DAR AL HARB - AUSTRALIA: FEAR IS GOOD FOR THE SOUL - - - MY HEART GOES OUT TO THEM...NOT ! ! !

Muslims fear 'unfair' laws

BRISBANE Muslim leaders believe anti-terror laws are targeting their people in the wake of the arrest of Gold Coast doctor Mohamed Haneef.

Dr Mohamad Abdalla said many believed that if Haneef were not a Muslim, the anti-terrorism laws would not have applied to him.
"Muslims are feeling now, many of them, particularly the vulnerable ones, who is going to be next?" he said.

"It creates a wedge, if you like – it creates a serious division.

"Since the issue of Haneef started, people have been meeting every night until 10, 11 o'clock, discussing what they can do. How they can – if – they respond?"

"Will it seem to be supportive of Haneef and supportive of terrorism, and if they don't say anything, why aren't they saying anything?"

Muslim Business Network president Dr Mahomed Khatree said the Federal Government's interference was "totally unfair", "biased" and "victimising people of the Muslim faith" and the community was hurt and upset by its actions.

"The man has not committed a terrorist act as such," Dr Khatree said.

"The man has not been found guilty in a court of law or anything – he has been accused of passing on his SIM card to a relative of his.

"This kind of action by the government, we think, is very high-handed, it is out of proportion, and it is again creating a fear of Muslims and we think this is not justice, it is not justice at all.

"We have no sympathy for terrorists. We are against that. But this man hasn't been proven to be a terrorist."

Meanwhile, Dr Haneef yesterday became the second person in Queensland to be treated as a terrorist in jail.

He will spend

23 hours a day in solitary confinement at Wolston Correctional Centre in Brisbane's southwest.

Police and Corrective Services Minister Judy Spence said he was seen "as a greater threat to the general community than other prisoners".

"He will be held in a segregated environment. When he moves around the prison he will be accompanied by two prison officers," Ms Spence said.

Next month Dr Haneef will have a hearing in the Federal Court to determine whether he will remain in custody while he awaits trial.

Lawyers for the Gold Coast doctor yesterday lodged an application in the Federal Court, where they are seeking to quash Immigration Minister Kevin Andrews' decision to cancel his visa.

Court documents outline the grounds of the application, including that the minister fell into jurisdictional error based upon misconstruction of the expression "association".

The defence also claims the minister failed to take into account several issues, including the nature and extent of the alleged association between Dr Haneef and his second cousins, who are accused of being involved in the foiled terror attacks in the UK.

Another of the grounds was that the minister's purpose in cancelling the visa was to allow Dr Haneef to be detained when he had been granted bail, and that that was an "improper purpose".

Dr Haneef's lawyers also say the minister "expressly took into account that Dr Haneef had been granted bail in making his decision to cancel the visa".

They point out the minister cancelled the visa within hours of the bail decision being made and said the minister had not previously notified Dr Haneef that he was considering the cancellation of the visa.

During a mention of the matter in the Federal Court late yesterday, defence counsel Darryl Rangiah said his client would remain in immigration detention until a decision to cancel his visa was set aside.

Justice Jeffrey Spender also questioned whether even he would pass the character test based on statements by counsel for the minister Roger Derrington.

Mr Rangiah asked for an urgent hearing of the matter but Mr Derrington asked why the case should "leapfrog" over others challenging decisions of the minister.

Justice Spender adjourned the case for hearing on August 8.

Dr Haneef was not in court yesterday after he was moved from the Brisbane watchhouse earlier in the day to the Wolston Correctional Centre at Richlands.

But defence lawyer Peter Russo said he expected to try to travel to the facility today to see his client.

Mr Russo said earlier this week that boredom had begun to set in for Dr Haneef, who was housed in a cell by himself.

His only interactions were daily visits with his lawyers and watchhouse staff.

The move to Wolston is probably a welcome change of scene for the doctor, who has been cooped up in the confines of the lock-up for two weeks.

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