Piers Akerman: Only fools think radical Islamists are one with Australia

Unfortunately after every terror incident in Australia, there are too many leaders in the Muslim community who don’t respond in a very Australian manner. For some, their dream is of an Islamic caliphate ­encompassing Australia, Piers Akerman writes.

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“We are one, but we are many/And from all the lands on earth we come/We’ll share a dream and sing with one voice ‘I am, you are, we are Australian’.”

Evocative and inclusive, a hymn to the multicultural dream, but unfortunately after every incident of terrorism that takes place in Australia, there are too many leaders in the Muslim community who don’t share the dream or respond in a very Australian manner. For some, their dream is of an Islamic caliphate ­encompassing Australia.

In fact, in deference of their religion they prefer to be identified by the double-barrelled descriptor of Muslim Australian because their Islamic identity is more ­important to them than their Australian nationality.

CCTV footage showing Bourke St attacker Hassan Khalif Shire Ali armed with a knife. Picture: Nine News

So much for singing with one voice along with other ­Australians.

Many of these so-called leaders of the Muslim community then attempt to evade any ties between terrorism and Islam, no matter how loudly the perpetrators shouted Allahu Akbar or how many YouTube videos the ­jihadis posted proclaiming their allegiances to a terror group, by disclaiming all connection between Islam and whatever atrocity ­occurred — and then they go further on the ­defensive and proclaim Islam as the religion of peace.

Though they don’t descend into those weird realms of the hyper-ridiculous, where the former DFAT pin-up and ABC star Yassmin Abdel-Magied blithely wandered unchallenged by her sponsors and claimed Islam is also the most feminist religion, their claims are just as ludicrous.

Former ABC star Yassmin Abdel-Magied.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison is not only correct in accurately calling out extremist ­Islamists and the shameful behaviour of the dangerous imams, he is to be praised for using the sort of plain language that has evaded so many mealy-mouthed politicians for too long.

To play the game of the inflammatory mullahs and avoid the truth about the fuel that fires so many militants and terrorists ­globally is to embrace the language of ­appeasement.

There well may be a need to be careful not to brand all Muslims as terrorists, as many clearly wish to lead peaceable lives free of the religious intolerance that bedevils existence across the Middle East and in ­regions of Indonesia and the Philippines, but there can be no co-operation that is worth the denial of free speech.

Predictably, Sheik Mohammed Omran, the head boy from the Hume Islamic Youth Centre, where the latest Bourke Street ­attacker, Hassan Khalif Shire Ali, prayed and which is linked to a slew of other homegrown jihadists, was first out of the blocks to blame the Bourke Street attacks on the security ­forces and Mr Morrison.

“This bloody Prime Minister, instead of turning the heat on somebody else, he should answer us about what he did,” Sheik Omran said. Sheik Omran’s ire was raised by Mr Morrison’s concise reflection about the need to tackle terror at the source.

“There is a special responsibility on ­religious leaders to protect their religious communities and to ensure that these dangerous teachings and ideologies do not take root here,” he said. “They must be ­proactive, they must be alert and they must call this out, in their communities and more broadly, for what it is.”

Prime Minister Scott Morrison lays a floral tribute after the Melbourne terror attack. Picture: Michael Dodge/Getty

For more than a decade, researchers from the Jewish organisation AIJAC have been gathering information about the organisation Oman helped establish in Australia, Ahlus Sunnah wal-Jama’ah (ASWJ).

AIJAC has concluded that ASWJ has not shied from conspiracy theories and anti-Semitic assertions, and that ASWJ is a likely source of Islamist radicalisation in Australia.

The Ahlus Sunnah wal-Jama’ah (the family of the way of the Prophet, the Sunnah, and his Companions) is regarded by some as the most radical Muslim group in Australia, and is the local branch of an international fundamentalist Salafi organisation. It was launched in 1985 by the Jordanian-born Melbourne resident sheik Mohammed Omran. According to ASWJ’s religious views, as expressed on its website, all Muslims must adhere to the ways practised in the 7th century by the Prophet Muhammad and his followers — as they interpret them.

The aim of the organisation is to preach in mosques, spread its message online and through books and texts sold in its bookshops, and to actively convert Muslims to ­follow its version of Islam.

Through its centres in NSW, Victoria and Western Australia, ASWJ offers lectures, social support, charities, annual trips to Mecca to perform the Hajj pilgrimage and more. ASWJ preachers teach in Muslim academic institutes in Australia and are popular guest speakers, with their lectures ­shared online.

There is an extensive history of links between ASWJ leaders and individuals ­involved in terrorist activities. ASWJ has also been associated with Al-Qaeda-linked Australian terrorists Jack Thomas, Ahmad Kalek and Shane Kent.

More recently it has been associated with Sydney’s Street Da’wah preaching group, some of whose members have fought with Islamic State in Syria. One of them was Mohammad Ali Baryalei, a recruiter for IS in ­Australia who was killed in Syria in 2014.

Omran’s own son, Ayman, died in Syria in 2013 while allegedly on a humanitarian ­mission.

The confusion over Shire Ali’s status showed a lack of communication between ­security organisations but the atrocity that he committed had its genesis in evil fundamentalism.

The imams must be put on notice before another terrorist like Shire Ali murders ­another Australian citizen.