Australia Immigration Minister Charged With “Creating Terrorists” by Saying It Was Mistake to Bring in So Many Muslims
“Last week Mr Dutton argued the Fraser government had made ‘mistakes’ in parts of its 1970s’ migration program. Challenged in parliament to identify the groups he was referring to, Mr Dutton said ‘of the last 33 people who have been charged with terrorist related offences in this country, 22 are from second- and third-generation Lebanese Muslim backgrounds.’”
This is a perfectly accurate statement, but Professor Clive Williams, a former senior defence official now at the Centre for Military and Security Law at the ANU, says: “It’s not a good idea to make that kind of observation in public.” Why? According to Dr. Clarke Jones, such observations are “creating the terrorists of the future.”
This is very common thinking all over the West; it’s akin to Hillary Clinton’s saying that Donald Trump was aiding Islamic State recruitment by calling for a moratorium on Muslim immigration. The thinking is apparently that Muslims reject jihad terrorism and want to assimilate and become Westernized, loyal citizens of secular, pluralistic societies, but if non-Muslims point out that there is a jihad threat, or that some Muslims are not assimilating and becoming loyal citizens, those peaceful Muslims will become so enraged that they will join jihad groups.
Absurd. If they reject jihad terrorism, they won’t be driven to it by Dutton’s factual observation that some other Muslims have not rejected it. This kind of woolly thinking is impeding honest discussion of the threat of jihad and Sharia all over the Western world.
“Peter Dutton’s remarks on Lebanese Muslims risk ‘creating terrorists of future,’” by Deborah Snow, Sydney Morning Herald, November 24, 2016:
Immigration minister Peter Dutton’s linking of terrorism with past levels of Lebanese Muslim migration will do “immense damage” to the government’s attempts to engage Islamic communities in the battle against violent extremism, a leading expert has warned.
Dr Clarke Jones, who worked as a national security official for 17 years, said the minister’s remarks risk “creating the terrorists of the future, if I want to be blunt”.
The Immigration Minister reveals he was referring to Lebanese Muslims when he said last week that Malcolm Fraser had made immigration mistakes.
“We are certainly not reducing the threat, we are contributing to the threat by those statements. Effective intervention means working with young kids and the only way you can get to young kids is working with communities,” he told Fairfax Media.
“The government has taken a 10 or 15-year step backward.”
Dr Jones, now a research fellow at the Australian National University’s School of Global Governance, has been working with Islamic community members to help design and set up youth intervention and support programs.
He said frontline police and intelligence agencies trying to build links with those communities would also likely be dismayed by Mr Dutton’s comments.
“Police struggle at the best of times with community engagement because they have the difficult dual role,” he said.
The federal government has invested millions of dollars in trying to get effective Countering Violent Extremism (CVE) programs off the ground. But the Dutton comments could jeopardise any progress already made, others also warned.
Professor Clive Williams, a former senior defence official now at the Centre for Military and Security Law at the ANU, slammed the minister’s comments as ” counterproductive”.
“Its [sic] not a good idea to make that kind of observation in public. We need the co-operation of families, they are the first point of contact really if there is concern developing about a young person.”
Last week Mr Dutton argued the Fraser government had made “mistakes” in parts of its 1970s’ migration program.
Challenged in parliament to identify the groups he was referring to, Mr Dutton said “of the last 33 people who have been charged with terrorist related offences in this country, 22 are from second- and third-generation Lebanese Muslim backgrounds”.
Mr Dutton has since sought to soften the context around the remarks, telling Sydney radio host Ray Hadley on Thursday that “the point that I was making is that we should call out the small number within the community, within the Lebanese community, who are doing the wrong thing. If we do that we can hold up the vast majority of people within the Lebanese community who work as hard as you and I do, who have contributed to Australian society.”…
