he's an aussie citizen

He's an Aussie citizen

By PETER TRUTE

July 15, 2005

THIS is Sheik Mohammed Omran, the radical Muslim cleric who seven days after the London bombings still wants proof that Islamic terrorists are to blame.

He is still not sure whether Osama bin Laden is a terrorist – or whether the al-Qaeda leader ordered the September 11 attacks.

And although he's an Australian citizen, he's got nothing to say about the fact that last week's cowardly terrorist bombings almost killed 10 of his fellow countrymen.

The Daily Telegraph yesterday tried to interview Sheik Omran after his bizarre comments – made after Islamic suicide bombers had been confirmed as the perpetrators of last week's terror – that there was no evidence of a Muslim link.

Sheik Omran said the London bombings were evil but could not have been carried out by true Muslims because Londoners "marched in their millions" against the war in Iraq.

He said it was more likely the US orchestrated the London attacks to justify a war on Islam.

"That is absolutely what I believe it is," Sheik Omran said. "It could be [to initiate a war] against Islam; it could be against Muslim countries, just to give them a free hand to do whatever they want."

Sheik Omran yesterday refused to resile from his remarks, which were condemned by Prime Minister John Howard as "extraordinary and irresponsible".

From his Melbourne base, Sheik Omran's website rants and taped sermons have attracted a sinister following around Australia.

They have ASIO watching and have alarmed moderate Muslims.

Sheik Omran, an Australian citizen who grew up in Jordan, has been criticised by moderate Australian Muslims who are alarmed that the Melbourne cleric dare speak for them or their faith.

While Sheik Omran was silent yesterday, on Monday night he told the ABC's Lateline program he still believed no Muslim was responsible for the September 11 terror attacks in New York and that he believed Osama bin Laden was a great man.

His inflammatory comments have stirred an undercurrent of discontent among Australian Muslims and even calls for his removal .

Many Muslim-orientated websites and chat rooms have accused senior clerics of making statements that are in poor taste and a misrepresentation of the Islamic community's actual perspective.

Some members of chat groups have gone so far as to state: "We tell Omran to shut his mouth. If he doesn't, we disown him."

One contributor wrote: "He comes along and has his two minutes of fame on Lateline and says things that hijack the entire campaign [against the new anti-terror laws]."

Kuranda Seyfi Seyit, executive director of FAIR Australia, an Islamic organisation and newspaper publisher, shares the growing concern.

"Omran has a very ludicrous and extreme point of view that is held by a small minority which is not upheld by the Islamic community," Mr Seyit said yesterday.

He said Australia's most senior Muslim cleric, Sheik Taj el-Dene Elhilaly was never held as a leader for the whole Islamic community and only had that position in Lakemba mosque.

"[Hilaly] does not share the mainstream moderate [Islamic] view . . . Muslim should assist authorities against suspicious activity of any radical groups in society" Mr Sayit said.

Yesterday it emerged that Australians have been accessing radical Islamic websites in alarming numbers.

US-based researcher Aaron Weisburd said Australians made up 2.2 per cent of worldwide users of a Taliban revivalist website.

Sheik Omran grew up in Jordan and in 1985 came to Australia, where he married an Australian woman who had already converted to Islam from Catholicism.

He teaches a conservative brand of Islam through a group called Ahli Sunnah Wal Jammah.

He is also one of the senior Islamic leaders regularly spoken to by ASIO in its dealings with the Muslim community.