OCEANIA/AUSTRALIA - Muslim and non Muslim Australians in dialogue at Old Parliament House, Cardinal George Pell Archbishop of Sydney was there

Tuesday, 13 March 2007

Canberra (Fides Service) - To discuss the place of Muslims in Australia some 340 non Muslim and 40 Muslim Australians were chosen from a representative sample of 1,400 Australians to take part in a 2 day meeting at Old Parliament House, Canberra. A prominent guest Cardinal George Pell, Archbishop of Sydney reported: “Good will abounded with doses of realism as well and we made progress. There was less fear and less ignorance after the two days. It is nearly always useful to meet and talk”.
Gill Hicks from Adelaide who had both her legs blown off in the London Underground bombings of July 2005 underlined “we all have to work at the grass roots level to stop radicalised 19 year olds from blowing up themselves and others. It’s about ending cycles of violence. Somebody has to say ‘I’m not going to retaliate for this!.”
The Cardinal said he shared a platform with Sheik Mohammed Omran of Melbourne who repeated his condemnation of violence. “We continued to converse in private - the Cardinal said, adding - I believe Muslims will not help their cause if they always clam they are victims, often refuse to answer criticism, justified or unjustified and ignore of ridicule the fears, real or exaggerated, of majority Australia”.
Sheik Omran pointed out that non Muslims are 98.5% of the population of Australia while Muslims are only 1.5 (300,000 in all) mainly in Sydney and Melbourne.
Cardinal Pell affirmed: “As the majority we too have work to do. The best way to prevent even a tiny minority of young Aussie Muslims from becoming radicalised and violent, alienated from our way of life is to treat the Muslim community justly and well, encouraging the education of their children to break down disadvantage, and rejecting job discrimination so they can find work. They are victims of low level hostility and discrimination, sometimes as a results of old fashioned racism, sometimes because of the fear and anxiety produced by September 11 and the bombings in Bali and London”.
“It is unjust - the Cardinal concluded - to tar all Australian Muslims with the broad brush of violent extremists because of the antics of a minority. Their overwhelming majority are peace-loving citizens. The best protection in the long run for Australians will be achieved when every community, local, ethnic and religious, refuses to tolerate political violence. The Canberra meeting contributed to that important goal”. (PA) (Agenzia Fides 13/3/2007 righe 25 parole 257)


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