Extremist Muslim Site To Be Closed

Extremist Muslim Site To Be Closed
Bernard Lane
October 21, 2002

A SYDNEY-BASED website promoting extreme Islam is to be closed, the peak Australian Federation of Islamic Councils says.

The federation said the Islamic Youth Movement, which runs the Call of Islam web magazine, had agreed to take down the site.

"I personally think it's inciting hatred," the federation's Kuranda Seyit told The Australian.

"It's a very sensitive time."

At www.islam.org.au, the site posted interviews with Osama bin Laden and Abdullah Sungkar, an alleged founder of Jemaah Islamiah, the regional terror network suspected of the Bali bomb attack.

Late yesterday, the site was still active and it is understood the youth movement had not complied with previous requests by moderate Muslim leaders that specific articles be removed from the web magazine.

An entry on Call of Islam's homepage notes that articles on the website were last updated on September 6.

The website advocates pursuit of an Islamic state by military struggle, opposition to "international Judeo movements and the Freemasons", and hostility to non-Muslim Australian society.

Mainstream Muslim leaders say the Islamic Youth Movement is a small, unrepresentative group whose extremism is limited to rhetoric.

But an article, "The Sword and the Spear" says the "intellectual superiority" of Islam "must be backed up with a prompt physical defence, and this is the power of the sword".

Terrorism expert Rohan Gunaratna last week said: "I am surprised that the Australian Government is permitting this kind of propaganda to be published."

The Australian


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