I stand before you today in a strange circumstance. I have only been a Muslim for less than seven years. Most of you here, were born Muslims and have had the privilege of constant growth, learning and appreciation. Therefore I am addressing an audience that knows more than I do. I feel vulnerable and exposed!

But perhaps my different approach may be of some interest and value. I am not an academic, or theologian. But I do happen to be a journalist of 50 years experience, and it is from this perspective that I will speak. In passing, I might add that having been part of the problem for so long, it is appropriate that I am now endeavouring to be part of the answer!

I grew up almost a symbol of Australia’s pre-World War II society. I was a traditional WASP – White, Anglo-Saxon Protestant. What am I now , I wonder – a WASM?

My first link to Islam was an unbelievable example of cultural malaise. At the age of about seven I was in a school concert. All the boys were dressed as Arabs – each with a tea-towel around his head and our faces covered with cocoa powder. And we stood there and sang: "And we pray the way that the Easterns do (the Easterns?), May the peace of Allah abide with you". At that we gave the Hindu sign of greeting. It is almost funny in its absurdity. But that was an example of the times.

I was brought up in an environment that prevails to this day. As a boy, the Crusaders were role models – Richard the Lion Heart, Robin Hood – and the villain was the sinister Arab, Saladin, despite his occasional gestures of kindness. But more of that later.

The West’s misconceptions of Islam are matched only by Islam’s false assessments of the West. In reviewing the current tensions, apart from historical truth, there are the issues of perceptions and beliefs.

Not all perceptions are justifiable in fact, but – true or false – they can have the power to inflame popular reactions and even influence the policies of governments. This explains why normally law-abiding people in a city like Brisbane can burn down a mosque, or why some Muslims, consumed by hatred, identify the West as an active enemy.

Historically, tolerance for the People of the Book has been a feature of Muslim belief and practice. There have of course been exceptions, but in general Muslim religious tolerance was important in facilitating the spread of Islam in its early period, specially because such tolerance was rarely reciprocated.

Nevertheless it is hardly surprising that, with a history of Islamic conquest, the Christian European states of the Middle Ages saw in Islamic civilisation their principal external enemy. In the eighth and ninth centuries (the first and second centuries AH) the tide of Arab conquest spread along the north African coast and into all but the northern part of Spain. An army also invaded France but was soundly defeated at Tours, 160 kilometres from Paris.

Somewhat later in the ninth and tenth centuries (third and fourth centuries AH), Muslim forces conquered most of Sicily and even gained a foot hole on the Italian peninsular. The Mediterranean, once dominated by the Roman Empire, had become a Muslim lake.

Islam’s conquests were undoubtedly facilitated in some areas by the remarkable religious tolerance of its followers, a quality not exhibited by both the Byzantine Empire and the barbarian kingdoms of western Europe, which were zealously persecuting pagans, Jews, and specially, so-called Christian heretics.

We should note that it was to medieval Islam in this Golden Age that the world owes the preservation of many of the Greek classics, which reached primative western Europe via Arabic translations. And the fame of Islamic philosophers, scientists, doctors, architects and scholars exceeded that of all but the greatest Muslim rulers.

In Muslim Spain, there arose a society widely agreed by historians to have been one of the most brilliant and tolerant eras in history. Muslims, Christians and Jews intermingled, exchanging not just goods and services but concepts of philosophy and science. It is an achievement that we – heirs of Islam – can be justifiably proud of.

Inevitably, down the centuries, there were occasions when the acts of Muslim leaders discredited Islam. For example, the offensive system known as the devsirme (dev-shir-may) when Christian boys were forcibly conscripted, raised as Muslims and formed the famous Janissary Corps, the Ottoman Empire’s most feared troops, with no loyalty but to the Empire. It was one of Europe’s most potent propaganda weapons and fully utilised to maintain the rage against Islam.

Reviewing the on-going tensions that had almost become tradition, Muslims recall the appalling history of the Crusades. My boyhood concept of role models is in reality an absurdity.

It is significant that two years ago, Pope John Paul made a pilgrimage to the Middle East to apologise for the role the Catholic Church had played in a campaign that lead to murder, rape and plunder on the part of the invaders.

In the eleventh century (fifth AH) European religious and secular leaders – some cynical, some genuinely religious – began to whip up religious fervour against the so-called heathens, and in particular to call for the recovery of the holy land (Palestine) from Islam.

This led to the launching of successive campaigns over a period of about two centuries. In 1069 the First Crusade captured Jerusalem amid scenes of great slaughter. Ninety years later, Sultan Saladin retook Jerusalem. In sharp contrast, no Christians were killed and they were left undisturbed at their sacred locations.

