http://www.islamonline.org/English/News/2005-12/28/article05.shtml
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
The guidelines are in response to suggestions by the community and imams as well, according to Soliman.
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.