Solutions to the Muslim problem in Australia.

• Author: Stone, John
• Position: 140825968
• Pages: 14(12)

On 11 September 2001 the United States of America was attacked in New York and Washington, D.C. A further attack, aimed either at the White House or the U.S. Congress, was foiled due to the bravery (and death) of passengers on the aircraft involved. President George W. Bush immediately declared the United States "at war" against the perpetrators of these atrocities. Prime Minister Howard, who was in Washington at the time, invoked the A.N.Z.U.S. Treaty, ranging Australia alongside the United States in that war.

On 12 October 2002 that war came closer to Australia in the Bali nightclub bombings, involving 88 Australian deaths and injury of many others. It came even closer on 9 September 2004 with the attack on our Embassy in Jakarta, even though no Australian lives were then actually lost.

These assaults, and others (for example, the Marriott Hotel bombing in Jakarta on 5 August 2003) were carried out by people loosely describable as Islamic fundamentalists forming part of Al Qaeda or its affiliates, such as the Indonesian Jamaah Islamiyah. They involved either attacks on Western countries by non-citizens or, in Indonesia, on Westerners by Islamist Indonesian citizens.

The London bombings on 7 July 2005 opened a new chapter in this war between fundamentalist Islam and the West. Four young Muslim men, all British citizens and three of them born in Britain, attacked London Transport, killing 52 innocent people and injuring many others. Although the British intelligence services are internationally held in high regard, they were unable to give any warning.

The great significance of the London Bombings---followed, on 22 July, by attempted bombings that, fortunately, were unsuccessful--lies in their origins. For the first time, we saw an Islamic terrorist atrocity carried out by people who, previously, had been thought of by their fellow citizens as part of "us", as distinct from a threatening foreign "them".

It is no exaggeration to say, therefore, that the London bombings sent a profoundly important message to every Western nation having within its borders a significant population of resident Muslims, including many who had gained citizenship. Australia is such a nation, and we, like every other Western nation so situated, now have a resident Muslim problem.

After the London bombings some newspaper columnists, such as Philip Adams in The Australian, argued that the British had brought them on themselves because of the Blair Government's involvement in Iraq. Without pursuing that particular argument here, there is a sense in which the British did bring those bombings on themselves. As I said elsewhere at the time: (1)

"Successive British governments have persisted in the multiculturalist folly that a nation can be built on separate but equal cultures. Moreover, under Tony Blair in particular, Britain's immigration policies, and border controls against illegal immigrants, have become international jokes ..."

Since the Tampa incident in August 2001, Australia's own border controls against illegal immigration have been significantly tightened. Our immigration policies remain, nevertheless, largely unchanged, and under the present Minister, Senator Amanda Vanstone, their administration seems to have become dangerously "sensitive" to every passing current of Left activist opinion. As to our official multiculturalism policies, established under the Whitlam Government and assiduously followed by all subsequent governments to this day, they are no less foolish than Britain's.

INITIAL REACTIONS

Following the London bombings the Prime Minister announced two meetings to consider their consequences. First, he convened a meeting with prominent Australian Muslims to discuss the matter. Second, he indicated his intention to convene a special Council of Australian Governments (C.O.A.G.) meeting to discuss more specific measures.

The former meeting has now been held, and yielded little or nothing (which is not to say that it should not have been held). As to the latter, its results remain to be seen, doubtless before this article appears. However, nothing even hinted at by the Government suggests it is preparing to address the two larger issues noted above, namely the composition of our immigration programme and the thoroughly malignant consequences of our official multiculturalism policies.

Beyond those two matters, however, there is a third. How are we to deal with our already self-manufactured potential problem, namely our existing resident Muslim population?

Later in this article, therefore, I propose to address these three questions. But first, I want to consider:

* The size of our Muslim population;

* The nature of the resident Muslim problem;

* The arguments about "moderate" Islam; and

* The "race hatred" red herring.

HOW MANY MUSLIMS ARE THERE IN AUSTRALIA?

One might have thought (wrongly) that there would be a ready answer to that simple question. In the 2001 Census, 282,000 people answering the "religious affiliation" question described themselves as Muslims. (This was, incidentally, 81,000 more than in 1996--a 40 per cent increase over the intervening five years). However, that Census question is optional, and in 2001 some 1,835,000 people declined to answer it. If we assume only that the proportion of non-respondents among Muslims was the same as for the whole population, the figure for our actual Muslim population four years ago becomes 312,000. Adding rough estimates for net Muslim immigration since mid-2001, and for natural increase (births over deaths), we might arrive at a figure around 360,000. Muslim community spokesmen regularly refer to a figure of around 400,000. A half million figure is also often quoted.

In short, we have a potential resident Muslim problem, but we have no reliable estimate for its size. That is not good enough.

THE NATURE OF OUR RESIDENT MUSLIM PROBLEM

Since the London bombings, extremists from both sides have sought to distort the ensuing debate over the problems arising from the presence of significant resident Muslim populations in Western countries. On one hand, the far Right suggests that every Muslim is a potential murderer. On the other, the academic Left, large segments of the media, and most of our timid politicians, suggest that apart perhaps from a very few individuals who can be left to the surveillance of the police and security forces, there is no problem. Both views are equally wrong.

A fascinating, and disturbing, light was cast on the matter by a YouGov poll among Britain's Muslims immediately after the 7 July bombings. (2) YouGov is a reputable polling organisation and, although the poll was undertaken online and...