An Open Letter to Peter Faris QC

Mr Peter Faris QC
Barrister-at-Law

Dear Colleague,

I am writing to you concerning your blog located at …

http://www.farisqc.observationdeck.org/

I gave read your CV. I am impressed by your contributions to Aboriginal rights, ro community legal centres and to law enforcement. I note you were a chair of a national crime-fighting body.

You have been a champion of the oppressed, of victims of crime and of those unable to afford all the benefits of legal representation without outside assistance. Further, your crusade against white collar crime has been exemplary. You are one of the few voices in the profession to openly attack the inconsistencies in the treatment and prosecution of white collar criminals.

Sadly, your comments on issues pertaining to national security are not in this productive and sensible league. Instead of enlightening your readers on the real threats to national security, you are demonising 400,000 Australians of a particular faith-community at the heart of Australian life.

I have frequently visited your blog. I read headlines such as “Muslims must become Aussies now”. Further, your 10 or so points on “Defending Australia” are designed to incite hatred and violence against Muslim Australians.

I note that you currently have a contract as a radio announcer with 3AW. I wonder whether your station management are aware of the comments you have made on your blog. I wonder if your advertisers and sponsors are aware of the contents of your blog.

I encourage you to put your views on Muslims to some of the advertisers and sponsors of 3AW and its affiliate stations. Perhaps you could invite John Ilhan or Ahmed Fahour to comment on your blog. Or perhaps you could invite other prominent Muslim Australians for their views.

Your views on immigration and citizenship are particularly interesting. I wonder if senior Department of Immigration, Multicultural & Indigenous Affairs (DIMIA) bureaucrats such as Mr Abdul Rizvi would agree with your sentiments.

We live in a free country. You are free to say and write what you wish. But as a Queens Counsel, you have certain ethical obligations to the legal profession and the community.

I would humbly submit that the contents of your blog are inconsistent with your ethical and professional obligations.

I encourage you to reconsider your views on these matters. I welcome your response and am happy to discuss the matter with you face-to-face, including in the media. I would be happy to appear with you on, for example, the ABC 7:30 Report, Lateline or the Today Show. We can have a frank expression of views, and we can let viewers decide.

I look forward to your response. Please feel free to contact me via e-mail at the following address …

iyusuf@sydneylawyers.com.au

Yours faithfully,
Irfan Yusuf., BEc, LLB (Macq), GradDipLP (UTS)
Barrister & Solicitor

Numbers count for nothing and everything ...

Whoever takes the life of one human unjustly, it will be treated as if he has taken the lives of all humans whoever walked this earth.

We find this message in the Qur’an and in the Bible. Similar messages can be found in the scriptures of other religious traditions. Human life is always sacred. No one has the right to take the law into their own hands and take revenge on some perceived injustice by killing innocents.

Perhaps the worst excesses in murder and genocide in human history were carried out by the Mongols. I mention them because they were my ancestors. The Mongols swept across China, forcing the king of China to build a huge wall whose trail to this day can be picked up by satellites in space.

The Mongols then smashed down the doors of Baghdad and other cities. They plundered, raped, murdered and burnt wherever they went. No one was safe. We read reports of Mongol troops grabbing babies by the feet and smashing their heads against the walls of Baghdad. All in the presence of their mothers, who were typically raped and then murdered.

Baghdad back then was what London is today. The Mongol attack on Baghdad involved terrorising the heart of civilisation. Baghdad was a place where scholars and dissidents, students and artists would all meet under the protection of the Caliph. The Tariq Ali’s and Salman Rushdie’s and Abdul Majid Khoei’s of that time found security and sanctity in Baghdad. At least until the hordes arrived.

Apart from Hitler’s treatment of European Jewry, it is hard to find a modern equivalent of the Mongol massacre. The closest would perhaps be the war in Bosnia.

Human life is all sacred. We all have the same coloured blood. Among the victims of the London bombing was a young English Muslim girl named Shahara Islam. Her surname is a powerful metaphor in this conflict. If anyone needed proof that Islamic civilisation is much a victim as any other, it could be found in her name. Islam is a victim. Islam is innocent.

London had some 80 Shahara Islam’s die in the bombing. And hardly 10 years before, another place in the heart of Europe saw 8,000 Shahara Islam’s brutally murdered. Yet sadly little coverage was given to this anniversary.

