Fifth Column?

There are some interesting and important points to this story. The first of course is that the prime example of a would-be jihadist is not some illiterate, poverty stricken and gullible individual; they are, in the majority, university students. By this we can assume that they are not desperately poor nor completely stupid.

AUSTRALIAN Muslim university students eager to become jihadis are regularly seeking advice from Islamic spiritual leaders in the hope of winning religious approval to travel overseas and fight.

Leaders have warned that the obsession among some young Muslims to become holy warriors was also driving them to “shop around” for fatwas - religious rulings - should their initial request be turned down.

Moderate Sydney-based Islamic cleric Khalil Shami said young Muslims, “predominantly university students”, frequently asked his advice on travelling to war-torn countries to fight in the name of Islam.

He said young Muslims interested in jihad either called him anonymously to ask his advice or approached him at the mosque.

The second point to note is that these are not some red-neck bigots eager to defame Islam- these are Muslims are seeking religious advice on going to fight a jihad. Are we to call them Islamophobes for assuming that Islam is not a Religion of Peace? The question is never raised about where they got the idea that their religious duty is to go and fight.

There are a few more points to make- although the spiritual leader at the centre of this story tells us that he advises these young men not to go and fight as holy warriors in the name of Islam he does not do it because there is a Koranic or religious reason not to fight, it's because the regimes they want to fight for are "corrupt". In short, he cannot argue with them on religious grounds that there is no such thing as a jihad. He does not try to convince them that it's an "inner struggle", nor does he tell them that to kill one person is the same as killing all humanity. It seems that he cannot refute their belief that Islam requires them to go and fight in jihad.

The last thing to note is this-

Sheik Shami, who is also an Australian Federal Police chaplain, said he had not notified authorities about Muslims interested in jihad because he did not want to betray the trust of people making the inquiries.

I'm sure that the Australian police and security services might be interested in the names of people seeking permission to go and fight a jihad, particularly since Australian troops are currently deployed in Afghanistan. Remember too that the cleric notes that some of the young men involved were "shopping around" for a fatwa that would give them permission to go and fight- he might have turned them down but that's not to say another cleric will. Thus it would seem important that the authorities be informed of potential jihadists in their very midst, some of whom might turn their murderous intent against Australia itself. Sheik Shami, it seems, places the trust of would-be jihadists above the lives of the people they are planning on killing.