Islam must face
demons
Herald Sun May 24,
2017
ISLAM must face a deadly reality from within —
its religion is providing the framework for mass-casualty terrorist
attacks against innocent civilians.
The world’s suspicions the depraved mass
murder of children and adults in Manchester was the work of an
Islamic extremist were confirmed yesterday and claimed by Islamic
State.
Labelling such attacks “Islamic terrorism”
immediately draws politically correct accusations of Islamophobia,
a strident defence that Islam is a religion of peace and that this
is yet another example of a heinous act committed by a criminal who
has hijacked religion.
Indeed, Islamic community leaders, including
the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils, has previously
described Islamic State as “anti-Muslim” and prominent Muslims
issue public condemnations when terror attacks occur.
But, while such statements are welcome, they
do not address a fundamental problem: there are large numbers of
radicalised Islamic extremists in Western nations willing to kill
innocent people.
Nor do hashtags, candlelit vigils or social
media campaigns combat the root cause of terrorism. Australia and
other Western nations must have an open, mature conversation about
Islam as both part of the problem and an essential part of the
answer to it.
As we’ve seen too often in Europe it takes
only a handful of extremists, or a lone wolf, to wreak horrendous
carnage. Picture: Getty Images
As the horrible impact of the Manchester
atrocity comes to light, we reflect on the faces of Saffie Rose
Roussos, 8, Georgina Callander, 18, and others among at least 22
dead and 59 injured.
In Australia, more than 300 individuals are
monitored as potential terrorism threats and 12 domestic plots have
been foiled in the past two years. Another 100 Australians are
fighting alongside IS in Iraq and Syria or supporting their
efforts, and at least 70 have been killed in the conflict
zone.
With approximately 500,000 Muslims in
Australia, in context, the number of suspected terrorism
sympathisers is low. But as we’ve seen too often in Europe — from
Nice, Paris and Brussels to London and now Manchester, or even in
Melbourne with the Anzac, Christmas or Mother’s Day plots — it
takes only a handful of extremists, or a lone wolf, to wreak
horrendous carnage. Our national terrorism threat alert currently
sits at “probable”. If another terrorist strike occurs — after the
Numan Haider, Man Haron Monis and Farhad Khalil Mohammad Jabar
events — it is more than probable, in fact highly likely, it will
be Islamic-extremist inspired.
Apologists argue a tormented and selective
interpretation of the Koran and not Islam itself is to blame for
terrorist acts. Yet there is no escaping the fact that since the
world-changing September 11 attacks in the US in 2001, terrorism is
a cancer that has spread from Islam’s extremist infection. In 2014,
when Islamic State first emerged in some force, there were 18
civilian deaths in Western attacks inspired or directed by the
group. That rose to claim 313 deaths in 2015 from 67 attacks and IS
is now responsible for well over half the terrorist killings
carried out in the West, including 6141 deaths in attacks on recent
statistics.
It is now the world’s most deadly terrorist
group, followed by al-Qaeda, Nigeria’s Islamist Boko Haram and
Afghanistan’s Taliban — which account for more than 75 per cent of
terrorism fatalities.
President Donald Trump’s words this week
denouncing terrorism must be adopted loudly by Australian imams,
Islamic families and the entire Muslim community.
IS, al-Qaeda and Boko Haram have one deadly
common denominator — they follow a violent Salafi form of armed
jihad under the Wahhabi doctrine of Sunni Islam.
Certainly, there are religious, political or
cultural atrocities (terrorism) committed by a range of other
groups, sects and criminals across the globe in recent and current
times. They include the recent ethnic war in the Democratic
Republic of Congo, which claimed an estimated 5.4 million lives;
“ethnic cleansing”, which has killed thousands of Rohingya Muslims
in Buddhist-majority Myanmar; mass shootings in the US by crazed
gunmen with anti-government agendas or, until mid-last year, the
Marxist-Leninist FARC group that saw hundreds of thousands killed
in Colombia. Even intra-Islamic conflict in the Middle East,
pitting Shia against Sunni sects, results in huge numbers of
casualties.
It goes without saying that Australia’s
Islamic community, here since Afghan cameleers arrived in 1860,
forms an important part of our cohesive, multicultural tapestry.
But to ignore the threat from a minority section of the community
who swallow poisonous digital-age propaganda will guarantee an era
of perpetual terrorism remains.
Young, disaffected males, susceptible migrants
or converts, some with criminal backgrounds or returning to a
family faith with vengeance, self-appointed “imams” who spew
anti-West rhetoric — they are the dangers that Islam itself must
tackle if it is to secure the wider confidence of all
Australians.
Such is the example of Manchester suicide
bomber Salman Abedi.
English-born to refugee migrants, he turned on
the homeland that gave him safe harbour and education.
While US President Donald Trump is a divisive
figure, this week he said: “Terrorists do not worship God. They
worship death. Religious leaders must make this absolutely clear
... if you choose the path of terror, your life will be empty, your
life will be brief and your soul will be fully
condemned.”
They are words that must be adopted loudly by
Australian imams, Islamic families and the entire Muslim
community.