SYDNEY, September 5, 2005 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - A political group applied Monday, September 5, to register in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) as Australia's first Muslim party.

"We don't anticipate a left or right wing approach - we will take a center, moderate view," Kurt Kennedy, the founder of the Best Party of Allah, told the news agency Australian Associated Press (AAP).

Kennedy, a Vietnam-born Muslim revert and candidate in the ACT assembly elections in 2004, said the party aims to provide a national voice for Muslims in Australia.

The party currently claims more than 100 members.

Kennedy hopes the party would recruit up to 500 members so it can register nationally.

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) recently said that the number of Australians embracing Islam has dramatically increased since the 9/11 attacks.

There are some 300,000 Muslims in Australia, making up 1.5 percent of the country’s 20 million people.

Kennedy said the party will stick to the rules of Shari`ah and stand up firmly to extremism and people inciting violence and hatred.

"We totally reject people who would kill people indiscriminately, you know, as violence for its own sake and that's the story, that's the end of it," he told national broadcaster ABC.

Kennedy does not believe extremists would try to infiltrate the fledging party.

"People with extremist views don't necessarily want to participate in dialogue through peaceful means in the democratic political system," he told the AAP.

"But there's a constitution and a process where people fill in an application form and the secretary can decide whether to enlist them or reject them like any other political party."

Prime Minister John Howard met Australian Muslim leaders in August to discuss ways to prevent the spread of extremism in the wake of the London attacks.

Muslim leaders pledged during the meeting to defend the country against terrorism, disowned Osama bin Laden and accepted differences with the government over the Iraq invasion.

But many Australian Muslims have decried recent anti-terror measures, which include detaining people on terror-related suspicion for up to seven days and questioning them for up to 48 hours without charges.