The loaded concept of citizenship

Add to that the problem of unemployment, and the result is an attraction of disenfranchised people to the ideas of people like Osama bin Laden who offer membership of a global umma (the global or national body of believers) and therefore an identity which is absent in the society in which these people grew up.

It is also claimed that Islamic theology divides the world into darul Islam (darul means the place or abode of) and darul harb (the abode of war), and all Western nations form part of the abode of war. Muslims should not live outside the Islamic state.

While mediaeval Muslim scholars divided the world in this way, the vast majority of modern scholars reject such a dichotomy as completely out of date, and argue that so long as a Muslim is free to practice his or her religion in a non-Muslim country, there is no objection to them staying there, provided that they maintain their religious beliefs and practices.

Muslims living in Western countries may in fact enjoy more freedom of religion than they would in their home countries under repressive regimes.

Swiss Muslim philosopher Tariq Ramadan, noted Egyptian scholar Yusuf al-Qaardawi, and American imam Feisal Abdul Rauf - who was invited as guest speaker at an interfaith gathering by Premier Bob Carr in 2004 - argue that it is perfectly possible for a Muslim to be a good citizen of a Europe, America or Australia.

Providing they are not required to do anything contrary to Islam, they can take up citizenship, vote and join the army - possibly to fight against Muslims in a just cause. In other words, there is no Islamic reason that they cannot undertake all the responsibilities and privileges of citizenship in the same way as any other citizen is expected to do.

It is true that traditional Islamic scholarship rejected the concept of nationality, or tribalism (asabiyyah) and required all believers in Islam to recognise each other as brothers and sisters in the universal family of Islam. In practice this ideal did not last long before the Muslim community split into a number of individual states. Nevertheless, there remains a deep feeling of community between Muslims regardless of the nation state they occupy today.

However, when a person becomes a citizen, there must be a two-way process of acceptance. There should not be first- and second-class citizenship. Just as new citizens are expected to abide by the law, respect Australian values and take pride in being Australian, so older Australians should be prepared to learn a little about the customs and beliefs of migrants and tolerate beliefs and practices which may be different from their own.