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The number of mavericks is tiny but they have created an image problem for the Muslim community in Australia, "Ali said.
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SYDNEY,
December 28 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Islamic imams
and preachers in Australia will have to register their credentials and
adhere to a strict code of conduct under proposals put forward by a
government-backed group of moderate Muslims to curb
"extremists".
The
Muslim Advisory Council, created by Australian Prime Minister John
Howard in the wake of July's London bombings, said a registration
system would allow Muslims and the wider community to distinguish
between responsible imams and "mavericks" on the fringes of
society.
"Unlike
Christianity, we don't have a hierarchy of Muslim clerics in
Australia. Anyone can get up in the mosque and say they are an imam
and give a sermon," council chairman Ameer Ali told Agence
France-Presse (AFP).
"Then
if they say something irresponsible or rash, it gets picked up in the
media and the whole community is tarnished and we all get portrayed as
extremists or terrorists or whatnot.
"The
number of mavericks is tiny but they have created an image problem for
the Muslim community in Australia."
Ali
told The Australian newspaper that followers of "radical
imams" would be "told these whom they are following are not
telling the right interpretation of Islam, and that's not what Islam
is all about".
He
warned that imams who failed to comply with the guidelines, which will
be thrashed out at a national meeting of Muslim leaders next month,
would be publicly identified.
"If
the majority of the imams and the leaders are moderates and have to
turn to set guidelines, then those who want to stay in the periphery
will be identified," said Dr. Ali.
Self-governing
Ali,
who is also president of the Federation of Islamic Councils, said
under the proposal, Muslim scholars and religious leaders would form a
self-governing body to register imams and administer a voluntary code
of conduct.
"No
one has the power to enforce any of this, it would have to be
voluntary," he said.
"But
if clerics refuse to cooperate then the Muslim community and the wider
community will know that they are extremists who do not represent
mainstream Muslim beliefs."
Ali
added the council could offer imams guidance on what was acceptable in
Australia's multicultural society and help foreign-born clerics who
struggle with the English language.
He
said this month's racial attacks on youths of Lebanese origin in the
Sydney beachside suburb of Cronulla showed the pressure being felt by
the country's 300,000 Muslims, despite around half of the Lebanese
community in Australia being Christian.
The
Muslim community has also complained of being singled out by recent
anti-terrorism laws.
Security
forces arrested 18 Muslims in a series of raids in Sydney and
Melbourne last month for allegedly plotting a major bombing in the
country's largest city.
Howard
convened the Muslim Advisory Council in August after the London
bombings that killed more than 50 people, saying he was concerned at
the prospect of Australia producing similar "home-grown"
extremists.
Action
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The guidelines are in response to suggestions by the community and imams as well, according to Soliman.
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Howard
has previously criticized Muslim leaders for not doing enough to
isolate radical preachers but council member Yasser Soliman said the
community was taking action.
"The
guidelines are in response to suggestions by the community and clerics
as well, that there are people who are pointing themselves as clerics
when they are really just backyard clerics, and unqualified,"
Soliman told ABC radio this week.
Ali
said it was particularly important to reach Muslim youths, many of
whom felt alienated from both their own community and the wider
Australian society, making them more susceptible to extremism.
"We've
got to get out there and say 'this is not what Islam is about, we're a
religion of peace'," Ali said.
"We
need to bring the youth into the main fold and teach them the proper
ways so they will not resort to hooliganism."
He
said the council planned to hold a conference next year on ways to
promote the moderate message.
Thousands
of Australians in Sydney and Newcastle rallied
Sunday, December 18, against racism after a week of violence against
Arabs and Muslims.
Social
experts have concluded that the Australian government policies of
alienation and ignorance of ethnic minorities and Prime Minister John
Howard's draconian anti-terror legislations are to blame
for the country's racial violence.
Though
Australia is a nation built on immigrants, there has been an
underlying ignorance among ethnic minorities, especially between white
and Arab groups.
Riots
began in Australia when more than 5,000 people gathered at Sydney’s
Cronulla beach on December 11, after e-mail and mobile phone messages
called on local residents to beat-up "Lebs and wogs" --
racial slurs for people of Lebanese and Middle Eastern origin.
Howard's
draconian anti-terror legislations have also been blamed for the
country's racial violence.
