Australian Muslims cautious after arrests

SYDNEY, Australia — As 17 Muslim men were arrested in raids this week in Australia's biggest anti-terror operation, leaders from the Muslim community appealed for fair trials for the accused, and expressed hope that the action may lift clouds cast over the community by recent terror warnings and government pressure.

The arrests in the major cities of Sydney and Melbourne come at the end of 18 months of investigation by the authorities and just days after Prime Minister John Howard warned that his government had uncovered terror attack plans.

After publicizing the threat last week, Howard urged Parliament to pass tough new anti-terror legislation that had been in the works.

Some fear that these arrests may change the mood of a sunny Australia forever, especially if the authorities are right, and the suspects turn out to be home-grown terrorists rather than foreigners.

Those arrested Monday were charged with such offenses as being members of a terrorist organization and conspiring to make explosives, allegedly similar to those used in the London bombings in July.

One of the suspects, Abdulla Merhi, wanted to carry out attacks to avenge the war in Iraq, police said in a Melbourne court. Howard was a strong supporter of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq and has sent hundreds of troops to the country.

One of the arrested, Abdul Nacer Benbrika, an Algerian-Australian cleric sometimes called Abu Bakr and known for his often inflammatory remarks showing support for Osama bin Laden, was also charged with directing the work of a terrorist organization. However, this organization's name remains a mystery.

"There is some suggestion that they might be members of Lashkar-e-Tayyaba," a Pakistani militant group active in Kashmir, said Keysar Trad, the head of the Islamic Friendship Association, based in Sydney.

Abu Bakr, whose passport was canceled months ago on security grounds, told Australian Broadcasting Corp. (ABC) television in May that although he is against the killing of innocents, he could not discourage his students from traveling to Afghanistan or Pakistan to train in terrorist camps.

"Jihad is part of my religion," Abu Bakr said. "What you have to understand is that anyone who fights on behalf of Allah, when he dies, the first drop of blood that comes out, all of his sins will be forgiven."

Muslims make up 1.5 percent of Australia's 20 million people, and many were quick to distance themselves from Abu Bakr's radical teachings.

"We had heard of these guys and knew that they had beliefs that most Muslims would consider to be basically beyond what was reasonable and to that extent there was a general fear that they may cause a problem for the community," said Walid Kadous, the co-convener of the Australian Muslim Civil Rights Advocacy Network. "But no one really was thinking that they were planning attacks like London or Madrid."

Wahid Aly, a member of the Islamic Council of Victoria, told ABC that far from anger at the government, many Muslims are glad that rather than fighting shadows and creating a generalized sense of fear within the community, the government can now focus on some concrete suspects.

Still, Kadous decried the way arrests have been reported.

"I think that what has happened creates a strong presumption against innocence. The whole thing has been politicized through leaks to the media about the names of these people and the fact that the cameras were in place when the raids began."

Australia was pushing ahead with tough new anti-terrorism laws despite Muslim and civil liberties leaders who argued that Monday's raids proved the country's existing laws were sufficient.

"My question is whether we need the legislation because these arrests have taken place under the existing laws and it appears that the current laws are working efficiently," Australian Federation of Islamic Councils President Ameer Ali told Australian radio.

Howard moved to allay the fears of the Muslim community that it would become the target for the new laws and reprisal attacks following the arrests.

"People who support terrorism are as much their enemies as they are my or your enemies. There is nothing in our laws, nor will there be anything in our laws, that targets an individual group, be it Islamic or otherwise," Howard told Australian radio.

The new anti-terrorism measures, proposed after the London bombings, allow police to detain suspects for seven days without charge and use electronic tracking devices to keep tabs on them.

The laws would also make support for insurgents in countries such as Iraq an offense punishable by a seven-year jail sentence.

Muslims worried that provisions preventing terror suspects from discussing their detentions and interrogations and the media from reporting it could conceal abuses in the system and lead to racial profiling.

The government wants the anti-terrorism laws passed before Christmas so they are in place before the Commonwealth Games are held in Melbourne in March 2006.

Compiled from The Christian Science Monitor, The Associated Press

and Reuters.