DAR AL HARB - AUSTRALIA: HARDLINE MOSLEM CLERICS, A DOZEN OR SO, IDENTIFIED IN AUSTRALIA

Hardline Muslim clerics identified
by Richard Kerbaj

ABOUT a dozen Muslim clerics have been identified as key hardliners preaching fundamentalist messages potentially influencing thousands of followers throughout Australia.

But one of the clerics, Bilal Dannoun, yesterday dismissed as "preposterous" claims revealed in The Australian yesterday by John Howard's Muslim advisers that the Wahabi clerics were potentially radicalising up to 3000 young Sydneysiders alone.

National security sources told The Australian they were aware of at least 10 hardline clerics around Australia, including Sheik Bilal, who were propagating a Wahabi ideology espoused by al-Qa'ida leader Osama bin Laden.

Other Wahabi clerics include Melbourne-based Mohammed Omran and Harun Mehicivic; Sydney's Abdul Salam Mohammed Zoud, Hatim Eissa, Khaled Eissa and Feiz Mohammed; and Canberra's Mohammed Swaiti.

But Sheik Bilal denied proponents of the Wahabi branch of Islam promoted terror.

He said while he was not a part of Sheik Omran and Sheik Zoud's fundamentalist Ahlus Sunnah Wal Jammah association, he rejected claims that the two clerics were radical.

"These are people who follow the Koran and Sunnah - they follow the teachings of Islam," Sheik Bilal said.

"And if following the teachings of Islam, following the way of the Prophet is called radical, then ... call us radicals."

Australia has about 150 Sunni Muslim clerics who follow different Islamic schools of thought regarded as mostly moderate in their teachings.

Sheik Bilal, who preaches at Belmore Mosque in Sydney's southwest, accused the Howard Government-funded research, headed by Muslim leader Mustapha Kara-Ali, of creating unwarranted fear.

He said it was "just preposterous" to suggest - as Mr Kara-Ali does in his research - that up to 3000 young Muslims in southwest Sydney were in danger of being radicalised.

"We say to people like that, bring forward your evidence," Sheik Bilal said. "Where is he getting it from? He's never sat in any of my classes. Has Kara-Ali ever sat in any of my classes or Abdul Salam's (Zoud) or Abu Ayman's (Omran) classes? Where is he getting his information from?"

Attorney-General Philip Ruddock was aware of a number of radical preachers in Australia, but said yesterday the Government was determined to encourage moderate, "sensible" leadership.

"The several matters that I've been pursuing lately include ensuring the materials and products that might mislead people, might encourage the most vulnerable, should not be available," he said. "Also, our efforts to get beside the Islamic leadership to give moderate and sensible leadership." The Prime Minister yesterday renewed his calls for the public to remain vigilant about the threat of terrorism following the weekend's campaign of foiled terrorist plots in Britain.

"That is why we have to invest a lot of money in security," Mr Howard said. "It's why we have to be very vigilant and why we have to run campaigns saying be alert but not alarmed.

"People sneered at the fridge magnets, and the fridge magnets and the hotline have provided innumerable leads to our security forces, and I say to those who were cynical and critical: you're wrong."

However, federal police commissioner Mick Keelty played down the danger that young Muslims were being trained on radical messages.

"I think there's a danger if you start throwing around figures because it gives people the impression that there's a finite number of people involved in this and it gives people the feeling that we know what everyone in the world is doing," he said.

Sheik Bilal accused Mr Kara-Ali - the author of the report, which has yet to be handed to the federal Government - of being influenced in his findings against Wahabis because he was a member of an opposing sect.

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Pertinent Links:

1) Hardline Muslim clerics identified