Migrant Muslim leaders should bow out

Some Muslim leaders are worried about an anti-Muslim backlash. They keep talking about racism and prejudice, about rednecks and shock jocks and tabloid columnists.

Yes, the shock jocks and columnists are a worry. As are the Liberal backbenchers doing Al-Qaida’s work by making mainstream Aussie Muslims feel marginalised.

But seriously, between racism and terrorism, I’d have to say my biggest fear is the latter. For a number of reasons.

When terror strikes, people of all nationalities and faiths will be killed and injured. In London, at least ten per cent of the victims were from Muslim backgrounds. One even had the surname “Islam”. She was an English citizen on her way to work.

Bombs don’t discriminate. Just ask the friends and family of the killed and wounded at the wedding in Amman Jordan. Just ask the families of the Indonesian workers killed and injured when terrorists have struck Bali and Jakarta.

Terrorism is not really about Islam or Muslims. It’s about politics and perceived grievances. It’s about a lot of other things. But essentially it’s about making a point, about getting attention. It is a violent, deadly form of emotional immaturity and insecurity. And its victims and their communities end up feeling most insecure.

Muslim leaders often talk about going to the root causes of terror. From what we have seen in the UK and Australia, the root causes are not just about Australia’s involvement in Iraq or elsewhere.

The common denominator for all terror suspects is their age and their being born (or at least brought up in) Australia. In other words, the terror suspects are people of my own generation.

Migrant Muslim leaders may point the fingers at racists and shock-jocks and Liberal backbenchers. But for every one finger you point at others, three point back at yourself.

Over 50 per cent of Muslims in Australia are people I describe as Aussie Mossies. They were born and or brought up here. Many are kids of migrants. Or they are converts, many of whom make enormous sacrifices and are disowned by their families for their choice of religion. Both groups feel marginalised by society. But they are even more marginalised by migrant-dominated religious institutions.

Aussie Mossies fit in quite well to mainstream Aussie society. But like so many young people, they have serious issues they need to work through. And unlike churches and synagogues, the mainstream mosques and Islamic organisations have failed young people.

The national body, the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils (AFIC) has not held a national Muslim youth camp since 1988. They have no youth representatives on their executive, and have not had a single female on their executive for over two decades. Their youth adviser is Sheik Hilali, a man in his 60s.

All state Islamic councils (bar Victoria) that make up the building blocks of AFIC are dominated by migrants with few English skills and little interest in youth activities. Their member societies that manage mosques are dominated by migrants with migrant settlement issues and irrelevant cultural baggage.

Mosques are divided along ethnic and linguistic lines. And the linguistics are rarely of the kind Aussie Mossies will understand. The imam can rarely, if ever, speak proper English. Imams are almost all from overseas, from non-Western environments and are unable to assist the young even if they want to.

Muslim youth and converts are discouraged from taking up leadership positions. Muslim women are often barred from the mosque. So where do young Muslims go? Who do they turn to?

This is where the radical imams, the thick-sheiks (to use Sydney radio personality Mike Carlton’s phrase) come into play. The thick-sheiks are generally trained in Saudi Arabia. Some of them were brought up in Australia and were sent by peak bodies and agents of Saudi religious institutions to study in seminaries in Saudi Arabia.

There, these thick-sheiks pick up an extreme isolationist theology of the kind espoused by pseudo-sheik Khalid Yasin. They pass this isolationist theology and paranoid mentality onto young people and converts.

For peak bodies, it is enough if they throw some free literature toward young people and converts. The literature is usually in English and published in Saudi Arabia. It contains the same isolationist fringe theology as the thick-sheiks teach. Yet the thick-sheiks dare not set foot into a mainstream mosque. Why? Because whatever the faults of the migrants controlling the mosques, they can spot the fringe nature of the thick-sheiks’ message a mile away.

That explains why the thick-sheiks always target young people and converts. Because young people and converts don’t have the same grounding in mainstream Islam. Their minds are virgin territory, susceptible to the crazy theology espoused by thick-sheiks.

What makes matters even more dangerous is that the thick-sheiks often speak fluent English. They provide useful relevant services and facilities to young people. They offer sporting activities, fitness classes, Internet access and places where young people can meet other young people in a similar predicament.

Which explains why the thick-sheiks have such a strong following. Perhaps the only thing stopping the thick-sheiks is other young people who are exposed to mainstream theology and can try and drag their peers away from the thick-sheiks. But drag them to where?

Thick-sheiks have well-resourced networks. Most are funded by Saudi-based institutions. The mainstream Muslim youth groups don’t have access to the ready funds of Saudi financiers or overseas governments. Many are forced to rely on small government grants or limited private sponsorship. They struggle in silence.

I believe that the theology of the thick-sheiks is of limited attractiveness. Many young people go through a phase of attending thick-sheik talks, only to find the isolationist theology a little too much. They end up either attending more mainstream theology sessions or just leaving religion altogether.

Recent coverage of wacky remarks by thick-sheiks has also pushed young people from their clutches. In Melbourne, the smooth transition of control of the Islamic Council of Victoria to an educated non-migrant and convert dominated executive has helped the process. The current president of the ICV is an Anglo-Australian convert named Malcolm Thomas. The ICV spokesman, Waleed Aly, is an articulate young lawyer, who was born in Australia.

Yes, there is a danger of young people being misled onto the path of extremism. It only takes a few to terrorise the nation, Muslims and non-Muslims. However, before migrant Muslim leaders go pointing the fingers at others, they should start getting their own house in order. And that might mean giving up their own positions in favour of the next generation.