Historically, we Australians like to consider ourselves as champions of justice and doers of right. We believe in the idea of a "fair go" for everyone and the legal and moral concept of presumption of innocence until proven guilty.

However, since the horrific tragedy of September 11, the subsequent terrorist-hunting in Afghanistan and the invasion of Iraq, and the incarceration of Australian Muslims abroad and recently at home, we can’t help but feel that when it comes to dealing with Muslims – even Australian Muslims – the verdict seems now to be that they are all guilty until proven innocent.

For the past two years this Government has abandoned Australian citizens, David Hicks and Mamdouh Habib, to a Cuban hellhole at Guantanamo Bay. They have been subjected to God only knows what torture, physical and mental abuse, humiliation and degradation – all in the name of democracy, freedom and the ‘War on Terror’.

Until very recently we have had confidence in our Government, which has taken a strong moral and legal position concerning human rights abuses around the world. Yet now this same Government is failing in its duty to protect and render assistance to its very own citizens. To its profound shame our Government has shirked those responsibilities. The primary role of any decent government is to provide protection, welfare and security to those who cannot provide it for themselves.

The Australian Government is content to allow its citizens’ human rights to be trampled and for them to be relegated to some vague, quasi-legalistic political limbo with little or no hope of access to justice and virtually no prospect of liberty in the foreseeable future.

This Government has studiously cultivated a climate of distrust and an alarmist attitude towards Australian Muslims – towards the largest religious minority that represents 1.5% of our population. The Prime Minister adds fuel to this fire through his frequent references to "Islamic terrorism". For Muslims, this description is an oxymoron. It has as much legitimacy and currency as the term "Christian terrorism" does to Christians of all denominations. Islam stands for all that is wholesome, just, proper, good, reasonable and humane. It is fundamentally incompatible with terrorism. Yet this refrain is continuously regurgitated in order to reinforce the false impression that all Muslims are actual or potential fifth columnists.

The new anti-terrorism laws are aimed directly at Muslims. Already, Muslims are incarcerated in maximum-security institutions on suspicion of having committed terrorist offences. We are extremely concerned by the proposal to introduce several new measures that have the potential to further erode our rights as citizens and reduce our confidence in the Australian belief in being given a fair go.

We should be VERY concerned about the new anti-terrorism proposals to extend ASIO’s powers to compulsorily question and detain without trial; to extend the detention/interrogation time of persons suspected of ‘terrorism’ offences to 24 hours which can result in a person not suspected of any criminal wrongdoing being detained incommunicado for rolling periods of seven-days and interrogated for up to 24 hours with no right to silence and only a heavily circumscribed right to legal representation; to extend the detention/interrogation period, for example, is portrayed as if it only targeted terrorist suspects when it, in fact, catches persons suspected of committing a ‘terrorism’ offence; an offence that can be committed merely by possessing a thing related to a ‘terrorist act’. ‘Terrorist act’, in turn, embraces certain acts of industrial action; and that the current laws impose guilt by association by making illegal conduct peripherally connected with acts like bombing and hijackings.

If we don’t defend ourselves, who will?