KEY POINTS:
AUSTRALIA - Sheik Bilal Philips should have been speaking at the Australian Islamic Conference in Melbourne at the weekend. Instead, the Saudi-trained Canadian cleric has been banned from entering the country, supposedly for security reasons.
Philips, an advocate of fundamental Islam, has been named by United States officials as an "un-indicted co-conspirator" in the 1993 World Trade Centre bombing that killed six people and injured 100 others.
Also absent from the conference will be Saudi academic Professor Jaafer Idris, another Wahhabist fundamentalist.
But among the foreign speakers who were granted visas was Yvonne Ridley, the British journalist who converted to Islam after being captured by the Taleban in Afghanistan. She gained notoriety for describing suicide bombers as martyrs, supporting Hamas and approving the distribution of videos of Iraqi insurgents beheading hostages.
Philips, Idris and Ridley have guaranteed that Australia notices the conference. But they have also ensured that other distinguished speakers - such as Dr Jamal Badawi, who has taught Islamic studies at Stanford University and heads a Canadian organisation promoting better understanding of Islam among Muslims and non-Muslims - will vanish beneath more sensational headlines.
So will much of the conference, heavy on reconciliation: encouraging dialogue between civilisations; restoring the basis for universal human values; promoting understanding with the wider community; and tackling the negative perception of Muslims in Australian society.
"I find it very ironic that the Minister for Immigration [Kevin Andrews] made a decision to bar a Saudi-trained imam from coming to Australia," said Sydney lawyer and Muslim commentator Irfan Yusuf. "I find it interesting that he did not ban the entry of an Israeli academic who came out and said Muslims are a threat to the West.
"You have one set of standards being used against one group and another set of standards being used for another."
This is the dilemma for Australia: the battle for the hearts and minds of a large, overwhelmingly peaceful and law-abiding Muslim community frequently misunderstood, mistrusted and feared by much of the society in which it lives, and which in response is becoming more alienated and resentful.
At the fringes are radicals who stir the pot, and opportunists on both sides who see advantage in division.
"Definitely there are certain members of the Government who from time to time want to beat it up as part of their campaigns to win elections or to push a certain effort of their own, for legislation or whatever," said Australian Federation of Islamic Councils president Ikebal Patel.
But in a landmark speech to the last conference of Australian imams, Liberal frontbencher Andrew Robb, then Parliamentary Secretary for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs, urged Muslims to move away from a victim mentality and speak against terrorism: "Because it is your faith that is being invoked as justification for these evil acts, it is your problem. You can't wish it away, or ignore it because it has been caused by others."
Always there is the flow of news about the danger within: the jailings of would-be Islamic terrorists planning attacks in Australia; the present trial of Melbourne cleric Abdul Nacer Benbrika and 16 others on terror charges; reports of radical clerics and extremists preaching hate and war.
Iraqi insurgents have sought money and support from Australian Muslims, and foreign terror groups have recruited in the country. Australian Security Intelligence Organisation director Paul O'Sullivan has warned that as events overseas resonate in Australia, "apparently ordinary people" can be radicalised and turned to acts of terror in a very short period of time.
Both sides give similar warnings of deliberate divisions, albeit from different perspectives. Chaaban Omran, national president of the Federation of Australian Muslim Students and Youth, believes there has been intentional maligning of Islam since the September 11 attacks, supported by foreign policy initiatives such as the Gulf War and Afghanistan.
"These are all forces that I think are designed to demonise Muslims in general," he said.
"The first thing to understand is that Islam itself is a peaceful religion. It's a little bit unfair to paint all Muslim youth with the same brush as the would-be terrorists."
Robb, in his address to the imams' conference, saw a mirror image but with the same result: "Every terrorist act of recent years has had the intent of doing two things - firstly to generate fear, suspicion and resentment among non-Muslim members of Western communities, while at the same time stigmatising Muslim members of the same communities.
"The clear strategy is to divide our community through fear and misunderstanding; to make Muslims feel alienated from their Western community with the objective of radicalising some of the angry young men and women."
There is fertile ground for alienation. Muslims who have migrated to Australia in the past decade frequently speak little English, causing high unemployment, low incomes and housing difficulties.
