Apr 04 2011
The threat of home-grown terrorism could have been far greater if communities had not engaged marginalised young Muslims vulnerable to violent ideologies, according to a community leader.
Hass Dellal, executive director of the Australian Multicultural Foundation, also said that while governments spent vast amounts of money on intelligence and weapons in a bid to combat terrorism in Australia, the real change needed to happen at a community level.
The AMF is one of a number of community groups throughout Australia that have received grants under the federal government’s $1.1 million Building Community Resilience program, part of a $9.7m investment in counter-radicalisation initiatives.
The need for the program, which targets marginalised Muslim youth at risk of joining extremist groups, arose from the government’s white paper on counter-terrorism, released in February last year.
The Attorney-General’s Department yesterday announced a further round of grants aimed at tackling radical and violent ideologies in the wider community.
Mr Dellal said the AMF would select 16 marginalised young people from around Australia to take part in a leadership program, in which they would learn about public speaking, writing, working with the media and conflict resolution. They would also look at alternate views and interpretations of the Koran so that they can be “steered along the right path”.
“It is really a prevention program to develop their leadership skills and give them the ability to be able to express their views, to form an identity,” he said.
“But it is also about taking them out of the grasp of those who may be spreading ideologies of hate and violence.”
The AMF has already studied how conditions and environment may lead to violent radicalisation and extremism, and has worked with community groups to tackle these problems.
Mr Dellal denied multiculturalism had failed in Australia and said the reason it had worked was because of government policies.
“I think the fact that we don’t remain complacent and we start to address the issues as they arise has served us well as a nation,” Mr Dellal said.
“Multiculture in Australia is really about developing a series of strategies and policies to look in to the future.”
