Anne Aly, Islamophobia envoy say speech about Australian Muslims risks inflaming tensions
Multicultural Affairs Minister Anne Aly has warned that former prime minister Scott Morrison and Liberal senator Andrew Bragg risk inflaming community tensions and stoking fear with their comments excluding Australian Muslims following last month’s Bondi attack.
His rebuke was also amplified by Islamophobia ambassador Aftab Malik. He said extremism must be confronted, but also warned that conflating criminal activity with the Muslim faith would undermine trust and jeopardize genuine counter-extremism efforts that keep society safe.
Both are Muslims who worked in countering extremism before their current roles; Aly was a professor, while Malik ran programs in the NSW Premier’s department.
Their comments responded to a fresh rift with Australian Muslims that Morrison opened up in Israel on Tuesday (AEDT) when he gave a speech calling on Australian Islamic leaders to enforce stronger standards in their communities.
Morrison said Muslim leaders should start licensing preachers, all sermons should be translated into English and a board should be set up to police radicals.
“Their radicalization took place not in a Southeast Asian madrasa or Iranian hawza, but in the south-west suburbs of Sydney,” Bondi said of his attackers.
His comments were backed by moderate Liberal senator Andrew Bragg, who said Australia’s Muslim community must take some responsibility for extremist behaviour.
“Unfortunately, there’s been a pattern of behavior where some of these minor incidents – and we’ve now had a significant terrorist incident – originate from these communities,” he told ABC radio.
These statements were met with anger and exasperation by a section of Muslim organizations, who described them as separatist and provocative at a time when violence against mosques and Muslim people increased. The most recent example involved an anonymous letter sent to a mosque in Sydney on Australia Day, threatening coordinated violence against minority groups.
In his speech, Morrison said the reforms he proposed were not about “policing faith” but about “responsibility and accountability in a free society”.
“Treating these topics as taboo only serves those who thrive in the dark,” he said.
But former south-west Sydney Liberal councilor Mazhar Hadid described the former prime minister as a “hypocrite” for traveling to Israel and being hailed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as “a terrific, terrific defender of our people” rather than speaking locally.
Hadid, who served as a Liberal on the Liverpool Council in Sydney’s south-west until late last year, said: “He shouldn’t be doing this to go to a foreign country and attack his own people of the Muslim faith. If he has something to say, he should come to Australia, meet the community, talk to them, see how you can get things done. Don’t go overseas and attack your own people.”
“We educate that we need to live in peace and harmony, that there are common interests we need to focus on, that there are problems in Australia but we need to focus on the good things. That’s exactly what we do.”
Aly said Morrison and Bragg’s comments “must be understood in a broader and more troubling context”; “A context in which Muslim Australians are repeatedly expected to answer for acts of violence that they did not commit or condone.”
“Muslim communities have repeatedly and unequivocally condemned terrorism, including being among the first to condemn the Bondi attack. Yet they are still being asked to prove their national loyalty and innocence like no other community. This is unfair and deeply damaging,” he said.
“Such comments carry real risks. They fuel fear, entrench division, and unfairly blame entire communities for the actions of individuals who have embraced a distorted and violent ideology.”
Malik has previously said that effective counter-extremism efforts are based on certainty, evidence and trust. “When entire communities are treated as suspects, that trust is eroded and with it the effectiveness of security policies designed to protect Australians,” he said last week.
He said on Wednesday that extremism should be opposed but “should never be used as an excuse to restrict freedoms, police belief or sow suspicion on the whole of society.”
“Doing this provides social license to hate,” he said. “Those who encourage violence do not represent Islam. They are criminals sitting on the sidelines, disconnected from mainstream social life.
“Effective counter-extremism measures must be unambiguous. They must target criminal behavior, not beliefs. Conflating criminality with the faith lived by Australian Muslims undermines trust and undermines genuine efforts to keep all Australians safe.”
Australian Federal Police chief Krissy Barrett said law enforcement was combing the words of radical preachers’ sermons “line by line” for any red flags as new hate speech laws passed with the support of the Coalition allow the home secretary to ban any group promoting hate.
Islamic leaders, who wished to remain anonymous, said last month that they had been sounding the alarm for 10 years about hate preacher Wissam Haddad, who was linked to one of the attackers.
Muslim groups have been divided this month over their support for new hate laws targeting Hizb ut Tahrir, whose hard-line views are viewed with caution by many in the Muslim and wider community.
On Wednesday, Muslim representative bodies reacted strongly to Morrison’s intervention. Imam Shadi Alsuleiman, Chairman of the Australian National Imams Council, said, “It is deeply worrying and disappointing that someone who holds the highest office in the country would make such divisive statements.”
President of the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils, Dr. Rateb Jneid said this discourse “inevitably creates a divide between so-called ‘acceptable’ and ‘unacceptable’ Muslims, with politicians positioning themselves as arbiters of our faith.”
“This is not leadership. It is dangerous and history shows us exactly where this is going,” he said.
Gamel Kheir, secretary of the Lebanese Muslim Association, said it was “offensive and strange that Scott Morrison is lecturing Australians on social cohesion while talking about Israel” while the conflict in Gaza continues.
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Natassia Chrysanthos is a Federal Political Correspondent. He has previously reported on immigration, health, social issues and the NDIS from Parliament House in Canberra.Connect with: X or email.
