Chris Morrison: We Need Actions Against Radical Islam; Not Divisive Rhetoric

As a prominent Muslim, a moderate and secular one, I agree with our MP Scott Morrison that radical Islam is one of the most dangerous threats to Australian society, and indeed to the whole world. But before Scott Morrison vends such rhetoric, he needs to come up with a lot of explanations as to why his government did not take actions against radical Islam and extreme Muslims in the last 5 years.

To the contrary: his government was in fact silent, if not by this silence complicit, with radical groups in many ways. It is the time for Scott Morrison to stop the tough sounding talk and poisonous rhetoric and start acting to address this serious issue.

I was the first to warn that radical Muslims are very active in Australia and constitute an extreme threat not only to Australia's national security, but also to our harmony and social cohesion. In fact I was the only Muslim to stand up against the extremists, despite their death threats to me and my kids, putting up with the many physical and verbal attacks. I put my life and the lives of my kids on the line. Surprisingly, and despite all of this, Scott Morrison's government and MPs were refusing to talk to me or listen to my warnings or making any attempt to cooperate with me and my community of secular and moderate Muslims.

Scott Morrison and his Liberal Party government (and State Liberal government) to date did not take a single serious action to counter the high level of radicalisation in the community. Not only this; at many stages they were coordinating with extremist organisations, including granting them millions of dollars in public funding in the name of “de-radicalisation programs”.

After years of repeated terrorist attacks and many aborted ones, we discover that Australian authorities did not close down a single centre of hate. They did not deport a single hate preacher and, they did not take any legal action against any “Imam of hate” in the suburbs.

I also can confirm that these extremist organisations that brainwashed and recruited extremists/terrorists like Hassan Khalif Shire Ali are still receiving funding from overseas and locally. What did authorities do to stop the funding? Practically very little. Extremist organisations are still active in fundraising and sending money to Al Qaeda in Idlib, and they do so publicly. Some of these funds are spent on local brainwashing and recruitment.

Scott Morrison also needs to publicly tell us what his government’s plans are to stop future similar terrorist attacks; unless he thinks that Hassan Khalif is the only extremist/terrorist in Australia. He needs to outline to Australians his government's de-radicalisation plans. But before he does this, he needs to publicly explain to Australians the assessment of the success of previous de-radicalisation plans that were put in place in the aftermath of the Lindt Cafe siege. He needs to explain the results and successes of these programs where hundreds of millions of dollars were spent.
The media should start asking the right and tough questions. The media currently asks the naive question of “where did all this radicalisation come from?” Instead, it should start asking questions about evaluating publicly funded projects aimed to fight against extremism that are actually funded and conducted by extremist organisations. The media should also start to ask why authorities prefer to deal with extremists, whilst ignoring moderate voices like mine.

Scott Morrison’s Liberal government (and that under Abbot and Turnbull) not only ignore and keep ignoring people like myself, but on many occasions harass me and even collude with foreign authorities trying to end my activities. The same has happened with other activists. 
I wish to reiterate here again that extremists and terrorists like Man Monis and Hassan Khalif are a minority among Muslims in this country. I agree that radical Muslims are very dangerous to Australia’s national security and, in fact, one of the anti-terrorism agents told me privately that they are “dangerous criminal gangs” that constitute a serious and imminent threat to every Australian. I agree that if not challenged, the danger could become a real nightmare, especially with the return of hundreds of trained terrorists who fought in Syria and Iraq. But what we need from our authorities, especially our federal government, is actual actions and not divisive rhetoric that is directed to constitute a base for an electoral comeback for the extremely unpopular Morrison government.

The first step for Morrison, if he is serious about fighting against this cancer (radical Islam), is to cooperate with anti-radical groups and individuals. He should start cooperating with us, not ignoring us. He needs to take serious actions to stamp out the source of radicalisation. In many countries, some actually Muslim countries, authorities closed hundreds of radical mosques and religious centres. They arrested preachers for spreading hate and encouraging violence and they cut funding and dried up any funding sources. This included enforcing Saudi embassy to stop funding local extremists.

And we as moderate Muslims are always open for any cooperation and coordination. So far, the Liberal government has refused to cooperate with us, and instead cooperates with extremist organisations. Our message to our PM is to stop talking tough on this issue and start taking real action. We as moderate Muslims will support such actions that are directed at stopping radicalisation but, we will never support rhetoric that aims to further divide our society.