In case anyone still remembers, the name of this town was Srebrenica. In July 1995, some 8,000 men and boys were massacred in this town. Their crime was that they supported a multi-ethnic multi-religious state. The inhabitants of this town were largely Muslim. The defenders of the town were a Bosnian army unit consisting of Muslims, Catholics and Orthodox Christians. The invading army were Serb ethnic chauvinists.

The UN peacekeepers sat back and watched the massacre take place. The world watched. The Bosnian army, hampered by a UN-imposed arms embargo, were powerless to do anything. The ethnic chauvinists won the battle. Humanity lost the war.

80 Britons died in London. 8,000 Bosnians died in Srebrenica. 6,000,000 Jews died in the Second World War. No one knows how many died at the hands of the Mongols. The numbers just keep getting worse. Humanity keeps losing the war.

So what is the answer? Civilisational war? Seeking justice for past crimes? There will always be Christians who never forgive Jews, Jews who never forgive Christians, Hindus who never forgive Muslims, Muslims who never forgive Sikhs.

And a God who will be happy to forgive the lot of them if they just stopped fighting and tried to get along!

You cannot fight terror with terror. Mongols terrorised the world. But one day a sufi Muslim introduced Islam to a Mongol warrior. Within a month, the vast Mongol horde had been adopted by the most civilised nation of the day. Centuries later, they arrived in India and left us with such wonders as the Taj Mahal.

If there is one thing all faiths teach, it is that you can never write off anyone. The ones society damns are often the most blessed. Christ spent much of his time with tax collectors and prostitutes. Muhammad’s closest followers were slaves and the homeless. Religion teaches love. Terrorists teach hate. Terrorism knows no religion.

Whether it be 80 or 8,000 or 6 million. Human life is human life. As one holocaust survivor said, we should not focus on numbers. Rather, we should look at it as one life lost, then another, then another, then …

iyusuf@sydneylawyers.com.au

© Irfan Yusuf 2005

REFLECTION: Saint Aslam

I had just parked my car near the intersection of Elizabeth and Cleveland Streets in Strawberry Hills. It was almost midday, and I was meeting a colleague for lunch at our favourite Lebanese restaurant.

He was standing near a shopping trolley containing bottles of water and different kids of soaps. He was babbling away in conversation with people I couldn’t see. He then approached me, holding a wet window cleaner.

“Can I clean your windscreen, Sir?”

Before I could say no, he was already onto the second window. Within 5 minutes, the windows of my humble Daihatsu hatchback were sparkling.

I asked him his name. “My name’s As, short for Aslam”.

I remember having a depressed uncle named Aslam. I also remember a close friend telling me of her relative of similar sounding name who lived on the streets and survived by wiping windscreens. Could Aslam be him?

I stayed with Aslam for a while. We looked an unusual pair, me in my business suit and Aslam in his t-shirt, trackies and sneakers with no socks. He told me he had been wiping windscreens for a couple of years. He answered my questions and those of others. It seemed like he was talking to people I couldn’t see.

Aslam told me he stayed at Matthew Talbot Hostel sometimes. I remembered something Cardinal Pell had written in the Sunday Telegraph on the refurbishment of the hostel which serviced hundreds of homeless men.

Of course, the Hostel cannot accommodate the many thousands of homeless people, many with untreated psychiatric illnesses who have been turned away by their families. These men can often be found sleeping on park benches or outside churches.

Yet even the most unwell of people have dignity and pride. I felt inspired watching Aslam approach people confidently and sell his services. He didn’t insist on drivers offering him tips.

“I just wanna do something useful”, Aslam told me.

Later, my colleague finally arrived for lunch. I told him about Aslam, and we could see him from the front window of the restaurant cleaning away. My colleague was of Lebanese background, and suggested that perhaps Aslam was Muslim.

The words “Aslam” and “Muslim” both come from the same Arabic word which means to surrender and find peace. Standing with Aslam watching him content with a few dollars and his dignity intact made me feel a strange peace.

In most religious and legal traditions, the mentally ill are regarded as without blame. In Islamic traditions, the mentally ill are not subject to the law whilst affected by their illness. A person who lives and dies whilst in a state of mental illness is a veritable saint.

Islamic tradition ascribes the highest spiritual states to the homeless. The spiritual tradition of Islam, known as Sufism, is named after the People of the “Suffah”, referring to a platform in the Prophet’s Mosque where the homeless were accommodated. These men were largely refugees and spent their days either in worship or seeking work.

