Warning on Muslims

Academic's warning on Muslims causes stir
Barney Zwartz
February 16, 2007
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THE fabric of Western nations is at risk when the Muslim population reaches about 10 per cent, as in France, a Jewish commentator on Islam said yesterday.

Raphael Israeli, an expert on Islamic history from Hebrew University in Jerusalem, told The Age that Australia was at risk of violence if its Muslim population increased.

"When the Muslim population gets to a critical mass you have problems. That is a general rule, so if it applies everywhere it applies in Australia," he said.

His views were last night dismissed as extreme by Muslim leaders.

But Professor Israeli distanced himself from a report in yesterday's Australian Jewish News that quoted him as saying Australia should cap Muslim immigration or risk being swamped by Indonesians. Professor Israeli has been brought to Australia by the Shalom Institute of the University of NSW. The Australia-Israel Jewish Affairs Council is co-hosting many of his activities, including a proposed visit to Melbourne next month.

Professor Israeli said Muslim immigrants had a reputation for manipulating the values of Western countries, taking advantage of their hospitality and tolerance.

"Greeks or Italians or Jews don't use violence. There is no Italian or Jewish Hilali (controversial Sydney cleric Sheikh Taj al-din al-Hilali) Why?"

The head of the Federal Government's Muslim advisory taskforce, Dr Ameer Ali, condemned the comments as being "totally inflammatory". He said Professor Israeli was pushing an Israeli Government line and betraying his discipline as an objective academic.

Islamic Council of Victoria spokesman Waleed Aly said some of the comments attributed to Professor Israeli came close to the sort of remark Sheikh Hilali was condemned over. He said the professor was conflating complex and separate issues.

Professor Israeli said that when the Muslim population increased, so did the risk of violence.

"Where there are large Muslim populations who are prepared to use violence you are in trouble. If there is only 1 or 2 per cent they don't dare to do it — they don't have the backing of big communities, they know they are drowned in the environment of non-Muslims and are better behaved."

In Australia, Muslims are 1.5 per cent of the population.

In France, which has the highest proportion of Muslims in Europe at about 10 per cent, it was already too late, he said. There were regions even the police were scared to enter, and militant Muslims were changing the country's political and cultural fabric, and demanding anti-Semitic and anti-Israel policies.

"French people say they are strangers in their own country. This is a point of no return. If you are on a collision course, what can you do? You can't put them all in prison, and anyway they are not all violent. You can't send them all back. You are really in trouble. It's irreversible."

Professor Israeli said that in Australia a few imams had preached violence and influenced young people.

"You should not let fundamentalist imams come here. Screen them 1000 times before they are admitted, and after they are admitted screen what they say in the mosque."

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