Al-anwar Newspaper English news in Australia
By The Editor of English\ Kalahan Deng
In August 24, 2005, the Australian government and the so called moderate Muslims leaders pledged to work together to join forces in the fight against terrorism and to blend Australian values with Islamic teachings at Mosques and schools. But government critics at that time voiced their concerns that the exclusions of the radical Muslims risked further marginalizing young Muslims among Australia’s 350,000 member Islamic communities. It was clear that these critics predicted what the government officials could not anticipate as their nation’s nightmare; the spread of radicalism among some young Muslims in Australia and elsewhere in Europe, North America, North Africa and the Middle East. In this article I would recall a few points that we should know about the deal that was made between the former Australian government officials and the moderate Muslim leaders.
First, the government should have known that the radical Muslim groups do not acknowledge, obey, or listen to the moderate spiritual leaders, because they consider moderate leaders who associate themselves with secular governments are as worse as infidels or enemies of their beliefs.
Second, the government critics got the point right when they singled out that the exclusions of radical Muslims risked further marginalizing young Muslims among Australia’s 350,000 members Islamic community. Well, the word moderate Muslim is not found in the radical Muslims vocabularies, because they associate the group of moderate Muslims with the Jews, Christians, or Apostates (people who renounced their former belief). Now days, radical groups listen to their radical preachers and moderates listen to their moderate preachers and there is no common ground between the two camps of the same beliefs (Islam).
The third point is that the Australian government seemed to exert its effort in two aspects, namely, amalgamation of Australian values with Islamic teachings at Mosques and schools. For sure, terrorist supporters do not have an interest in adopting any other values apart from their own values of threats and intimidations towards people who do not agree with their extreme views. Further more, ISIS supporters do not go to Mosques to listen or follow what their preachers say, rather they (radicals) go to preach their own extreme interpretation and understanding of Qur-ran.
These radical Islamists usually get their direct instructions from their spiritual leaders who are in the battlefields through technology such as internet and other electronic devices. The question is why ISIS supporters do not agree with moderate Muslim preachers who oppose their extreme views? It is because they (ISIS supporters) are convinced that their actions take place at a critical junction in history where, the fate of all creations hangs in the balance. That is why they dismiss their religious views of others. They demonize their spiritual leaders and others; that is, they equate their enemies with the ultimate source of evil. They are also convinced that the call to violence is a call to purify the word from the non-believers and the incorrect interpreters of tradition in a holy war.
And those who do not stand with the holy warrior are the real evil that should be eliminated or cut off from among the living. For example, security agencies in Sydney, Australia were able to intercept the telephone conversations between two terrorists namely; Amrjan Azary and Mohammed Bara Ali who were planning to kill 5-6 people every month. Mr. Mohammed Bara Ali went further to ask his terrorist friend Amrjan Azary to get someone else who can kill 5 people on their behalf. Mr. Amrjan Azary and the hit man are now facing serious terrorist charges in Sydney Central Court. And the third terrorist, Mohammed Bara Ali is believed to have been killed in Syria alongside with other terrorist groups. Australian Prime Minister David Abbot made it clear that the radical Islamists are the real danger into Australian society.
On the other hand, government critics in Australia argued that the exclusion of the radical Muslims risked further marginalized young Muslims in Australia. Well, here is the fact, young Muslims who join ISIS militant groups usually come from relatively well-of social groups and for some other reasons, they decide to be Jihadists and direct their hatred and anger against their own people. Nevertheless, these radicals militant in Australia and elsewhere in the world do not join the terrorist groups because they are being marginalized, living in poverty, or being discriminated for how they look, speak .They join the terrorist, because it is where they find their selves identities, belonging, and comfort of minds and souls that are thirsty for death and destructions of innocent lives.
Do the young Muslims join terrorist groups because they lack education? They join the militants because they are universities students, Doctors, engineers, some with master’s degrees, PhD’s and professionals in many other academic fields. Therefore, to claim that young Muslims in Australia are at risk of marginalization is absolutely out of contact. For example, on Monday, June 9, 2015, twelve Sudanese medical students, most carrying Western passports, left Khartoum to Turkey with the intention of crossing into Syria to join Islamic militant groups. Were these young people marginalized in Canada, the U.S.A., the U.K, and Khartoum Sudan?
Therefore, these terrorist groups are not utilitarian; that is, they are not individuals seeking the greatest amount of good for the greatest number of people. They seek the greatest good for themselves. Some loners loosely affiliate with a group but tend to act on their own. The perfect example is the recent attack on Thursday, July 16, 2015 of which four Marines were killed by a 24-year old, Mohammod Youssuf Abdulazeez, a naturalised American born in Kuwait. This fellow came from a well-of family and a university graduate with a degree in engineer. Was he marginalized by his parents or by the country that educated him to be an engineer? It is therefore, not a matter of marginalization; it is a matter of individual’s mind set.
To conclude, there is one statement that keeps bothering whenever I hear it from the law enforcement agencies across the globe. The word, we do not yet know the motive behind his terrorist acts. Terrorist group’s motive is crystal clear, that is to kill, eliminate, and destroy those who do not agree with their extreme views. They demonize moderate Muslims, Christians, Jews and non-Jews a like. Therefore, no one is safe from their hatred, vengeance, and heinous crimes against innocent people.