The Prophet Muhammad is reported as spending much of his time with a women suffering from schizophrenia. She would take him by the hand to an old ruined house she squatted in. He would sit and listen to her babbling. He would ask her to pray for him.

A Prophet asking a schizophrenic to pray for him? Why? Because he knew that her prayers would always be answered. Because this woman was a veritable saint.

Christ spent much of his time with the socially stigmatised – sex workers, tax collectors, the poor and homeless. He gave them his time and his love. He realised that true greatness arises from service to those less fortunate.

“Beware the prayer of someone you oppress, for their prayers reach God without any barrier.” People damned by society are the truly oppressed. When they pray against you, watch out. But when they wish you well, expect to find peace and joy.

I found that after spending just 15 minutes watching Aslam. I gave him $20, a small price to pay for peace of mind. And if he reads this, I hope St Aslam prays for my soul.

Words © 2005 Irfan Yusuf


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Hanging Dirty Linen on the Line - Part 1

“Irfan, why are you hanging our dirty linen on their line!”

I have lost count of how many times I have heard this statement being made. Especially now, with Muslims really feeling the pressure over terrorism. It seems everyone is ready to blame Muslims for the acts of a few lunatics. And many Muslims see their institutions as a barrier between themselves and the rest of the broader Australian community.

For some Muslims, public criticism of Muslim community bodies is akin to treachery. It is indicative of a siege mentality in which the Muslim “us” is forever at risk of being overrun by the broader Australian “them”. It perhaps presumes that non-Muslim Australians have sinister or even hostile intentions toward Muslims.

What it does not, however, seek to do is recognise why “they” may not be all that favourably inclined toward “us”. Further, it locks “us” into a marginalised fringe. It creates suspicion and paranoia which drives Muslims to search for conspiracies and other unrealistic explanations.

Already, such conspiracy theories are being rattled off about my not-so-good self. I have had a fairly good run so far in the press. At least four of my articles have been published in the Daily Telegraph, two in the Financial Review, two in the Canberra Times and one in the Sydney Morning Herald.

I have been interviewed twice on Channel 9’s Today Show and once on the prestigious ABC current affairs program Lateline. I have also been interviewed by 5 talkback hosts in Sydney and Canberra.

For some, this is evidence that I am a Freemason or a Zionist agent. After all, a Muslim Australian is not allowed to be published in mainstream media, nor is s/he allowed to be given a fair go by the allegedly Jewish-controlled media. After all, being a lawyer and former Liberal candidate for a safe Labor seat is bad enough.

But my worst crime is that I have dared to speak about internal Muslim community politics. I apparently have a personal agenda and am abusing my role as spokesperson to pursue personal vendettas.

Let’s examine some of the underlying assumptions. Firstly, there is the notion of “internal Muslim community matters”, of “our dirty linen”. There are strong suggestions that the London bombing was the work of locally recruited and trained British Muslim youths. These were not necessarily youths with a history of radical activity (although some did attend training camps in Afghanistan).

We are all familiar with the scenario. Young Muslim kids disillusioned with their community and national leadership. Youth ignored by community organisations and with little outlet for their talents. Their aspirations and ideals are constantly challenged by hypocrisy they see all around them.

These young kids are then recruited by radical organisations. They feel empowered by these fringe groups who encourage them to speak out. And their rhetoric becomes more hostile and extreme.

Many of these young people suffer from all kinds of illnesses, especially untreated depression. It is well known that depressed youngsters are often suicidal. Combine depression and suicidal ideation with radical rhetoric and a bit of military training.

Why do these young people get sucked in by extremist fringe groups? Where are these groups coming from? What is their ideology? Who funds them? How did they end up active and resourced in countries like Australia?

And if a bomb does go off in Sydney or Melbourne, where will law enforcement officials be looking to first? Where will media focus be? Where will the trails lead?

Yes, we know that Muslims are not the only terrorists. After all, we all saw recently images of Israeli Muslims mourning their dead killed by a Jewish terrorist who boarded a bus and opened fire. We also know that this terrorist was part of a wider movement opposed to the dismantlement of heavily fortified Jewish extremist camps in Gaza. We also know that some Australian Jews are supporting and bankrolling this extremist fringe.

But how many Australians would blame Jewish extremists and their Australian backers for a terrorist act? How many associate Jewish chauvinism with suicide bombings? How many Jewish Australians openly espouse the views of Israel’s Jewish Ayatollahs? How many Australian rabbis do we see describing the Jewish terrorist as “a great man”?

