It is deep within the western psyche, buried subconsciously within the dark recesses of European psychology, history and literature. It lurks there - that Islam is powerful like other world powers, and is something to be feared. For example, the "Song of Roland", based on the repulsion of the early Muslims from central France, almost into Paris itself; and Dante’s "Inferno", where Muhammad was assigned to the lowest level of hell; and the ‘propaganda’ of the Catholic Church – all these attempt to demonise and mystify Islam and Muslims as much as possible. The Spanish Inquisition continues; it just has a different name these days, and operates out of Washington instead of Rome.

It comes to us in new forms such as the creation of the "State of Israel" in Palestine. Within the past decade Communist Russia has met its demise, leaving only Islam as a very serious threat, or a perceived serious threat, to the domination and hegemony of the USA and its coalition and allies.

The establishment of OPEC and the discovery of oil in the heartland of Islam made a tremendous impact on the West. The globe now faces a New World Order, weapons of mass destruction and the pivotal role the media plays in all of this, reinforcing medieval stereotypes while encouraging so-called Muslims leaders to contribute as much as they would like to the denigration of Islam. As a result Muslims continue to suffer from the same prejudice and misinformation which have been plaguing them for a long time.

Muslims are under siege everywhere. Allah’s Messenger (s) prophesied that the day would come when Islam would be something difficult to hold onto, like holding a burning coal in the palm of your hand.

What feeds the impact here in Australia is the rise in vilification and violence towards Australian Muslims, or those who are perceived to be of Middle Eastern origin or Islamic faith. In addition, the ‘children overboard’ affair, where we had the first instance of our government lying to us, signifies the unimportance of Muslims.

The whole debate about asylum seekers or refugees in Australia exposes the hypocrisy of a government that goes to war with against Iraq to free its peoples and liberate them from tyranny and oppression and yet when ordinary Iraqis come to out doorstep we oppress them and place them in concentration camps in the middle of the desert and treat them as non-humans.

The reporting of ‘Lebanese gang rapes’ and the Bali bombing in October last year, and currently the consequences of the US lead attack on Iraq, attempt to reinforce the perception that all Muslims are terrorists, and vice versa. Most of the cowardly attacks against Muslims in Australia are against Muslim women in particular because they are easily identifiable targets.

David Hicks and Mamdouh Habib are considered by the Australian government to be non-persons and non-citizens, since no significant members of the Australian government to help them have raised a single finger to help them. Foreign Minister Alexander Downer ignores them but makes a big fuss about the detention of Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi. He feels compelled to do some thing about her but couldn’t give a damn about Australian citizens held illegally by a "civilised" nation. "We can’t do anything to help them at all", he says. Why? Is it because they are Muslims?

The West’s antidote to terrorism seems to be "errorism" - commit as many mistakes as you can, lie as much as you like and deceive as many people as you can, that’s all part and parcel of the War On Terrorism. What we are being bombard with, and what people are being duped and deceived by are just outright lies. Again today in the media we hear that the intelligence community in Australia was well aware of the fact that many of the statements put out by the Prime Minister and his Office were completely untrue, inaccurate and false. Yet it didn’t stop our Prime Minister from using them and attacking Islam and Muslims as a result of it.

The confrontationists like Bernard Lewis, Samuel Huntington (The Clash of Civilizations) and Daniel Pipes promote the basic massage that Islam is incompatible with democracy, it is anti-western, a threat to America and its allies and global security generally. Yet there are voices of concern and indeed we know that even before Blair, Bush and Howard went to war in Iraq, the majority of citizens in many countries and indeed all of Europe were against the war. A lot of people have sided with Islam, defending Muslims, saying that there is no justification for this war: "Okay, Saddam Hussain should be relieved of his office, but not in this way. This is not the way to secure a global peace. This is not the way for America to extend and consolidate its global sovereignty. This is no way to establish an empire". We are the ‘Green Peril’. It used to be the Yellow peril but now it’s the green peril, that’s us Muslims, and we have to be stopped!

