JCCV: Muslim community needs to act on terrorism

NAOMI LEVIN

JCCV executive director Geoffrey Zygier.

THE Jewish Community Council of Victoria (JCCV) has rejected an interfaith group’s request to differentiate terrorism from religion.

Following a meeting of the Victoria Police Multi-faith Council last week, the JCCV has written to police top brass expressing its dissatisfaction with the proposal.

Geoffrey Zygier, JCCV executive director, said if radicalism were an issue in the Jewish, Methodist or Buddhist communities, it would be incumbent on those communities to take responsibility to confront it.

Similarly, following recent charges against Muslim men over an alleged potential suicide attack on an Australian army base, Zygier said the Islamic community needs to recognise and deal with the problem.

Reflecting on statements made in the media by Dr Ameer Ali, former head of the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils, Zygier said “it cannot be denied that this is a Muslim problem and the leaders of this community must take the lead in stamping it out”.

“To do otherwise would simultaneously disempower and infantalise Muslims and inevitably perpetuate the problem,” he said.

He went on to discuss a view, expressed by members of the Multi-faith Council, that it is understandable local Muslims feel a sense of injustice because of Australia’s involvement in wars in Afghanistan and elsewhere.

“We agree with Prime Minister Kevin Rudd that Australia’s overseas military actions are not directed against Islam or Muslims, per se, but against extremists who seek to impose their values,” he said. “Even if that were not the case, our society provides constructive ways to protest against perceived injustice. To resort to terrorism is simply unacceptable.”

The JCCV have taken a strong line on attitudes to terrorism in recent weeks, also submitting a response to the Victoria Police-led, federal Government-supported Lexicon of Terrorism.

In its submission, JCCV president John Searle argued a proposal to “sanitise” the language of terrorism was “ill-considered”.

Searle argued against ignoring the fact that some perpetrators of terrorism were motivated by extreme Islam.

“A Lexicon of Terror that infantilises and absolves Muslims of responsibility by creating a generic, overly careful and politically correct language will doom us all to failure,” Searle said.

Click on the link to read the JCCV’s submission on the Lexicon of Terrorism – jccv-submission

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