Lebanese-Australian Muslims say they are hurt and angered by Immigration Minister Peter Dutton's suggestion that allowing them into the country was a mistake.

Key points: Dutton says 22 of last 33 people charged with terror-related offences had Lebanese-Muslim background

Dutton says 22 of last 33 people charged with terror-related offences had Lebanese-Muslim background State Labor member for Lakemba says the comments are to appeal to a 'nationalistic sense'

State Labor member for Lakemba says the comments are to appeal to a 'nationalistic sense' Australian Lebanese-Muslims say it is not fair for them to be associated with the actions of a small group of radicals

Yesterday in Parliament, Mr Dutton singled out the Lebanese-Muslim community, saying most people charged with terror-related offences came from that background.

Mr Dutton also said last week that former prime minister Malcolm Fraser "did make mistakes in bringing some people in" as part of his immigration policies in the 1970s.

Jihad Dib, a Lebanese Muslim Australian and the Labor Member for Lakemba in NSW, said it was wrong for the Liberal Party to "generalise".

"It's ill thought of and the purpose I think is solely to try to appeal to a nationalistic sense — that's to provide a sense of exclusion rather than one of inclusion," he said.

"And our strength is in our diversity, in our inclusive Australia that we all create. "

Mr Dib said Mr Dutton's words were counterproductive to "all of the good work that's been going on — particularly in terms of inclusion, in terms of harmony, and in terms of shaping Australia for what it truly is".

Dutton's comments 'upsetting' and 'ignorant'

In Lakemba, 15 kilometres south-west of Sydney's CBD, many Lebanese-Muslims have settled in after moving to Australia, mostly in the 1970s and '80s.

There are also large numbers of Lebanese-Muslims who were born in Australia — including 42-year-old Jasmin, who found Mr Dutton's remarks in Parliament "really upsetting".

"My father came out here first in the '60s, he was only 20 years old," she said.

"My mother followed him in 1970. They got married, had us children and we stayed in Australia to make a life."

Jasmin said she and her family felt lucky to call themselves Australians, and that they just happened to come from a Lebanese-Muslim background.

"I don't wear the hijab, but that doesn't stop me from having the faith," she said.

"I mean, I treat everybody fairly, respect every other person's religion… we're all the same, really, in the end.

"He's really ignorant, because he's probably basing that on the extremists that you hear on the news who identify themselves as Muslims, who I believe are not Muslims."

Mr Dutton told Parliament most of those recently charged with terrorism were the children and grandchildren of Lebanese migrants.

"The advice I have is that out of the last 33 people who have been charged with terrorist-related offences in this country, 22 of those people are from second and third generation Lebanese-Muslim background," he said.

'Bizarre, weird argument of racial profiling'

Labor's Tony Burke — whose Watson electorate is in south-west Sydney — suggested Mr Dutton's comments would undermine cooperation with law enforcement authorities.

"The people who would be angriest about this, I expect, will be our security agencies," he said.

"Peter Dutton has just attacked a group that has been cooperating so closely with our security agencies and I think they would be devastated and shocked that a minister would do that.

"This is a bizarre, weird argument of racial profiling.

"His argument is Malcolm Fraser should not have allowed certain individuals into Australia based on their race and religion, because of the grandchildren they would have?"

Sorry, this video has expired Peter Dutton suggests the Fraser government made mistake by resettling Lebanese refugees

The Greens have called for Mr Dutton to be sacked, while Queensland LNP MP George Christensen launched a defence of the his colleague's comments.

"The dysfunction that Fraser's open-slather immigration policy caused is still being felt today," said.

"Many of the second and third generation of these migrants have been locked in a mono-cultural enclave that breeds extremism," he said, referring to south-west Sydney.

Greens immigration spokesman Nick McKim labelled Mr Dutton a racist.

"We've had comment after comment, spanning a long period of time, where he's attacked immigrants on the basis of being illiterate and innumerate," he said.

"He's made casually racist jokes about things like Cape York time — now, to link second and third generations to terrorists is just a step too far and he's just got to go."