Jewish institutions are well-oiled and powerful. And this is not related to any conspiracy or infiltration. It is just plain hard work and a willingness to understand the sources of anti-Jewish prejudice. When Jewish community spokesmen speak, it is in a language and using terms mainstream Australia understands and related to.

What language do Muslim spokespeople speak in? Why is it that we are always embarrassed by what our people say? Why is it that a radical youth like Wasim Dureihi sounds more credible than Sheik Hilali or the President of AFIC or the chairmen of any one of three competing Islamic “pizza” councils in NSW?

Some two weeks ago, the Islamic Council of NSW was approached with a proposal for a media committee to be delegated the role of talking to the press. A list of names was presented. Little was done until the writer decided to publish a few home truths about the dominance of one family on ICNSW affairs.

Now a meeting has been organised. And when will it be? On Thursday 11 August 2005. At what time? 10am.

As a colleague of mine said: “Mate, it looks like only people with workers comp claims will attend!”

To be continued …

© Irfan Yusuf 2005

Servants of al-Qaida

I was sitting in a TV studio in Ultimo when a brainwave hit me. I was all painted and covered in make-up, my hair severely gelled, my suit feeling hot and uncomfortable, cameras staring at me. Maxine was looking and talking a million dollars, I didn’t feel like I was contributing 2 cents and I was lost for words (not because of Maxine but because I was nervous!).

Then it hit me. Out of nowhere. I was talking about conservative rhetoric needing to get beyond Islam-bashing. And then I saw the image in my mind.

It was Usama. Usama bin Ladin sitting in his cave, watching me on the TV. Usama reading Aussie newspapers and planning his next attack. Usama generating a desirable result for al-Qaida. Usama trying to think of ways to push the reluctant and sceptical Muslim mainstream in his general direction.

Usama’s Jihadi Salafite vision of Islam is regarded as the stuff fruitcakes and breakfast cereals (as in fruitloops) are made of in the Muslim world. The overwhelming majority of Muslims regard his rejectionist thinking as worthy of people with heads plonked firmly in the sand. Usama is the archetypal Muslim ostrich, ready to be slaughtered and eaten. Except that his ideological flesh is simply not halal!

Young disillusioned Muslim kids (such as the Dureihi brothers of the Sydney branch of Hizbut Tahrir) may find this rhetoric attractive. They might even get a few hundred kids to turn upto the Auburn Town Hall to listen in. But they are on the fringe, almost universally ridiculed when not pitied.

But the real allies of Usama are not the Hizbos (as they are known in the broader Aussie Mossie community). The real allies of Usama are allegedly conservative columnists and commentators who demonise Islam and anything or anyone even remotely associated with it.

When you want to fight the enemy, you can use a scud missile. This large and clumsy creature usually misses its target. Sadly, unintended others are often hurt. In the war against terrorism, neo-Con columnists are like ideological scud missiles. They miss the target but end up hurting others unnecessarily if not unintentionally.

One of my closest friends never met her Muslim father. She works behind a bar. When she told me about her father, I somehow doubted whether this would lead to her feeling passionate about her background and faith.

Then one day, we spoke for an hour about Feiz Mohamed and his comments on rape. I told her I had published something in this newspaper about it, my first foray into mainstream journalism. Her response left me stunned.

“I am so glad someone has spoken out about it! I’ve been up here in Newcastle arguing with people about it. They keep teasing me about it!”

My friend is not the most observant Muslim on the planet. She enjoys mixing champagne with her orange juice. She looks even better than Maxine did on Lateline. And she gets so hurt when she hears or sees someone give her father’s faith a bad name.

My friend gets even more upset when she reads Dr Janet Albrechtsen claiming that her late father would have taught her brothers to rape white women. Or when Piers Akerman claims Muslim citizens are answerable for the actions of terrorists. Or when she logs into the blog of Peter Faris QC and reads stuff that would make Pauline Hanson look like Mother Teresa.

And this young barmaid reads this stuff and gets pushed into the direction of the broader Muslim community. But even here she finds no succour as Muslims condemn but refuse to speak out. She might then begin to believe that there is no hope.

Many isolated irreligious Muslims are angry and frustrated. I know how they feel. I used to be one of them. The first time I published a letter to the editor of the Sydney Morning Herald, I was criticised by an uncle of mine, an Indian doctor.

