AUSTRALIA: MOSLEM BODY YIELDING TO "ISLAMIC EXTREMISTS"

Muslim body yielding to 'extremist views'
Muslim body yielding to 'extremist views'Richard Kerbaj
December 01, 2006

A BID by the mainstream Islamic leadership to unite the community in Australia has been undermined by a rival Muslim group, which has attacked it for pandering to "extremist views". A small Sydney-based Muslim group, believed to be linked to the Syrian Baathist regime, has tried to discredit the Australian National Imams Council for refusing its clerics membership on the new board.

A spiritual leader from the Islamic Charitable Projects Association, Ibrahim el-Shafie, said yesterday that the national board set up last month was more divisive than uniting. "We say because we are very moderate and we are the ones who are at the frontline in fighting terrorism and extremism, they don't want us to be there because we are going to be conflicting with the extremist views," he said.

Sheik Shafie said contrary to accusations that some of the ICPA's Lebanese-based members were involved in terror-related activities, the group was purely charitable. "There's no one who committed any terrorist act in the world who belongs to the school of Sheik al-Habashi (founder of ICPA in Lebanon)," he said.

But the secretary of the new imam's council, Shady Suleiman, said the ICPA was not considered part of the mainstream Muslim community. The Australian revealed yesterday that the national board of imams would redefine the role of the mufti and crack down on radical clerics.

The new council, set up by 78 Muslim clerics, was considering including Shia Muslims on the council, Sheik Shady said.

But the head of the Supreme Islamic Shia Council of Australia, Kamal Mousselmani, said his organisation should have been consulted before the board was set up if its aim was unity among all Muslims.


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