The Wire

Tomorrow in Canberra, Prime Minister John Howard will hold a summit to discuss radicalism and extremism in Australia’s muslim communities. Present will be fourteen muslim leaders, all invited by the Prime Minister himself to attend. However, the government have refused to invite members of the Islamic community they believe are linked to extremism, sidelining groups which some say will be essential to the process of rooting out radicals. This week in the global media, personalities from the Prime Minister to the Pope have added to the pressure for Muslim leaders to take the lead in fixing the problem of radicalism. However, the complex nature of this problem has prompted some analysts and community leaders to speak out against undue pressure on the minorities to fix problems with roots outside of their control. The Wire’s Ed Giles spoke to Kuranda Seyit, from the Forum on Australia’s Islamic Relations, about the potential of tomorrow’s summit for repairing the rifts in Australia’s Muslim communities.