Al-Furqan Islamic Centre in Melbourne closes

Victoria’s peak Islamic body says it must continue to engage with a controversial Islamic study centre which says it is closing.

All the signs have been removed from the window after Al-Furqan closed overnight.

Victoria’s peak Islamic body says it will engage with — and not distance itself from — the Islamic study centre in Melbourne’s southeast which says it is closing due to “constant harassment” in the wake of media scrutiny over links to terror suspects.

The Al-Furqan Islamic Centre, in Springvale South, announced it was closing overnight, posting a statement online and in the window if its suburban shopfront.

“We believe that given the constant harassment, pressure and false accusations levelled against the centre — particularly by media and politicians — this is the best course of action for the protection of the local community, its members and the broader Muslim community that is often implicated in these insidious campaigns,” the statement read.

Islamic Council of Victoria spokesman Kuranda Seyit told The Australian he believed it was important to keep channels of dialogue open, and not assume media reports about the centre were accurate.

Set up in the days following the September 11 attacks, Al-Furqan was raided in September 2012, leading to the ­arrest of Adnan Karabegovic, now 26, who was charged with one count of possessing the al-Qa’ida magazine Inspire “connected with assistance in a terrorist act”.

Other controversial figures known to have attended the centre include leading ­Islamic State recruiter Neil Prakash, and 18-year-olds Sevdet Ramadan Besim and Harun Causevic who have been charged with terror offences as a result of last Saturday’s police raid over a plot to attack police on Anzac Day.

Perth-based preacher and outspoken Islamic State supporter Junaid Thorne, has regularly ­addressed gatherings at Al-Furqan, and Numan Haider, 18, who was shot as he attempted to stab police last year, had also attended the centre.

“I think there’s a lot of media scrutiny around the centre,” Mr Seyit said.

“There have been allegations that the centre is connected to the people that were raided, and we need to clarify those and understand the extent and nature of the relationship with those people.

“I don’t think it’s fair to assume media reports are accurate.”

Asked whether he thought there was a risk of Al-Furqan going underground now it had closed its doors, Mr Seyit said there was a risk of alienating those at the centre if dialogue was not established with leader Harun Mehicevic.

Mr Mehicevic has repeatedly called for jihad in online video clips and been the subject of police and security agency surveillance, but has never been charged.

“What we want to do now is actually meet with Sheikh Harun and establish more formal dialogue,” Mr Seyit said.

“If we don’t engage and keep discussion open we many alienate centre even further. At the moment they’re feeling very isolated and there’s a lot of pressure and stress from all the focus on them.

“I assume that it’s better to try to talk than let it fester and possibly create further division.”

In a video recently posted online, Islamic State kingpin Prakash, who goes by the name Abu Khaled al-Cambodi, urges “brothers” to stage terror attacks on Australian soil.

“Now is the time to rise, now is the time to wake up — You must start attacking before they attack you,” he said.

Prakash is understood to have left Melbourne for the middle east in 2013.

The Bosnian Islamic Council of Australia yesterday lashed out at the Melbourne Islamic centre linked to the radicalisation of several terror suspects, saying it is preying upon young Muslims.

Bosnian Islamic Council of Australia chairman Jasmin Bekric said yesterday that al-Furqan had “kidnapped” and “brainwashed” his community’s youth.

A significant proportion of al-Furqan’s members have Bosnian heritage. Several, including leader Harun Mehicevic, are disenfranchised former attend­ees of the Bosnia-Herzegovina Islamic Soc­iety­ of Noble Park.