Islamic Council of Victoria boycotts meeting with Prime Minister over Team Australia comments

Updated

The Islamic Council of Victoria (ICV), which represents more than 150,000 Muslims, has boycotted a scheduled meeting with Prime Minister Tony Abbott after he urged the Muslim community to join "Team Australia".

Mr Abbott convened the meeting with Melbourne's Muslim community to discuss proposed counter-terrorism laws after a similar meeting in Sydney on Monday.

But ahead of Monday's meeting, Mr Abbott told Macquarie Radio in Sydney that he would urge community leaders to speak out against radical Islam.

"Everyone has got to be on Team Australia," Mr Abbott said.

"Everyone has got to put this country, its interests, its values and its people first, and you don't migrate to this country unless you want to join our team."

Islamic council secretary Ghaith Krayem described Mr Abbott's comments as ill-informed and inflammatory.

"This phrase, if you don't like it here go back, or if you're a migrant you need to sign up for Team Australia or don't come here at all, it's completely inappropriate for a prime minister to put a whole community in that category and it's not even true," Mr Krayem told 774 ABC Melbourne.

We have the Prime Minister in effect parroting the same language as the right-wing extremists themselves. Ghaith Krayem, ICV

He said Tuesday's meeting in Melbourne was called at extremely short notice with little information of what was on the agenda.

"Over the weekend, we got an invitation for a meeting which didn't contain an agenda, so we didn't know who was attending," he said.

He said the ICV fully intended to participate, until the Prime Minister's comments on commercial radio.

"In the interests of engagement and communication we agreed to attend," he said.

"Then... the Prime Minister went on radio in Sydney and made some comments that from our perspective, simply indicate that this consultation is nothing more than a media stunt."

The Victorian branch of Ahlus Sunnah wal Jama'ah Association of Australia also pulled out of the meeting.

Muslim community has spoken against extremism: leader

Mr Krayem said half of all Muslims in Australia were born here and being labelled as a "migrant community" by the Prime Minister showed a lack of understanding.

He defended the community's leadership on speaking up about Islamic extremism.

"We couldn't have spoken out more in the last fortnight about what's going on, and yet we have the Prime Minister in effect parroting the same language as the right-wing extremists themselves," he said.

"We genuinely want to consult, engage with him on issues which we are all concerned about, but it's got to be from a position from where government is actually interested in what we want to say.

"Our worry at the moment is we actually don't think that is the case.

"We think that the Government has already decided what they want to do and all they're really looking for is a rubber stamp."

The council wrote to the Government a fortnight ago with concerns over the proposed anti-terrorism laws, but did not receive a response, Mr Krayem said.

Meeting 'changed our perspective'

Leaders of four organisations from Melbourne's Muslim community who did attend the meeting said they had a productive discussion with the Prime Minister.

The imam of the Virgin Mary Mosque, Sheikh Isse Musse, said the discussion was fruitful.

"We talked about the issues the Islamic communities facing and we finished on a very good note," he said.

He said the Prime Minister reassured him the community would not be targeted.

"The Prime Minister was very blunt in assuring the community that it will not target anyone," he said.

"[He said] the whole purpose is to keep this country secure and we all agree on that."

Sheikh Musse said the Government also allayed concerns about how the laws could be applied.

"We felt that the law would remove the presumption of innocence, but that's not the case," he said.

Those who did attend said while they respect the ICV's decision, the meeting changed their perspective.

"It's their decision to go that way. We have seen differently and I think we have achieved what we wanted to do," Sheikh Musse said.

"Before we came into the meeting, we thought it would be a very tense, but it wasn't.

"I suppose it would be much better if they came along and joined the discussion and make their concerns known as we have done."

Topics: islam, community-and-society, laws, abbott-tony, government-and-politics, terrorism, melbourne-3000

First posted