These dark adventures of a thousand years ago were followed by centuries of Christian vilification and cruelty, culminating in Western imperialism and colonialism. Nowhere in history are there more disturbing symbols of arrogance and greed, as displayed by these European nations – Britain, France, Holland, Spain, Portugal and Italy.

The European voyages of discovery diverted world trade from the Middle East and this had disastrous consequences for most Islamic societies. As the West gained in vigour and began to expand, Islam seemed to stagnate and to retreat into ancient verities. This applied in particular to the Ottoman Empire.

A defining term was 300 years ago (around 1060 AH) when the Turks – for the second time – unsuccessfully lay siege to Vienna. It is probably accurate to say that at this point the Ottoman Empire ceased to be a significant military threat to Europe.

Western cognizance of things Islamic went into a steep decline for the next 250 years. Most Westerners viewed the Muslim world as backward, superstitious and, in all probability, doomed to eventual cultural oblivion.

Trade and commerce were basically the only concerns, and many parts of the Muslim world were easy pickings for ambitious European colonialists. Their grasping hands eventually stretched all the way from North Africa to Indonesia.

The Muslim heartland in the Arabian peninsula, nominally an Ottoman province, remained free at first because it was too remote and barren, and later because no state wished to allow others to control its reserves of oil.

The Ottoman Empire, known as "the sick old man of Europe", survived till 1918. Apart from Turkey itself, most of its possessions were shared out as British or French colonies under the guise of League of Nations mandates – an act which sat uncomfortably with the claim that the war had been fought for national self-determination and freedom.

The fate of Palestine was to have far-reaching implications that still bedevil us today. The issue was a pawn in the hands of the great Western powers, following the two so-called Great Wars.

It is worthy of note that Europe, the heart of the west, generated these two world wars which killed more civilians than all the other conflicts of the previous 20 centuries combined. As Muslims point out, we are asked to call them "world wars", despite their reality as western wars. They targeted civilians with weapons of mass destruction at a time when Islam was largely at peace.

The current perceptions in the West have evolved from centuries – indeed a millenium – of mistrust. In fact, the eminent Palestinian author, Edward Said – A Christian by the way – says in his book "Covering Islam", and I quote: "I have not been able to discover any period in European or American history since the Middle Ages, in which Islam was generally discussed or thought about, outside a framework created by passion, prejudice and political interest."

In recent times, several issues have heightened Western attitudes of antagonism.

The emergence of oil-rich Muslim states gave sections of the Islamic world new economic clout, first exercised at the time of the war in 1973 between Israel and its main Arab neighbours, Egypt and Syria. The resulting oil crisis certainly drew attention to the Islamic world in a most unfavourable way and Americans, in particular, resented the discovery of how dependent they were on supplies from Arab nations.

Similarly, the growth of Palestinian resistance to the new state of Israel, established in 1948 in reaction to the horrors of the Nazi Holocaust, also had a most negative impact in the West. Through newly developed electronic media, the world witnessed the destruction of three unoccupied hijacked commercial airliners in the Jordanian desert in 1970. Two years later it watched as Palestinian terrorists killed eleven Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics. Thereafter came a succession of terrorist incidents, perpetrated, it should be noted, not in the name of Islam, but in support of the nationalistic Palestinian cause. Nevertheless, this distinction was unlikely to be made by undiscriminating observers.

In 1975, a long civil war broke out between Christian and Muslim elements in Lebanon – previously, quite incorrectly, considered to be a model of religious and political harmony.

The overtly Islamic revolution in Iran during 1978-79. did not of itself damage the image if Islam, because the Shah’s regime had been notoriously corrupt and oppressive.

But the illegal seizure of the U.S. Embassy in Teheran and the violation of the diplomatic immunity of its staff, who were held hostage in peril of their lives for many months, caused a vehement reaction, specially in the United States. It set Washington on a policy course which involved demonising the Ayatollah Khomeni’s regime, and all it stood for.

In 1989 when Iran formally pronounced a fatwa against the noted Indian-born novelist Salman Rushdie, it added fuel to the fire of opposition.

The Gulf War further damaged the image of Islam. The military aggression practised by Saddam Hussein’s Iraq frequently invoked the name of Allah. And furthermore, he was attacking a fellow Muslim country, Kuwait. President Saddam’s cynical appeals to Islamic unity in the face of the impending UN operation against him, were certainly not helpful. Many Muslim states, notably Saudi Arabia, stood against Iraq. The subsequent destabilisation in the region and the misery suffered by the Iraqi people—in great part due to US-led sanctions – has been painfully counter-productive. Many in the West look on without concern or understanding and consider the confusion a consequence of Islam.

