By CAM LUCADOU-WELLS
UPDATE 8.30am 19 NOVEMBER
GRAND Mufti Dr Ibrahim Abu Mohammed and the Australian National Imams Council have issued a clarification following their controversial statement on the Paris terror attacks.
The statement reads: “We wish to emphasise it is incorrect to imply that the reference to causative factors provides justification for these acts of terrorism.
“There is no justification for the taking of innocent lives. The sanctity of human life is guaranteed in Islam.
“Dr Ibrahim Abu Mohamed and ANIC have consistently and unequivocally condemned all forms of terrorist violence.”
EARLIER
A GREATER Dandenong councillor has condemned the statement made by the Grand Mufti of Australia following the Paris terror attacks as an “appalling document” and “absolute bulls***”.
In a fiery note to councillors and council officers on 17 November, councillor Peter Brown condemned the Australian National Imams Council and Grand Mufti Dr Ibrahim Abu Mohammed’s media statement following the 13 November attacks.
The imams’ statement mourned the attacks’ victims and sent condolence to their families and friends.
It also stated that recent attacks highlighted that “strategies to deal with the threat of terrorism are not working”.
“It is therefore imperative that all causative factors such as racism, Islamophobia, curtailing freedoms through securitisation, duplicitous foreign policies and military intervention must be comprehensively addressed.”
In his note, Cr Brown claimed the statement made “great effort to blame the victims for the French atrocity, in the same way a rapist would argue that a woman walking down a dark street in a short dress was asking for it”.
He recounted the “Islamic civil war” in Syria, and Islamist terrorist attacks in Beirut, Kenya, Mumbai, London and Madrid.
He also noted that the council spent $32,000 on security measures at Dandenong’s Anzac Day service this year due to an alleged terrorist plot.
“Oh yeah… the Bali bombings. A nightclub full of mainly Aussie Islamophobes. They really deserved it didn’t they, Grand Mufti?” he wrote sarcastically.
“Pardon me while I vomit.”
Cr Brown told the Journal that the Islamic community should not be “demonised” due to the acts of extremists but that the imams’ statement failed to condemn the violent attacks.
“It’s saying if the West was not racist and Islamophobic, it wouldn’t have happened. Anyone who lives here can see that we’re not.
“He did express sympathy but there was no condemnation against the perpetrators. It put it at the feet of the victims.”
The Islamic Council of Victoria, in contrast to the Grand Mufti, made a statement that it “unequivocally condemns these callous and senseless acts of violence”.
“Every life is sacred and we need to keep speaking out against all such atrocities.
“The ICV calls upon the Australian community to unite and condemn acts of violence.”
