Irfan Yusuf: Terror and the press a circus act

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Well it's that time of the year again. Time for the semi-annual metropolitan terrorism raid, for Australia's various law enforcement and intelligence agencies to show that they still have some intelligence.

And time for Australia's media outlets to show just how little intelligence they have left.

In early August the Australian Federal Police, along with State Police in New South Wales and Victoria and with help from ASIO and the NSW Crime Commission, carried out secret raids in homes across Melbourne suburbs. The 4am raids were kept so secret their details were published in the Australian newspaper being sold across the eastern states at around 1.30am on the same morning.

Police, of course, were furious.

They'd made a deal with the editors of that American-owned newspaper known affectionately as the Oz. Victorian Police Commissioner Simon Overland said the early publication of details of these top-secret raids could have tipped off the terror suspects or their helpers. Or something like that.

Overland declared the leak posed "an unacceptable risk to the operation and an unacceptable risk to my staff".

It's a serious allegation to make against any newspaper, let alone one whose editorial line is famous in Australia for frequently flexing its national security muscles. The Oz famously supported the Iraq war, and its opinion and editorial pages are home to some of the most hawkish voices in the country.

The cosy relationship between police and the media was bound to turn sour one day. Up until now, Australian papers had happily and unquestioningly printed just about every allegation made by prosecutors in an Australian terrorism trial.

Once tested in the courtroom, many of these allegations are later rejected by judges and juries, but that's too late to change the verdict in the court of public opinion.

And who was caught in the raids? Apparently those arrested were involved in a plot to attack the Holsworthy Army Base in southwestern Sydney. The group is accused of having links to al-Shabab (an Arabic word meaning "the lads") in Somalia. The young men apprehended include Australians of Somali heritage.

Writing in the edition of the Oz sold on Melbourne streets three hours before the raid, Cameron Stewart described the group as consisting of Melbourne taxi drivers and construction workers "having little understanding of Somali politics or theology". The same could be said for those involved in his report that went to print.

In one description of al-Shabab, we find these words: "Its followers shun alcohol, cigarettes, music and videos, choosing an austere, violent interpretation of Islam."

Now most Muslims I know shun alcohol and cigarettes.The avoidance of music and naughty videos also isn't uncommon among devout Muslims, largely for similar reasons as many conservative Christians.

Thankfully our law enforcement services don't use such indicators to identify potential terrorists or else they'd be taking a fair few devout Presbyterians into custody.

The reports placed enormous emphasis on terms like "sharia" and "Islam" and "Muslims" and "wahhabi". But anyone with even elementary knowledge of Somali politics would know that it is just as much (if not more) about clan as religion. There's little evidence al-Shabab or any other warring faction has replaced clan-based loyalties with a unifying common religion.

The evidence in these terrorism cases will be tested before the courts. In past cases where convictions were secured, crucial evidence came from persons from within the communities. Often this has come from imams, preachers and teachers, including those associated with vilified groups such as members of the "wahhabi" sect.

Writing on his Herald-Sun blog, which boasts over one million readers per month, Andrew Bolt wrote: "The alleged terrorists arrested in Melbourne yesterday were all Muslims, from either Somalia or Lebanon ... In fact, if you wanted to confirm a stereotypical profile of a modern terrorist, this pretty much fitted the bill." So you have to be Somali or Lebanese to be a terrorist. I guess that lets Osama bin Laden off the hook.

Elsewhere he wrote: "The rise of yet another Islamist terror group suggests there is something in Muslim or Arabic culture peculiarly susceptible to the call to violence." I always thought Arabic was the name of a language, not a culture. And I never knew that 1.2 billion people identifying as Muslims could all have the same culture.

And so the terror circus continues, with religion used by overseas extremist morons to threaten our national security, while national security is used by an assortment of bigots to threaten our social cohesion, so further threatening our national security. Go figure.

* Irfan Yusuf is a Sydney lawyer and associate editor of AltMuslim.com.