Serious Questions And Answers On The ABC.

Note: This post is from the ABC program 'Radio Religion'. It is presented by Stephen Crittenden. The program was first presented on Wednesday 19 April 2006.

The questions and answers below have been picked by me and give a good example of discussion on this important subject at its best. Australians need to hear a lot more discussion at this level.

Mustapha Kara Ali is the sort of muslim in Australia who should be leading the local muslims toward a proper integration of that community into the Australian mainstream.

Readers should pay attention to Mustapha's remarks on the Wahhabis and the 'lecturers'.

My Comment at the end gives some sensible advice on moving this situation forward, to the benefit of Australia and the muslim communities.






Mustapha Kara-Ali is the youth representative on the Prime Minister's Muslim community reference group, and he's an agent for change - which means that not everyone in the Muslim community is happy to have him there. The Mufti of Australia, Sheikh Hilaly, unsuccessfully threatened to have the committee disbanded if Mustapha were not removed. He shares his views about Muslims and Australia on the Religion Report.

Stephen Crittenden: What’s your understanding of what the Prime Minister’s trying to achieve with this Muslim Reference Group? I mean one of the stated aims is to stamp out Muslim extremism in Australia. But is it more than that? What’s your understanding?

Mustapha Kara-Ali: Well my understanding, when I was called back in August to join the Reference Group, I gave it some thought, and then I got back the next day I think, and I said, ‘I’m happy to go forward with this appointment’. The reason being that I looked at the big picture of things and I saw the tensions building up within the non-Muslim, the wider community, and I knew that we have a big duty, and we have a responsibility to ease some of these tensions in the wider community. I see the Reference Group as a vehicle to achieve that purpose.

Extremism, it’s the outcome of mismanagement for the last decade or two, and this mismanagement and lack of representation, especially amongst the second-generation Muslims, has resulted in some taking an alienated position to society. I think it starts with being on the fringe of the Muslim community, and then that grows out to be on the fringe of the wider community. But I put that back to problems I think, within representation and within leadership


Stephen Crittenden: Mustapha, the first time we ever met each other was out at a community forum in Bankstown, and after the forum was over, you and I had a conversation and you said, ‘Let me point out to you all the Wahabis in the room. They are here to watch the rest of us.’ And every time we’ve talked, you’ve mentioned the role of Wahabi Islam, and its influence in the Australian community. To what extent is there a Wahabi presence in the Muslim community in Sydney, say?

Mustapha Kara-Ali: There are shades of Wahabism. And there are circles of security and protection for Wahabism. Now the inner core of Wahabism are the theories that are known and they’re in textbooks. The outer rings of those core theories are political positions and social positions, and so at the outermost rim or the outermost circumference, you will find that there are positions of alienation, anti-social behaviour, and if you understand these circles or these rings, there are people across the board, from the inner core, who are the Omrans of the world, to the outermost ring, who are probably deceived youth at university campuses or down the street.

Now I would not say that those on the outer ring are Wahabis themselves, but I would certainly say that those on the innermost circle are definitely Wahabis themselves. How wide are those rings, the outermost rings? I think they encompass at least 30% of the community. The outermost I think they encompass at least 30%. That’s only political and social positions, not theological positions.

Stephen Crittenden: Sure, but you’re saying people who are susceptible to the influence of Wahabism.

Mustapha Kara-Ali: Absolutely.

Stephen Crittenden: To what extent is the problem of the isolation of the Muslim community from the wider Australian community, really a problem about the Imams?

Mustapha Kara-Ali: No. And I say this, because, let me make a clear statement here. We cannot put all the Imams in the one basket. There are good, mature leaders that are Imams in the community, and they have helped the mainstream of Muslim youth remain steadfast to the true Islamic identity, one which allows them to then live in Australia as an Australian citizen. However, there are those that are more vocal, and hence they’re the ones defying authorities, they’re the ones appearing on television, challenging Australian society, challenging governments, challenging politicians, challenging the rest of Australia and sending messages of alienation.

Stephen Crittenden: Mustafa, what about the role of the visiting lecturers? I’m thinking of someone like Sheikh Khalid Yasin who came here last year, and talked about there being no such thing as a Muslim having a non-Muslim friend, and spoke against Muslim girls having access to higher education and going to university. What about those people?

Mustapha Kara-Ali: Let us have a look how the community dealt with those people. And I think the community was very successful in not allowing people like that to penetrate the community.

Stephen Crittenden: But he got more coverage than you could possibly believe. He was on SBS, he was on the ABC, his views were everywhere.

Mustapha Kara-Ali: And he held seminars and invited a couple of thousand, in Liverpool and Bankstown, yes.

Stephen Crittenden: How did those people get in? I mean presumably the Australian government gives these people visas.

Mustapha Kara-Ali: Yes, they do.

Stephen Crittenden: Should they be getting visas?

Mustapha Kara-Ali: Well of course they shouldn’t be getting visas.

Stephen Crittenden: And are issues like that on the agenda of the Prime Minister’s Reference Group?

Mustapha Kara-Ali: Absolutely. The visas, and they’re issues that we’ve been talking about directly with the people concerned, and charged with the responsibility of issuing visas. And we’re in the process of establishing an advisory, or consultation network, or a hierarchy, by which we can give approval to certain international speakers before they come out. So that’s in the making, and it’ll come out in due time.

However, what I would like to say is we can’t always put the onus on the Immigration Department or the government or the AFP, or whomever. The onus is at times also within the Muslim community. The Muslim community has to stand up strong. And without the Muslim community playing its role in countering extremism, then we will be suffering more racial attacks.

Stephen Crittenden: Do Australian politicians make the mistake of constantly going to the Muslim clergy? As in fact they have done again with some of the members of this Reference Group. Is that a mistake?

Mustapha Kara-Ali: It is a mistake, because we need influential people in the community, and influential people are certainly not only the clerics or the Imams. No, they are not.



Comment: The existence of this Group is a sign of some stirrings in Canberra. Of course the membership is all wrong...just what you would expect from backward and dumb public servants who picked the membership for approval by uninterested politicians. They have put onto the Group all the old crooks and phoneys, all born and educated abroad, who have a stranglehold on this weak and exploited muslim community.

This Group resembles the politics of the middle east; vicious and stupid old money grubbers clinging onto every position merely for the sake of their own community prestige(and money making opportunities). The younger generation, very ably represented by Mustapha Kara Ali, are ceaselessly attacked and excluded by the corrupt old frauds at the top.

This Reference Group is filled with 'Australian Mubaraks' and 'Australian King Fahds' and 'Australian Assads' and 'Australian Khomeinis'. These creatures do the same damage to the muslims in Australia that their genuine namesakes do and have done to muslims in the Middle East. No progress can be made while these dogs and thieves are bolstered by the Australian government. Putting them on the Reference Group bolsters them in the muslim communities in Australia.

The Australian government must re-establish this Reference Group and dismiss everyone who was not born and educated in Australia. Turn against these enemies of Australia and help build up local muslims, like Mustapha Kara Ali and many like him, who are trying to help the muslims find their way into the Australian mainstream. They have a very long way to go, so they should be given help.

Is any politician awake in Canberra?