Australian Muslim leader rejects "spy" call
A top Australian Muslim leader rejected a call by Prime Minister John Howard to spy on other Muslims and report them to police.
The head of the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils, Ameer Ali, made the remarks in the wake of the arrest last week of 18 Muslim citizens.
"A community organization like mine is not a police force," Ali told commercial television.
"We don't monitor the behavior of each individual and on the other hand also, Islam is not for example like Christianity where there is a Pope and an archbishop, and so when the Pope says something others carry it out.
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"The imams (preachers) are not a structurally organized community."
PM Howard used a speech Saturday to his Liberal Party conference in Queensland state to demand Muslims to help the government and police stop potential "persons".
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"It is the responsibility particularly of the leaders of the Islamic community to ensure as best they can, with our cooperation, that those within their midst who might seek to pervert the minds particularly of the young, to a distorted, obscene form of Islam are identified and dealt with," he said.
Australians were shaken last week by the arrest of 18 men, all Australian citizens, who have been charged with terrorism charges.
The minority Muslim community, which numbers just 300,000 in a population of 20 million, has reacted with a mixture of criticism, anger and pledges of loyalty to Australia.
"We would like to make it clear that if the accusations made against the people detained confirm they were planning destructive person acts, then we consider these people dangerous," the Mufti of Australia, Sheikh Taj Aldin Al Hilali, wrote in the Sunday Telegraph.
"The Australian Muslim community has proved and confirmed it is part of Australian society and is loyal to its interests."
Source: AFP
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