Scott Morrison urges Muslim leaders to accredit Islamic teachers

Former prime minister Scott Morrison has proposed Muslim leaders issue a licence to preach and translate religious teachings into English to weed out individuals preaching hateful and distorted versions of Islam.

His comments come more than a month after the Bondi massacre, during which two “ISIS-inspired” terrorists opened fire on Jewish festivalgoers on December 14.

Alleged gunman Naveed Akram, 24, reportedly had links to ISIS through connections he made through notorious hate preacher Wissam Haddad.

Mr Haddad has denied any links to the terror attack.

Speaking to 2GB, Mr Morrison said it was up to religious leaders to “take charge” of the difficult issues arising within their faith, including radicalisation.

The former Liberal leader is overseas attending a major anti-Semitism conference in Israel.

“We have got to acknowledge that the terrorists, their radicalisation, took place in Australia,” he said.

“One of them was born here, and the other one came here over 30 years ago as a student.”

Mr Morrison pointed to immigration as a priority but claimed “it’s what’s happening here is what we have to address”.

“ … and that means we have to enlist our imams and all of those who are religious leaders in the Islamic faith, take charge of that and deal with the very difficult issues that are clearly there,” he said.

Mr Morrison claimed his proposal for Islamic leaders was no different to how other religions were practised in Australia, citing the accreditation process for Anglican, Catholic and Jewish preachers.

“If you want to be an Anglican minister, you’ve got to have the right accreditation, you’ve got to do the interviews, you’ve got to have the training in all the various things,” he said.

“You have to have training to make sure you’re compliant with Australian laws, and if you don’t do that, you don’t get a ticket.

“I’m not saying that the government gives you that ticket, that’s given to you by the Anglican Church.

“The Catholics work the same way. In Judaism, it’s the same.”

It was the responsibility of religious leaders to take “accountability and responsibility” for what was happening in their own faiths, Mr Morrison said.

“ … and that’s to protect the people who are within those faiths as much as anything else,” he said. “And so I’m not proposing the government run religion at all.

“What I’m proposing is that religious leaders in all faiths have got to take responsibility for what’s happening in those faiths and their teaching has to be right.”

Bragg’s shock ‘responsibility’ claim

Liberal frontbencher Andrew Bragg was later asked about Mr Morrison’s plan, before making a series of controversial claims about Australian Muslims, including blaming them for the Bondi attack.

Several Islamic groups, including the Australian National Imams’ Council, have repeatedly warned divisive rhetoric that unfairly scrutinises Australian Muslims - including linking them to the Bondi terror attack - has caused huge escalations in violent, hateful incidents towards the community.

On Wednesday, Mr Bragg told the ABC: “I think the Australian Muslim community has to take some responsibility for the behaviours we’ve seen exhibited over the last couple of decades.

“Unfortunately, it has been a pattern of behaviour that some of these smaller incidents are now we’ve had a significant terror incident (that has) emerged from these communities.”

Grilled on the logic of his claim – which would hold the Christian community accountable for instances of Nazi hate speech – Senator Bragg said: “Well, I mean, I understand the point, but I think that what I’m trying to say is that we’ve got to be honest about the source of these problems.”

“I mean, it is a mutation of Islam which is leading to terrorism. And so I’m not going to pretend that’s not the case.”

‘Really problematic and troubling’: Conroy

In response to Senator Bragg’s comments, Defence Industry Minister Pat Conroy branded the suggestions “problematic” for their scapegoating of Australian Muslims and said Mr Morrison’s plan would be destructive to the nation’s social cohesion.

“Well, I found the entire approach really problematic and troubling … we’ve been very clear these acts were committed by people who believed an extreme perversion of Islam and to try and hold the entire Islamic community responsible for these acts, I think, is anti to social cohesion,” he said.

“It’s incredibly unfair, and it’s not a recipe for taking this country forward.

“We’ve passed even stronger hate laws. We would have passed vilification laws if we’d had the support of the coalition.

“So, for now, for Liberal Party politicians, both former and current, away, is just incredibly hypocritical and troubling.”

Mr Conroy was not drawn on whether Mr Bragg’s comments were Islamophobic, but said journalists were “right to point out the hypocrisy” of the Liberal frontbencher’s comments.

He also stressed Australian Muslims were an “incredibly valued” part of the nation.

“ … some of the earliest people condemning the vile attacks in Bondi were leaders of our Muslim Australian community, and that we’ll continue to support their right to practice in peace, like we support the right of Jewish Australians, Christian Australians, Buddhist Australians to pursue their religion as long as all laws are followed,” he said.