Muslims should be more critical of terrorism and nobody should “pussyfoot around” the link to extremism, Australian Prime Minister John Howard said yesterday. In a series of media interviews to mark the 5th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States, Howard also urged Muslims to fully accept Israel’s right to exist and defended the invasion of Iraq. “We shouldn’t pussyfoot around. No decent, genuine Muslim would support terrorism,” Howard told The Australian newspaper. “We are not attacking Muslims generally but you have to call terrorism for what it is — it is a movement that invokes in a totally blasphemous and illegitimate way the sanction of Islam to justify what it does.”Howard, who sparked an angry reaction in the Muslim community earlier this month when he urged them to adopt Australian values, said it would help if moderates “on occasions... come out and be more critical of terrorism.”
In a later interview with Sky television, Howard said an acceptance by Muslims of the right of Israel to exist and the establishment of a Palestinian state would remove one of the arguments used to justify terrorism. “It wouldn’t stop terrorism, but it would remove one of the arguments that is constantly used to recruit the young, in particular, to the terrorist cause,” he said.
However, Muslim leaders said Howard’s comments fuelled intolerance, and warned attacks on Muslims had happened in recent weeks after the prime minister called for immigrants to do more to integrate into Australian society. “Instead of constantly singling out Muslim people, he should be trying to promote cohesion,” Islamic Friendship Association president Keysar Trad told Reuters. Australia has about 280,000 Muslims, making up about 1.5 percent of the population.