The Islamic Women's Council of Victoria says education is also a problem because of language and periods of unstable housing or unemployment, and because some new Muslim humanitarian migrants have little education. Others fear and mistrust the legal system and police - often a legacy of their homelands or bad experiences in Australia - and lack family networks. Some suffer post-traumatic stress.
Most of this was confirmed in a Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission study.
There is also a wide feeling among Muslims that they have been misrepresented by the media, through constant association with conflict and violence.
Added to this are international events perceived as a Western attack on Islam.
Omran denies that extremists are advocating violence or terrorism.
"There is not a single person who has ever come forward and said they supported the actions in Madrid or the Bali bombings," he said. "But are there radicals who denounce the West for its behaviour or foreign policy? Absolutely, by the bucketloads.
"Are there Australians who support people who are defending themselves in Afghanistan and Iraq? Absolutely. There's no doubt about it. But it does not cross the line between calling for justice and what people consider to be radical terrorism."
Others believe a risk exists, and that this needs to be addressed.
Patel believes there are radicals within the Islamic community who use strong language to gain a moment of fame and that some angry young Muslims frustrated with global events could be attracted to them.
Yusuf agrees: "There is a genuine concern, I think, within a number of Muslim communities, about the fact that there are a lot of kids who don't have access to mainstream theology and don't know a whacky group when they see one.
"The trouble is that when you have a decontextualised Islam, you have a problem, because kids take it and don't know quite what to do with it."
Patel believes that, on balance, it is probably better to allow the radicals to speak because they can at least be identified, "rather than letting them fester as mushrooms and have a following".
The Lebanese Muslims Association president said in a report to imams: "It is little wonder that many Muslims are angry and have turned to drugs, alcohol, and even contemplated suicide. The last thing this society wants is angry men and women following radical but charismatic cult-like figures who promote ... violence on the preposterous justification that they are simply acting in self-defence in a time of war."
But finding solutions is not easy. There is no simple, single structure for Islam as there is, for example, for Catholicism or the Anglican church.
There are no accepted spokesmen for all Muslims.
"Australian Islam is not a religious phenomenon," Yusuf said. "It's an ethno-religious phenomenon. Mosques are divided along ethnic lines ... Each ethnic group has its own set of emphases, in that some emphasise some aspects of theology and some groups don't."
The Victorian Islamic Women's Council says that the imams' role is to lead congregations in prayer and trouble can erupt when they become spokesmen, forced to respond to issues for which there is no religious precedent or in which they have no expertise.
There is no formal training or accreditation as in, for example, Turkey.
Many are not well-educated and in some cultures are looked down upon.
Language can be a problem. When an imam does speak English he may not have sufficient cultural understanding to make his point without giving offence.
Other groups can also resent the imam of another mosque acting as a spokesman for all Muslims. Many opposed the appointment of controversial Sydney cleric Sheik Taj al-Hilali as the Mufti of Australia.
Yusuf also questions the reality of their influence: "A lot of kids who have troubles don't necessarily go to their mosques for a solution.
"They're probably more likely to go on the Google - in fact, in many Muslim circles people talk about Sheik Google. And this is where a lot of the trouble is. Anyone can put anything on the internet, and how do you regulate that?"
But the battle for hearts and minds has been joined from both sides. The federal Government has launched a A$35 million ($40 million), four-year national action plan that includes pilot programmes in disadvantaged Muslim areas, such as Lakemba in southern Sydney, involving values-based education programmes, employment co-ordinators and workshops, and sports programmes.
The plan also includes a "world class" centre of research and educational excellence in Islamic studies, interfaith dialogue, counselling and a support helpline for Muslims, programmes to bridge the gap between Muslims and law enforcement, and crisis management training.
Patel said Muslim community efforts included open days at mosques; symposiums and conferences for Muslims and non-Muslims, both at grass roots level and for leaders of mosques, churches and synagogues; regional programmes; school visits; youth and women's advisory committees; fund-raising for charities; and involvement in such traditional Australian movements as surf lifesaving.
But a long road lies ahead.
