RADICAL Muslim clerics who praise terrorist acts could have their mosques banned and members of their assemblies defined as terrorists under the nation's new counter-terrorism laws. Under the legislation, tabled in Federal Parliament yesterday, recent comments by radical clerics Sheik Mohammed Omran and Sheik Abdul Salam Mohammed Zoud could be defined as advocating a terrorist act. As reported in The Australian yesterday, Sheik Zoud recently told worshippers at the Haldon Street prayer hall in Sydney's west: "God grant victory to the mujaheddin in Iraq". University of NSW law academic Ben Saul said the real danger to Muslim imams and mosques was that praising the actions of terrorists could lead to their mosques being proscribed as a terrorist organisation. Similar comments by Melbourne's Sheik Omran recently could also be defined as praising a terrorist act, Dr Saul said. In a recent sermon, Sheik Omran said: "No victory (for Islam's brothers and sisters) can be stopped by George Bush or Tony Blair or John Howard".
In what he described as a "significant" extension of the power to ban terrorist organisations, Dr Saul said a person in an organisation such as a mosque only had to praise a terrorist act to run the risk of having their organisation banned.
A spokeswoman for Attorney-General Philip Ruddock would not comment on whether mosques could be closed if clerics praised terrorism. "We can't offer a legal opinion," the spokeswoman said. "We ultimately take advice from our agencies on these matter." A spokesman for Sheik Abdul Salam Mohammed Zoud denied the Sydney cleric preached hatred against the West. "Sheik Zoud is not a person who preaches hatred," Samir Benkadi said. Sheik Omran refused to comment.