Preachers of hate must be rejected, but calmly

The technology is modern, but the ancient message of hate hasn't changed. Statements advocating that children should want to die as Islamic martyrs and that "Jews are pigs that will be killed at the end of the world" are repugnant and demand condemnation regardless of one's religious beliefs. These statements by Sheikh Feiz Muhammad, recorded on a series of 16 DVDs under the title The Death Series, might also constitute offences under laws on the incitement of terrorism and racial vilification. Police are investigating and the legal process needs to be respected in this case as much as any other. These remarks by the head of the Global Islamic Youth Centre in Sydney, on top of last week's inflammatory comments made in Egypt by another Sydney-based Muslim leader, Sheikh Taj al-Din al-Hilali, fuel a dangerously divisive debate.

The Age believes Sheikh Hilali, the Mufti of Australia, is unfit to hold that office because his views are unrepresentative of and harmful for most Australian Muslims. The Islamic community and the broader Australian public, perhaps more than they realise, enjoy and actively subscribe to the freedoms and pluralistic values that the two sheikhs reject so provocatively. As much as they deserve all the opprobrium they get — it is good that their views are held up and exposed as extreme — the community needs to avoid hysteria. Anyone who worries about young minds being poisoned by radical preachers also needs to beware of further alienating young Muslims who have already suffered a backlash of public suspicion and abuse. The overriding aim must be to minimise the damage being done by the sheikhs, rather than compound it.

All societies have extremists who reject community values and it isn't only Islamic clerics who inhabit the fringe. In Australia, this includes Christian groups such as the Exclusive Brethren and Catch the Fire Ministries. The latter's Pastor Danny Nalliah has said that the mosques and temples of other faiths should be pulled down. He is facing charges of religious vilification, yet no one holds the entire Christian community responsible for him. Prime Minister John Howard has still seen fit to send a recorded message to Catch the Fire that can only be interpreted as supportive, lending credence to Australian Muslims' fears about a double standard. The Troubles of Ireland stand as a warning that religious extremism is not an exclusive Muslim preserve.