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December 25, 2005

Australia: Firebrand Cleric Says PM Encourages Muslim Extremism

The Australian and news.com.au state that the radical cleric Sheikh Mohammed Omran (pictured) is blaming Prime Minister John Howard and his government for fuelling Islamic radicalism. "The Government is pushing the people to believe they (Muslims) can do all these major disaster things," he said.

Omran was giving his first major interview since the arrests of 18 suspected Islamists, which took place in Melbourne and Sydney on November 8.

Speaking to the Australian from his prayer centre in Melbourne's inner north, he said the government of Prime Minister John Howard was focusing on terrorism in such a way as to make the "naive" Australian public paranoid about Muslims and possible terrorist attacks.

He said he was no more radical than the other 13 imams in Melbourne, but said he was the only one brave enough to openly condemn Australia's role in Iraq and express his support with insurgents fighting coalition troops.

Omran repeated claims he had made earlier, that Osama bin Laden had not been responsible for the US plane attacks of September 11, 2001, and he also said that Muslims were not responsible for 9/11 or for the London bombings on July 7.

"When I say the Muslims didn't do it, then I am taking the terrorists out of the Muslims. I say we don't do that, and you say you do that. So which one makes us terrorist?"

"When I say this wasn't a bin Laden job and bin Laden can't do that and he doesn't have the ability to do that ... which one is encouraging terrorist action -- the one saying you have the ability, or the one who says you don't have the ability?" Sheik Omran said.

He said his opinions on global terrorism, and especially bin Laden, were largely shaped by his research on the internet and in print. "I am a man of common sense - I am not an idiot who hears what people say and take it and go. I don't talk from nonsense ... I study and I put so much effort (in) before I talk."In a previous interview, from Australian TV news program Sixty Minutes, which was broadcast in July this year, Sheikh Omran went as far as to say this:

PETER OVERTON: Who is responsible for September 11?

SHEIKH MOHAMMAD OMRAN: I don't want to say USA Government, but I would say some of them, they are responsible for that.

PETER OVERTON: The Government is responsible?

SHEIKH MOHAMMAD OMRAN: Yes. Yes! I believe in that 100 percent. I believe there is - what they call it? A conspiracy against Islam and Muslims.

PETER OVERTON: I think the average person out there would be amazed that you don't think Osama bin Laden was responsible for September 11.

SHEIKH MOHAMMAD OMRAN: There is a mastermind behind these things and the mastermind 100 percent he is from the US Government.

Omran's sermons are attracting more young white native-born Australians among its clientele. To reach the prayer centre in Michael Street, his congregation ascend rickety stairs.

Sheikh Omran is the head of the Ahlus Sunnah wal Jama'ah Association of Australia, which describes itself thus: The Ahl Sunnah wal Jama'ah Association was established more than 20 years ago. We are a national body with affiliated organizations in Melbourne, Sydney and Perth. We have always been a part of the Australian landscape - amongst the Muslim community we are known and respected for our relentless pursuit of moral truth in all aspects of life.

A number of the individuals arrested on November 8 had passed through the prayer halls of Sheikh Omran, but he claimed that they were not his students, according to a transcript from ABC Radio, using soundtrack from ABC TV's Lateline program the previous night, which was Thursday 10 November, shortly after the mass arrests.

Australia's intelligence service, ASIO, stated in a document from March this year that Sheikh Omran had been closely associated with Abdul Nacer Benbrika, the cleric arrested from Melbourne on November 8. The document stated that Benbrika, before he set up his own group, had been the deputy leader of Melbourne's Islamic support centre, or IISCA. That centre is directed by Sheikh Omran.

On the program, he denied that Benbrika had been so highly placed. "Absolutely not. No. It wasn't incorrect. As I said, this was in the beginning, he was the second man in the organisation in teaching wise, not in organising wise. But he has never been my deputy at all," he said. He claimed that he had disagreed with the views of Benbrika and the two had split.

The arrests on November 8, initially drew criticism from many Muslim leaders and representatives. Sheikh Mohammed Omran wrote that day on the Ahlus Sunnah wal Jama'ah Association of Australia website:

We would like to express our alarm and uneasiness over the recent arrests in Sydney and Melbourne.

We hope all those accused receive a fair trial and the presumption of innocence is preserved. We have concerns over the discrepancy between public allegations and actual charges laid in court.

In these uncertain and testing times, we urge all Muslims to remain patient and hopeful. We urge all Australians to hold onto our values, the all Australian "fair go for all" and remain tolerant.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at December 25, 2005 8:28 PM

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Posted by: John Sobieski at December 25, 2005 10:23 PM

Posted by: pallash at December 26, 2005 6:06 AM

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