Fadi Rahman: we risk 'London-type bombing'

October 29, 2007, the Australian

AUSTRALIA faces a "London-type bombing" if relations between Muslims and the intelligence and police authorities do not improve, an influential Islamic youth leader has warned.

Fadi Rahman, who runs one of Sydney's biggest youth centres at Lidcombe in the city's west, said overseas Islamic elements were attempting to radicalise Muslim youth with their hardline ideologies.

But in a warning that will resonate with Australian authorities, Mr Rahman said Muslims did not trust ASIO or the Australian Federal Police and that the bungled terror case against Gold Coast doctor Mohamed Haneef had worsened the situation. "The biggest problem ASIO and the federal police have is that no one in the Islamic community trusts them enough to give them a heads-up about anything," Mr Rahman told The Australian.

"Look at the Haneef thing - why would we trust these guys when all you see is one fumble after another? People are afraid." ...

The "something" includes programs to give opportunities to Muslim youth and a "less hostile" attitude by the federal Government ...

Mr Rahman said he and Toufic Mallah, the man he brought into the youth centre to stress moderation, preached non-violence.

About 50 of the youths at the centre, which has about 460 members aged 10 to 35, are former criminals who have done time in jail. Mr Rahman said they could go "either way".

At the Independent Centre of Research Australia, he runs anger-management programs and has opened a prayer room run by Sheik Mallah. Sheik Mallah said the second chapter of the Koran stressed that "we have made a moderate nation".

He says non-Muslim Australians should approach their local sheiks if there was anything they did not understand or like about their local Muslim communities. "Come and speak to us," he said ...

"The blame game" of all Muslims being blamed for terrorism "will only put people offside", he said.

Dear Mr Rahman,

Compliments for your efforts at the Lidcombe youth centre, and for availing us of your knowledge of extremists among us. But there endeth the compliments ...

You speak of lessons to be learned. The most important lesson comes from one of your Muslim brothers. Turkish prime minister Erdogan said the other day of PKK terrorists:

Those who are unable to distance themselves from terrorism cannot avoid being adversely affected by the struggle against terrorism.

Step 1 for distancing yourself: stop selectively quoting from the Koran, get a hold of Robert Spencer's book Religion of Peace: Why Christianity Is and Islam Isn't, and then understand that, as apostate Wafa Sultan says "There is no way we can keep the Koran". It's pretty simple Fadi, regarding the Koran, it is indisputable that the texts encourage terror and violence. Ergo, anyone who calls themselves a Muslim, and thereby carries around a manual for violence, is insufficiently distanced from terrorism. There is no way for us to tell who among you will go berserko on us. As Wafa says:

... I don't believe Islam can be reformed. I really don't. I believe Islam shall be transformed, and it will take fearless religious leaders and very well educated people to cause the transformation.

Fadi, you are a fearless leader on the street level. But, as you can see, Islam has to be fearlessly transformed at the religious level - are you up to that task? Hence your talk of moderation is offensive to those Westerners who have learned their lessons from terror. Clearly, you haven't. You have to sufficiently distance yourself so there is no chance they could go "either way".

Step 2 for distancing yourself: it's simple really - assimilate. Lose all your defining foreign qualities and fit in: ditch the nauseating language, the offensive haircuts, religious dress, Islamic beards, hijabs, veils, pull down the minarets. So, "come and speak to us" is offensive really.

But I do note that Step 2, in the cultural vacuum of Western Sydney, may be too difficult under the weight of existing numbers. Which could be grounds for acknowledging that assimilation is not going to happen, and therefore segregation is the better way forward.