Robert Fisk and many other journalists, intellectuals and academics are on our side, giving voice to reason, compassion and rationality. They are the accommodationists who say that there is no need to go to war against Muslims and Islam, no need to go into Iraq and Afghanistan, because our perceptions and our policy based on our perceptions are false, and this confrontation with terror can be done in a better way.

Unfortunately Present Bush did use that "C" word. "Crusades". It accidentally ‘slipped out’, as much as any crafted speech that goes through the hands of dozens of different committee members could slip out – in front of the world media. As soon as it was spoken Muslims said the cat was out of the bag. Now we know what is on the agenda, we know what is coming up and there is no doubt about it, it is obvious to everybody, Muslims and non-Muslims.

One website advertises the publication: "A Pocket Guide to Militant Islam." It states: "Confused? Scared?" and implies you have a perfect right to be, because those terrible Muslims out there are coming to get you.

A quote from Dr. Robert Morey reads: "Terrorism is the fruit, of which radical Islam is the root. If we don’t confront this reality, the radical elements of Islam will destroy us. They plan to burn down our churches and synagogues and force our children and grandchildren to become Muslims, IF WE DON’T FIGHT THEM HERE AND NOW."

Unfortunately people like Dr Morey do have some influence, although we tend to laugh at them. But there are a lot of confused people, who would like to believe that Islam is not as bad as the likes of Dr Morey say it is. Yet the problem this: we are not doing our job properly. We are not being active enough to allay people’s fears. We are not going out there saying Islam is a viable alternative, it is the best choice you can make in your life, it’s got a whole lot to offer. Not just that we pray a different way and we fast a different way, it’s got solutions for world problems. I believe inshaAllah Islam will come about whether they like it or not. In spite of us and in spite of them it will come about.

John Howard and the liberal party have used the situation to their political advantage. We know that the new anti-terrorism legislation targets Muslims, no doubt about that. We stand to be the first victims and perhaps the only victims of this legislation. It’s aimed at us and we should be very concerned about it.

NSW MLC David Oldfield’s One Nation website states: "Not all Muslims are terrorists, but nearly all terrorists are Muslims." He writes that ‘Many Australians have told me they fear for how Muslims will change our country if they get the chance. I will always remember one particular lady who said to me:

"The biggest mistake a person can make is to think Muslims are people just like us - they are nothing like us".’

Muslims, they might be human beings but they are nothing like us ….

His colleague, the Rev. Fred Nile, thought to be a friend to the Muslim community (friendship in political terms; as far as it’s useful) called for a ban on the Chadoor, because "Muslim women could hide a bomb underneath it". This is almost laughable but unfortunately somebody said this in parliament. John Howard’s response was not to reject the statement. "I understand what [Reverend Nile] is getting at…..Fred speaks for the views of a lot of people."

We have seen that regardless of your nationality, if you are a Muslim then that’s enough for people to abuse you. Of course it is inflicted on all members of the Muslim community but the Indonesian Muslim community has been targeted in particular here. It makes us think: "Where are our rights going?" They have gone right down the hill, and they don’t seem to exist anymore. Now we have people in Indonesia looking at Australia saying, "Hey! Now the shoe is in the other foot, isn’t it? You accuse us of human rights violations, but what are you doing in Australia to your own citizens?"

We are not the only ones under the siege of course. Everybody is. Any body who is living in the world is under siege in one way or another. We may be the current target but indirectly everybody is affected. So much so that we have ordinary Australians also under siege, because they are afraid of us, afraid of what might happen to their lifestyle, afraid of all sorts of things.

Sure enough, 20% of the world’s population is Muslim, we are told, but in the quality stakes, where are we? I think the advice of the Prophet (s) is as relevant today as it ever was. His advice, when these times come, is to look at ourselves very carefully and think about what we really love. Are we stuck in this world and deceived by it and love it more than we love the Akhirah (The Hereafter)? If so, then, yes, that’s the condition that we find ourselves in. That is part of the solution to the problem. We need to focus on ourselves and get ourselves straightened out and understand what our priorities are. What are the important things in life? Once we get our relationship right between Allah and ourselves then inshaAllah we can expect things to improve.