Muslim Aussies must win the war on the home front

by Shahram Akbarzadeh

September 02, 2009

LAST week the Melbourne Magistrates' Court refused bail to several Muslim men accused of an alleged terror plot.

The evidence presented against one of the accused included an intercepted phone conversation in which he allegedly told his wife of his intention to enter paradise by engaging in a war against infidels.

This seemed like damming evidence. He made matters worse for himself by refusing to stand in court, arguing that he only stands before God.

The evidence presented against the accused and his behaviour reveal an ideological antipathy against Australia and its institutions.

What makes young Muslims turn to the ideology of violence, to kill and ultimately die in the name of religion? There is no simple answer.

But it is important to acknowledge that no one is born a killer (well, not many). People don't wake up one morning and decide that today is a good day to become a terrorist. Becoming one is a process, and there is nothing inevitable about the outcome.

Just because a person is on a trajectory of radicalisation does not mean he/she is destined to become a terrorist. Interjection along the way can make a difference.

But the question is, what are the factors at play in the process of radicalisation and what kind of interjection can arrest that process?

One of the obvious factors relates to a feeling of marginalisation that permeates among many Muslim communities, especially the youth.

Australian Muslims, for example, are among the poorer sections of society, with high unemployment, high representation on low-income jobs, and disproportionately high representation in our jails.

The feeling of marginalisation may also be based on unsophisticated

fears of persecution. A recent study discovered a staggering proportion

of Muslims believe the media is Islamophobic.

The belief that the media, security agencies and the Government pursue an anti-Islamic agenda does a lot of harm to Muslims. At best it makes them cynical, resulting in a withdrawal from public engagement.

At worst it alienates them and pushes them on a trajectory of radicalisation. Grossly mishandled cases like Indian Dr Mohammad Haneef's detention only confirm these misgivings.

In that case Dr Haneef was detained without charge for 25 days, and forced to leave Australia after Kevin Andrews, then minister for immigration, cancelled his visa on "character grounds". All this was based on very flimsy evidence that should have been dismissed by the Australian Federal Police.

The feeling that Muslims are not valued or respected in Australia, that Muslims don't have a place here, is the common denominator among radicals.

This may be a troubling social issue, but does not pose an immediate physical threat. What makes alienation dangerous is the Islamist ideology, which presents the world in simplistic black and white dichotomies.

For the alienated Muslim youth, Islamism has obvious attractions. It makes everything make perfect sense: Muslims are marginalised because the West is committed to subjugating Islam; that is why Australia sent troops to Iraq and Afghanistan; and that is why the media and security forces pick on Muslims.

Subscribing to this simplistic world view doesn't necessarily make one a terrorist, but add a bit of youthful zeal for action, peer pressure and opportunity, and you are nearly there.

What we need is a series of interjections at various levels to arrest and ideally reverse this process of radicalisation.

Building trust through community networks based on mutual respect is a useful response, one that is often adopted by many agencies including Victoria Police.

Maintaining open channels of communication is part and parcel of the strategy to tackle the perception that Muslims are not valued or respected.

But with all the bridge building and confidence building, there will always be some who fall through the cracks. That's why it is important to deal with these potential terrorists on an ideological level before it's too late.

Because by the time police and security get involved, the battle is lost.

Muslim scholars and educators carry the burden of alerting Muslim youth to the folly of Islamic radicalism.

Associate Prof Shahram Akbarzadeh is deputy director of the National Centre of Excellence for Islamic Studies at the University of Melbourne.

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,26014637-5000117,00.html