“Irfan, you are just a law student. Wait until you have finished your degree and are at the top of your profession. Then do something!” he advised.

“But uncle, you are at the top of your profession. What are you doing?” I responded.

If my uncle was just another Macquarie Street general surgeon, his concern might be justified. But he was the Vice President of the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils, the national body whose very constitution mentions community advocacy as one of its goals.

When people like my uncle refuse to speak out, inexperienced naïve kids like the Dureihi brothers take their place. And the more silent or incoherent Muslim voices are, the louder the voices of Islam-bashers grow. Social discord and loss of liberty result. The only beneficiary is a beady-eyed terrorist hiding on a cave.

Between Muslim leadership silence, Muslim youth frustration and pseudo-conservative hate-columnists and shock jocks, the only beneficiary is Usama bin Ladin.

The author is a Sydney industrial lawyer. iyusuf@sydneylawyers.com.au

© Irfan Yusuf 2005

The Smile of Islam

Terrorists are hijacking Islam. Islam is the victim of terrorism. Islam is being killed, and Islam is being blamed.

In London, that became apparent when a young British girl and those riding with her were mercilessly killed whilst travelling to work. She was a young bank clerk, the pride of her migrant family. She was a devoutly religious girl, and yet her sweet smile and gentle demeanour revealed the face of a truly modern British woman.

She was British. She was young. She was smiling in her published photograph. She was on her way to work. She was contributing to her society, to her economy and to her nation. She died at the hands of terrorists. At memorial services across the UK, she was being remembered and prayed for.

Tony Blair and George W Bush and John Howard and others paid tribute to her. As did other western leaders. Even those otherwise hostile to her could not help but remember her bravery.

If anyone was a martyr in this terrible tragedy, it was people like her. She was the symbol of modernity, of civilisation. Her death inspires us to fight on, to address the scourge of terror.

When we speak out against terror and its ideology, we will remember her name. When we face and address the emotions of our confused and frightened non-Muslim neighbours, we will be doing her proud.

God tells us that we should not regard martyrs as dead. They are alive. God is providing for martyrs, even if we do not perceive it.

She is a martyr. Her name and what it represents is being martyred. But her name and what it represents is not dead. Indeed, it is alive, sustained by God in ways only people of wisdom will understand.

We must fight terror so that her death not be in vain. We must fight terror so that her parents’ tears are wiped dry and replaced with the joy of knowing their daughter is a martyr and will enter paradise insh’Allah.

Our theology teaches us that martyrdom is not an automatic ticket to paradise. We are taught that amongst the first people to be judged on the day of judgment will be a martyr. He will be brought before God and questioned on why he died.

“I died to serve you and to make your Name respected and your Greatness acknowledged”, the martyr will say.

“No you most certainly did not!”, will be the Divine response. “You died so that people would say how great you were, so that people would write songs and poems and eulogies devoted to your bravery. And they did this. You have been rewarded. Today, there is nothing for you but the Hellfire!”

This is what he, the martyr, will be told before being dragged to hell.

He. Not she.

She had no intentions of glory or fame. She just intended to go to work. She was one of millions of anonymous Britons leaving the safety and comfort of their homes for the uncertainty of economic activity.

Now, in death, she has attained fame and glory. And her name deserves to be remembered and mentioned again and again.

She is from our family. We are from her family. She may be British, but she is also from the family of Islam.

The family of Islam are a British family. They are as British as the Blair family. They are as British as Prince Nassim or Nasser Hussein or other establishment figures. They are as British as Tim Winter and Zaki Badawi. And as Cat Stevens.

She shares her surname with the adopted name of the Cat. She is Shahara. She is the daughter of Britain, the daughter of the West, the daughter of progress and civilisation. And how fitting that she be the daughter of Islam.

Because Islam is not the enemy of progress, of civilisation, or indeed of the West. When terrorists attack the West, they attack Islam. They maim and murder Islam.

And they murdered Shahara, a daughter of Islam.

We will not allow her death to be in vain. We must fight for the family of Islam, for the name of Islam, for the reality of Islam. We will continue our fight.

We will not frown at our neighbours when they question our loyalty. But like Shahara, we will smile in the face of death. We will face the hatred of Islamophobes and their terrorist allies with the smile Shahara left us with, a smile that millions across the world saw.

We see her smiling face and we learn that the murder of Islam inspires some people to smile and others to weep. When Islam is murdered, we weep. When Islam is murdered, her enemies smile and cheer and dance.

