not radical enough. These were mostly Arabs, Algerians and Somalis. Another political leader told The Age that radicals were causing problems and grief at mosques across Melbourne. "They are trying to take over executives, pamphleting, trying to recruit outside mosques," he said. So stop talking and DO something about it. "They are full of vitriol and poisonous rhetoric, and see the rest of Islam as corrupted." Several local mosques have succumbed to the radicals in recent years, including Preston mosque, one of Melbourne's most prominent. Leaders of other suburban mosques say they continually have to fend off attempts by hardliners to take control. They must not be very effective if they're losing ground, which the article seems to indicate. |
| Posted by: Bomb-a-rama 2005-08-03 10:29 |
| #5 Good to hear they're being pointed out. The next test is to see if the community ignores them or starts going to them. |
| Posted by: Robert Crawford 2005-08-03 07:38 |
| #4 Illegal immigrants and UN sponsored refugees are deeply unpopular issues here. |
| Posted by: phil_b 2005-08-03 04:43 |
| #3 Nice, better it be known, not to push the Aussies too far; they may just push anyone just shy dark of a sheet of paper right of that continent!! |
| Posted by: smn 2005-08-03 03:12 |
| #2 I opposed the indulgence of suicide preacher, Jim Jones, prior to his kool-aid death wish in Guyana in the seventies, because I don't waste respect for freedom-of-conscience on animals like him. Similarly, Muslim imams are nothing but unflushed sewage, and deserve nothing but contempt. Grand contradiction: Muslims are condemning the treatment of the Guantanamo Bay terrorists, as abuse of "muslims" while claiming that terror is against Islam. But if terrorists act against Islam, then why the hell are they recognized as "muslims." Answer: because Muslim leaders in the West and elsewhere, approve of the strategic use of terror, while they only condemn nominal tactical errors. Muslim = Terrorist |
| Posted by: Vlad the Muslim Impaler 2005-08-03 02:38 |
| #1 It's shouldn't be to difficult to turn them into the police then if they are well known. Oh I forgot you are muslims and can't do that. You are doomed them. |
| Posted by: Sock Puppet 0’ Doom 2005-08-03 01:31 |