SYDNEY, 12 September 2005 — Australian Muslims yesterday criticized plans for tougher security laws, saying that while terrorists had “hijacked Islam” the government was exploiting people’s fears to curtail democratic rights.
Speakers at a Muslim “summit” on the fourth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States condemned terrorism but expressed concern over new security legislation announced by Prime Minister John Howard.
The laws would allow suspects to be detained for up to two weeks without charge, to be electronically tagged for a year and have their movements and contacts curtailed.
“If John Howard gets his way with these diversionary laws we will not be able to criticize, we will not be allowed to dissent,” said Keysar Trad, president of the Islamic Friendship Association of Australia.
“We will be tagged and monitored and maybe, eventually, interned — that is if we don’t speak up and dissent now and try and do something about the predicament that we are in,” he told several hundred delegates to the meeting at the University of Sydney.
Terrorists had “hijacked our lifestyle and our freedoms. And the spin machine of Western governments is exploiting these hijackers of Islam, these murderers.
“We’ve been distracted and made afraid of the religion of peace, of the people of peace.” Muslims shared the same ethical and moral values and the aspirations of other Australians, Trad said.
“I’m not a scary person and my children are not scary people. We have just the same aims and hopes and ambitions as everybody else.”
Ali Roude, from the New South Wales Islamic Council, agreed, saying: “We must not bow to terrorism, neither should we surrender our rights and freedom to oppression.”
Howard last month called a meeting with 13 senior Muslim leaders to map out a joint approach to curbing extremism within the 300,000-strong Islamic community, and obtained pledges of loyalty to Australia.
But he was criticized for excluding Muslims considered “radical,” and yesterday’s meeting was called by the uninvited Islamic leaders.
Howard said he could not guarantee he would consider any of the proposals to come out of yesterday’s meeting.
“Let me make it clear that the membership of the group that I met in Canberra represented a moderate, sensible, mainstream Islamic opinion,” Howard said. “That’s what I’m interested in, that’s what all Australians are interested in.”
This month, Howard plans to hold a meeting with the premiers of Australia’s states to consider the tougher counterterrorism legislation and security measures.
He told reporters yesterday that the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in 2001 were a major influence on Australia’s new antiterrorism plan.
“It’s a day I’ll never forget,” said Howard, who was in the US at the time. “It’s a day the world should never forget because it ushered in a new kind of warfare.
“This is not a conventional enemy, it’s a shadowy enemy that requires a new and different kind of vigilance including stronger laws.
“That is the reason why the government made the announcements that it did last week.” Australia, which sent troops into both Afghanistan and Iraq with the US-led invasions, has wrestled with the possibility of an attack from within since it was revealed that the London bombings in July were carried out by British-born Muslims.