When Islam is murdered, conservative columnists and professional Islam-haters cheer and congratulate each other. They tell the world to fight and kill Islam just as Shahara Islam’s murderers killed her. For indeed, Islam-haters and terrorists are both out to kill Islam.

But Islam will not die. God will preserve Islam. That is God’s promise. Islam can only be martyred. Islam doesn’t die.

Yes, we will say it. The London bombings were about martyrdom. Islam was martyred. British values and culture and traditions were martyred. British peace and liberalism were martyred. These British values are steeped in Islam. And they will not die. We must not let them die.

Lest the argument be spoilt by lengthy repetition, I end with the words of Shahara’s brother-in-faith and in humanity. Her brother Yusuf, also from the family of Islam, sang these words years before he ever thought of joining the family of Islam. These words are a virtual second national anthem for the people of London. We will remember these words as we simultaneously mourn and rejoice the martyrdom the smiling Shahara …

Oh I’ve been smiling lately,
Dreaming about the world as one
And I believe it could be,
Some day it’s going to come.

Cause out on the edge of darkness,
There rides a peace train
Oh peace train take this country,
Come take me home again.

Now I’ve been smiling lately,
Thinking about the good things to come
And I believe it could be,
Something good has begun …

Now I’ve been crying lately,
Thinking about the world as it is
Why must we go on hating,
Why can’t we live in bliss.

Cause out on the edge of darkness,
There rides a peace train
Oh peace train take this country,
Come take me home again.

© Irfan Yusuf 2005

Islamic ATSIC?

On Perth talkback radio, the President of the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils (AFIC) announced a proposal to fight terrorism. The announcement was made after the PM and other mainstream leaders called upon Muslim leaders to speak out about terror. The PM also signalled his willingness to involve Muslim communities in discussions on national security.

The PM is acting smartly by having all Australians involved in the discussion. He has learnt from experience that sidelining particular communities from major national debates does more harm than good to our social cohesion.

Excluding Aussie Mossies will only breed further resentment toward liberal democracy. And it is just plain illiberal to exclude people just because of their ethnic or religious background.

So you would think that AFIC’s proposal would be greeted with open arms by both governments and the Muslim communities. Think again.

Dr Ameer Ali, AFIC President, asked the Federal Government to give AFIC legislative powers and funding with a view to fighting extremism. He wanted Canberra to recognise AFIC as the official peak body and to contract out Muslim affairs to AFIC.

The response from Muslims on e-mail groups and discussion forums was swift. And the responses had one common feature – Muslim Australians don’t trust their leaders.

Many Muslim Australians (like many Australians) may not trust the PM. But they know that the PM was elected in a free and fair election. They know that there is an independent electoral commission which carries out voting.

They know that state and local government elections are also free and fair. The PM does not directly interfere or intervene in state affairs. Because if he does, there is a constitution and an independent High Court to test the legality of his intervention.

In short, Muslim Australians are aware that there are checks and balances in the system. But in the structures of Muslim organisational leadership, similar checks and balances do not exist.

In NSW, over the past 5 years, AFIC has had arguments with 5 state councils. In 3 states, it has set up dummy state councils to replace existing ones. In NSW, when AFIC had a dispute with the Islamic Council of NSW, it argued the matter in the Supreme Court. It then created another body called the “Supreme Islamic Council of NSW”.

Within 2 years, AFIC were fighting with the Supreme Council. They then set up a 3rd body to represent Muslim New South Welshmen. When Aussie Mossies got wind of this, their good humoured larrikin nature came to the fore. There was talk of the new Council being called the “Super-Supreme Islamic Council”.

Hence a new phrase in NSW Muslim circles – the “Pizza Councils”.

In the last 20 years, AFIC has not had a single female on their executive. Women make up over 50% of the Muslim communities. Further, Aussie Mossies are a young community. The largest ethnic group are Muslims born in Australia. The largest age bracket is those aged between 25 and 40. It is hard to find a single person in these categories on the AFIC executive.

In short, AFIC represents old men from overseas. Women and young people (including those disillusioned young people tempted to join terror networks) are excluded. That’s fine. But AFIC should stop trying to kid the government into thinking they are representing all Muslim Australians.

Many, if not most, Muslim Australians have even heard of AFIC. And it took AFIC 20 days to write a letter to imams telling them to condemn terrorism.

