OnIslam & Newspapers
Thursday, 21 August 2014 00:00
Muselim leaders, including Sheikh Isse Musse (centre right) leave Treasury Place in Melbourne after a meeting with Tony Abbott earlier this week.
CAIRO – A galaxy of Australian Muslim leaders have called for an uprising against Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s proposed anti-terror measures, calling it “hypocritical” and “unjustified.”
“These laws clearly target Muslims and they do so unjustly,” Australian Muslims said in a statement obtained by the Daily Telegraph on Thursday, August 21.
“While the language of the law is neutral, it is no secret that in practice these laws specifically target Muslims.”
Signed by about 60 Muslim leaders, including senior imams, the statement denounced imposing a law to fight “home-grown” extremism, saying that there was no evidence that dozens of Australian Muslims have travelled to fight in Iraq or Syria.
“There is no solid evidence to substantiate this threat,” the statement said.
“Rather, racist caricatures of Muslims as backwards, prone to violence and inherently problematic are being exploited.
“It is instructive that similar issues about Australian troops travelling abroad to fight or Jews travelling to train or fight with the Israeli Defence Force are simply never raised.”
Muslims' angry reactions erupted after a meeting with PM Tony Abbott in Brisbane on Wednesday, August 20, and previous calls to join “team Australia” that aims to counter terrorism.
“The Muslim community is being asked to sign-off on laws and policies that have already been decided,” the statement said.
This wasn't the first time that Aussie Muslims voiced their opposition to the proposed anti-terrorism law.
Earlier this month, Abbott’s move to toughen “counter- terror” laws angered the Muslims who described it as “deplorable” laws that would provoke a deterioration of relations between the religious minority and the Australian community.
The proposed law, which comes in response to the claimed reports of Australians joining fighting overseas, will facilitates arresting terror suspects, detain them without charges along with revoking their passports.
Under the new law, which will be funded by $630 million, faces of the Australian travelers will be scanned before flying to other countries.
Muslims, who have been in Australia for more than 200 years, make up 1.7 percent of its 20-million population.
Islam is the country’s second largest religion after Christianity.
Australian far-rights have escalated their hate campaigns against the Muslim community recently.
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