PM HOWARD ENLISTS MUSLIM LEADERS TO COMBAT

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 CANBERRA 001455

SIPDIS

DEPT FOR S/CT, EAP/ANP

E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/29/2015
TAGS: PTER PGOV PINR AS
SUBJECT: PM HOWARD ENLISTS MUSLIM LEADERS TO COMBAT
EXTREMISM IN THEIR COMMUNITIES

REF: A. CANBERRA 1423


B. CANBERRA 1381

Classified By: Political Counselor Woo Lee for reasons 1.4 (b/d).


1. (C) SUMMARY: Prime Minister John Howard and thirteen
Australian Muslim leaders met at an August 23 "summit" to
find ways in which the government and Islamic leaders could
work together more closely to combat the spread of extremism
within Australia's Islamic community (Refs A and B). After
the meeting, the PM and the Muslim representatives jointly
issued a statement of principles condemning terrorism and
laying out a framework for further dialogue and action.
Future meetings will consider issues such as the training of
imams and curricula at Islamic schools. Plans for the summit
received criticism from some quarters for not being
"inclusive" enough, because the PM refused to invite some of
the most vocal radical clerics (Ref B). The PM was
unapologetic, however, saying that his purpose was not to
"change the minds of people who are hardened fanatics," but
rather to curtail their influence. END SUMMARY.

Terrorism Condemned, Australian Values Praised
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2. (C) As part of the Australian Government's efforts in the
wake of the London bombings to reduce the likelihood of
domestically-nurtured terrorism, Prime Minister Howard on
August 23 hosted a summit with thirteen prominent Australian
Muslims to ask for their help in battling extremist ideology
within their communities. After a two-hour meeting, Howard
and the Muslim leaders issued a joint statement of principles
rejecting and denouncing terrorism and committing to work
together to promote understanding and combat extremism. In
the statement, the Muslim leaders agreed that they each had a
responsibility "to challenge and to counteract" would-be
terrorists. With government political and perhaps future
financial support, the leaders agreed to take the initiative
to foster "mutual understanding and Australian values" and to
challenge advocacy of violence and extremism within Islamic
organizations and their communities more generally. For its
part, the government said it would seek the cooperation of
state and territory governments at a special meeting of the
Council of Australian Governments scheduled to be convened by
the PM on September 27 (Ref A) in an effort to design a
national strategy to address intolerance and the promotion of
violence.

Practical Dialogue
--------------

3. (C) PM Howard also announced that John Cobb, his Junior
Minister for Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs, would
convene future meetings with the Muslim leaders and involve
other relevant ministers for specific topics as appropriate.
Participants would break into small groups to develop
practical policy recommendations for the government on issues
such as the training of imams, curricula in Islamic schools,
Muslim youth, and the role of women. Department of Prime
Minister and Cabinet (PM&C) Senior Adviser for Domestic
Security Policy Sarah Chidgey told us that the next meeting
with Muslim leaders would take place in Melbourne on August
31, with subsequent regional meetings in Brisbane and Perth.

PM Defends Guestlist
--------------

4. (U) According to press reports, PM Howard opened the
summit with frank remarks stating that Australia was not
immune from terrorist attacks and that anyone who thought
Australia could escape terrorism was "deluding themselves."
Howard emphasized that his purpose in convening the meeting
was to identify ways of preventing the emergence of terrorist
behavior and that he had engaged the Islamic community
because the common thread in most terrorist attacks in recent
years was that those attacks had occurred "perversely in the
name of Islam." He acknowledged that the ability of the
government to eradicate extremism by legislation was limited
and that was why he looked to Muslim leaders to influence
their communities against embracing violence. Legislation
was necessary to protect the community, Howard said, but the
government had to "win the hearts and minds" of people as
well.


5. (U) Amidst continued criticism from parts of the press
and excluded clerics that his guestlist for the summit was
not "inclusive," Howard was steadfast in reiterating in both
his opening remarks at the meeting and subsequent media
interviews his reasons for not inviting the most radical
Muslim clerics (Refs A and B). He made no apology for not
inviting people with extreme views because they would have
dominated media coverage and obscured the summit's more
important purposes. "You won't change the minds of people
who are hardened fanatics and hardened extremists," the PM
said. "You have to identify them and take measures to ensure
that they don't become a problem. The main aim of policy at
present is to make sure that young and impressionable people
in the Islamic community do not come under the sway or the
influence of those hardened fanatics," he argued.

Muslim Leaders (Mostly) Make the Right Sounds
--------------

6. (U) Dr. Ameer Ali, President of the Australian Federation
of Islamic Councils (AFIC),said in his opening remarks that
the summit was an "historic event" since no previous PM had
invited the Muslim community for open talks about problems
facing the country and the Islamic community in particular.
While he acknowledged that there might be differences in
political points of view among the participants, Ali assured
the media that the vast majority of Muslims shared the same
values as other Australians. "We are Muslims but we are
Australian Muslims, (and) that identity must be preserved all
the time," he said. Ali also emphasized again that the
majority of the Muslim community did not see Osama bin Laden
as a leader, rejecting the position of a few radical clerics
who had called bin Laden a "great man" (Ref B).


7. (U) Yasser Soliman, however, a member of the Council for
Multicultural Australia, cautioned in his own remarks at the
press conference that the Muslim community was a diverse and
vibrant one that should not be described only in the
"language of terrorism." He also responded to recent
criticism of multiculturalism in Australia by some
politicians and commentators, arguing that the GOA's
multicultural policies were in fact important elements in
fighting extremism (Ref B).

COMMENT
--------------

8. (C) The summit was a positive, if small, first step in
the Howard Government's renewed effort to enlist Australian
Muslims to police extremism in their own ranks. The success
or failure of the initiative will depend on whether it can
achieve practical outcomes, such as changing the intolerant
world view reportedly being taught in at least some of
Australia's Islamic schools -- and, ultimately, whether it
can better integrate the country's some 300,000 Muslim
residents into the mainstream of Australian society.

STANTON