Australia PM fuels Islamic culture clash row

CANBERRA - Prime Minister John Howard has launched a new attack on Islamic radicals in Australia, describing them as "utterly antagonistic" to the nation's values and way of life.

His comments, immediately attacked in turn by Muslim organisations, appear in a soon-to-be-published book marking his 10 years in power - the second longest-serving leader after Liberal titan Sir Robert Menzies.

They were supported by one of his most senior ministers, Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer, who said that while most Muslims had settled well in Australia the Government remained concerned by a tiny minority who had shown sympathy and enthusiasm for jihadism.

The attack came as a Sydney Morning Herald poll found that despite admiration for his economic management, most Australians regard Howard as a divisive Prime Minister who has created a "meaner" country.

But his views on Islamism struck a cord with talkback radio callers and newspaper readers and internet sites.

Further backing came from The Australian, whose staff wrote the book in which the comments will appear.

The newspaper said that unlike most other migrant groups, some of Australia's newest Muslim immigrants had arrived with a mindset that disapproved of the nation's relaxed and socially unstructured lifestyle.

"It was this clash of cultures that fuelled [December's] Cronulla riots and which is at the heart of Mr Howard's warning," the newspaper said.

Studies by the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission show most of the nation's 280,000 Muslims have suffered racially inspired discrimination, abuse or violence.

Public opinion has also been outraged by firebrand imams preaching jihad in Australia, and by the uncovering of alleged bombing plots.

Social frustrations have also been fuelled by a Muslim community in which almost 50 per cent are aged 24 or under and often in poor households - more than 40 per cent in the 2001 census earned less than A$200 a week.

Howard's comments were made only days before these frustrations boiled over in a week of beachside violence last December between Lebanese from the southwestern enclave of Lakemba and white Australians.

"I do think there is this particular complication because there is a fragment [of the Muslim community] which is utterly antagonistic to our kind of society, and that is a difficulty," he told interviewers for the book The Howard Factor.

"You can't find any equivalent in Italian, Greek, or Lebanese, or Chinese or Baltic immigration. There is no equivalent of raving on about jihad, but that is the major problem."

In extracts from the book published yesterday in The Australian, Howard also criticised Muslim attitudes toward women as a "problem".

"The conservatism toward women of the Mediterranean cultures [is] as nothing compared with some of the more extreme [Muslim] attitudes."

The comments were attacked by Islamic groups, which said they would reinforce negative stereotypes.

Muslim commentators and groups deplored the comments.

"To single out the Muslim community like this, the Prime Minister is unfortunately playing on pre-existing Islamophobia," Keysar Trad, of the Islamic Friendship Association, said.

The Federation of Islamic Council's president Dr Ameer Ali said Howard's comments applied only to a tiny fraction of Muslims. "There is also a tiny fraction of Australians who believe in white supremacy."