A key plank of the government’s anti-terrorism strategy is to get all Australians on board. That includes Muslim Australians. AFIC and similar peak bodies have a role to play. But AFIC and the Pizza Councils don’t represent all Muslim Australians.

AFIC should not be turned into a Muslim ATSIC.

iyusuf@sydneylawyers.com.au

© Irfan Yusuf

Cadbury AFIC - Full of Nuts!

Take a walk down George Street Sydney or Collins Street Melbourne. Ask the average Catholic if they have heard of Cardinal Pell. Ask the average Buddhist if they have heard of the Dalai Lama. They will both say yes.

Ask the average Muslim - the banker or lawyer or accountant or public servant – if they have heard of AFIC.

“AFIC? What’s that? Has Cadbury released a new chocolate-coated ice cream?”

After watching the hopeless display of the AFIC Chief Executive Officer, you would think it was an ice cream. Except the colour of the chocolate is irrelevant. Just know that if you are allergic to nuts, you should not taste it.

Some 20 days after the London bombing, the AFIC website still has no press release or announcement or message of condemnation of the terrorist attacks. Indeed, the last terrorist attacks I read AFIC condemning were the ones in Turkey. On that occasion, the AFIC press release advised that Istanbul was the capital of Turkey.

And these are just some of the indications that AFIC is hopelessly out of touch with mainstream Muslim Australia. Turkish Australians make up perhaps the largest single ethnic group among Muslims. Yet AFIC is so out of touch with Turks that it does not even know that Istanbul has not been the capital of Turkey for over 6 decades.

And now, AFIC has decided to write to Australian Imams ordering them to condemn terror. So which language will the letter be written in? Arabic? Swahili? Fiji-Hindi? After all, AFIC has overseen a mosque management system which has ensured that most Imams in Australia do not speak English.

What steps has AFIC taken to communicate with young people? What support has AFIC given to youth? The last time AFIC arranged a Muslim youth camp was in 1987. Since then, it appointed an Imam aged over 60 to be its youth adviser.

What steps has AFIC taken to understand its community? Is it aware of the age, ethnic, gender and cultural composition of the Muslim communities? Has it bothered to study what Muslims think of key social and political issues?

In the last 5 years, a large number of Muslims have migrated from Afghanistan, Iran and Iraq. The bulk of these have been Shia Muslims. What representation do Shia Muslims have in AFIC?

Then there is the issue of mismanagement. Where do we start? Over the years, AFIC has received millions of dollars in donations from wealthy private and governmental donors in the Middle East. Where has that money gone? How has it been accounted for?

One such donation was channelled into a secret account. The amount involved was around $500,000. No one on the executive committee knew of the existence of the account for at least 3 years. No one, that is, except the CEO of AFIC.

Not even the auditors of AFIC knew of the account. It was finally discovered when AFIC changed auditors. The existence of the account involved AFIC in breaches of taxation laws and threatened its tax-exempt status.

Mr CEO may deny all this. He can deny until he is black and blue in the face. I have a copy of the legal advice from AFIC’s then lawyers in which they describe this and other misdemeanours of Mr CEO.

So now this inept and bumbling organisation wishes the Federal Government to accredit it as the official Muslim peak body with special legislative powers, a kind of Muslim ATSIC. The CEO claims that AFIC is most suited to this role as it has a democratic structure.

Let’s look at New South Wales, the state which has the largest number of Muslims in Australia. Let’s see AFIC democracy in action. In 2000, AFIC had a falling out with the Islamic Council of NSW. In reality, the CEO had a falling out with the Roude family empire. AFIC showed its commitment to democracy by setting up a rival council, the Supreme Islamic Council of NSW.

Some years later, AFIC had a falling out with the Supreme Council. So they formed another council. When Muslims in NSW heard about it, some speculated that the name of the new body would be the “Super-Supreme Islamic Council of NSW”. Hence the three councils being known collectively as the “Pizza Councils”.

AFIC is but one of numerous peak bodies that have failed to represent the views and interests of mainstream Muslim Australians. It has little commitment to democracy, and has no record of structured consultation with ordinary Australian Muslims. It does little for young people. Its internal management structures are appalling.

Can the government afford to invest legislative powers in so unrepresentative and undemocratic body? Can a body which functions like a crackpot Arab regime be entrusted with government funds and powers to fight against threats to national security?

And can Muslim Australians now afford to sit back and allow this unrepresentative swill to take control of their collective destinies?

© Irfan Yusuf 2005