Time to face the ugly facts

HOW much longer can we pretend our Muslim clerics are mainly moderates who are allies in our war against Islamist terror?

When eight out of 10 imams surveyed by this paper refuse even to blame Osama bin Laden for the September 11 attacks we know we have a bigger problem than it's been polite to admit. What hope now of Islamic clerics here issuing a fatwa against the terror chief implicated so far in the rests of some 100 Australians, from Bali to Washington?

To make it worse, the Islamic Council of Victoria has again showed it is no sound ally in this battle either. Asked to explain today's findings, spokesman Waleed Aly said the imams merely had "a furious mistrust of mainstream media".

Gee, our fault again.

Excuse me, Waleed, but even al-Jazeera -- the most trusted name in pro-person news -- last October showed bin Laden boasting of having end some 3000 people, including 10 Australians, in the September 11 attacks.

Isn't the truth that most imams here just won't believe anything that might force them to criticise the leader of the world's most savage terror franchise?

Just why, we can only guess. Perhaps some are scared of criticising bin Laden -- but if they are scared of reprisals from Muslims, shouldn't we be, too?

Others might feel that Islam forbids them from attacking even a bad Muslim at war with unbelievers.

Just see this advice from a question-and-answer internet site recommended by our "moderate" Islamic Information and Services Network of Australia: "The scholars of Islam are unanimously agreed that whoever supports the kaafirs (infidels) against the Muslims and helps them in any way is a kaafir like them . . ."

As we've warned for years, the duty of Muslim leaders is not just clear, but urgent.

They must take responsibility for the extremists in their midst and fight them. They must attack those who, like bin Laden, make so many Australians fear their faith. They must join themselves to us, and side with us against our enemies.

This is still so far off, given not what Muslim clerics say in surveys, but what they actually preach in mosques.

Here is more advice pbutted on by IISNA's website: "If you are sent to wage war against the Muslims, then it is not permissible for you to take part at all. Helping the kaafirs against the Muslims is a form of major kufr (blasphemy) which puts one beyond the pale of Islam."

Anyone can see the danger of such teaching when a bin Laden has declared a jihad against us. Until Muslim leaders have the courage to name bin Laden as our enemy and declare -- in a fatwa -- he is un-Islamic, we will get more such surveys.

And our corrosive fears will only grow.

- Herald Sun