Australia has a bigger portion of Muslim youths at risk of turning to radical Islam than any other Western nation, with up to 3,000 in “ideological sleeper cells” in Sydney alone, a government-backed study said on Monday.Between 2,000 and 3,000 youths, or about one percent of Sydney’s 200,000-strong Muslim population, had already been targeted by radical Islamic teachers, with some at risk of making the jump to militancy, the research said. “The radical teaching base here is relatively stronger than you might expect it to be in the UK, the Middle East or the US,” study author Mustapha Kara-Ali told Reuters. “The youth community here is vulnerable and could be acted upon for recruitment and further radicalisation.” Australia has around 340,000 Muslims – around 1.6 percent of its 21 million population. But the percentage of radicalised Muslim youths was bigger than the US or the UK, where the ideological pool was of similar size, but off a 1.6 million base, Kara-Ali said.
Kara-Ali, a member of Prime Minister John Howard’s Muslim advisory board, said it was far harder for radicals to spread an extremist message in other countries, where moderate groups were well placed to resist their message. “The Muslim community is relatively new in Australia. Given that, there isn’t an established moderate Islamic order with deep roots in the community and the extremists are exploiting this,” he said.
Australia, a close US ally, has never experienced a militant attack on home soil,
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Australia’s Muslim clerics have been involved in a string of recent controversies, straining relations with both moderates and the wider community. Sheikh Taj El-Din Hilaly stepped down as mufti of Australia last month after comments seen as justifying rape and saying Muslims had a greater right to be in Australia than white Australians of convict heritage. The country’s top Shia Muslim cleric said last week he supported the Hizbollah militant group and attacked the Australian government for “defending terrorism” because of its support for Israel.