The Taliban in Afghanistan before their descent from power, represented – almost in caricature – many negative aspects about Muslim societies that were believed in the West.

* The arrest of foreign aid workers for allegedly preaching Christianity.

* The widely publicised destruction of ancient Buddhist monuments that outraged world opinion, including many Muslim nations.

* A decree that Afghanistan’s tiny Hindu population must wear distinctive clothing had most unfortunate resonances, with the Nazi policy of requiring Jews to wear the Star of David, although there is no evidence that the regime intended to exterminate them.

* The harsh interpretation of Islamic law and the subjection of women.

All these circumstances combined to harden Western perceptions of Islam.

From the Islamic perspective, the past 35 years, has seen a continuing oppressive history of Western attitude and action that has inflicted unspeakable pain and suffering on Muslims, specially in the Middle East.

In the past decade a score of conflicts have simmered. These range from ethnic war in the Balkans, to militant insurgency in the Philippines, to what are undeniably anti-colonial uprisings in Chechnya, Kashmir and Palestine.

The Palestinian struggle in particular, has stoked rage against not only Israel and its backers, pre-eminently the United States, but also the feebleness of Arab and Muslim governments in their response. Until this wound is healed, there is no hope for peace and security in the Middle East and the consequent threat of terrorism will be maintained. May I quote an Australian academic, Scott Burchill of Deakin University, who gave a perhaps simplistic, but telling, conclusion: "It is time the policeman told the robber to give back the stolen goods."

The sudden accumulation of woes has reinforced the notion that Islam itself is somehow in danger. For the first time in the modern world, a sense of Islam as a whole, as a nation, as a polity, has marched back upon the stage. Now, even conflicts that did not at first involve religious adversaries have, in the minds of many, taken on religious overtones.

The past has shaped the current conflict. By nature of our Faith, we are all participants – in varying degrees— of the confrontation that now exists.

We hear so much about Samuel Huntington’s "The Clash of Civilisations." There are in fact three contenders: the cultures of the West, Islam and Confucius. The Chinese factor is rarely mentioned – most attention is given to Islam. Professor Huntington wrote: "Today the world’s billion or so Muslims are convinced of the superiority of their culture and obsessed with the inferiority of their power."

The West versus Islam. What precisely does that mean? We are not talking about monolithic blocs. The West comprises more than the United States, and indeed, Europe. Australia – for good or ill – could be counted in the ranks.

And Islam? It certainly includes the Arabs. But what about South Asia—Pakistan and the 150 million minority of Muslims in India? There is the Sub-Sahara nations. And significant to Australia, our neighbour Indonesia, with the world’s greatest Muslim population – nearly 200 million people.

I’m reminded of the former American Secretary of State Henry Kissinger when he once commented: "If I call Europe, who will I ring?" The same can be said of Islam.

Another factor to face is stereotypes. And my old craft of journalism has a lot to answer here. We simplify issues — it is so easy and facile to say that some one is right and the other is wrong.

It is fashionable to condemn America – and certainly there is much to cause anguish. But Professor Fred Halliday from the London School of Economics, had this to say: "Much has been made of American militarism and belligerency: this is – the discourse of cowboy culture aside – a myth. No other major country has a record as restrained as the U.S. It had to be dragged into world war in 1941, as it was dragged into Bosnia in 1995.

"Given their record in modern times, sneering at US aggression comes strangely from other countries: Britain and France which trampled over half of Asia and Africa, Russia and China, not to mention, Germany, Italy and Japan".

Yet this does not calm concerns. Is the home of the brave still the land of the free? It is a dreadful fact that of over a thousand our brothers and sisters were detained without charges – and 200 are still in detention.

But let us turn our attention in the other direction. How many alleged opponents of the State are held in Muslim jails? No one knows, but the total would be in the thousands.

And if there is so much wrong with America – and there is – why is there a flood of people from the Muslim world—even today – who would want to live there?

Recent statistics may give the answer. A report released this month by the United Nations Bureau of Arab States says that the 280 million Arabic-speaking peoples are mired in backwardness, the least literate, and the least free. Their women are the most oppressed legally and socially. Half of them can’t read or write. The maternal mortality rate is double that of Latin America and four times that of East Asia. In the few places with a semblance of democracy, only 3.5% of elected representatives are women.

Another study, conducted by the US- based Freedom House, released last December concluded that there was a dramatically expanding gap in the levels of freedom and democracy between Islamic countries and the rest of the world. The study found that a non-Islamic country is more than three times as likely to be democratic than an Islamic state.

The fact is that both Islam and the West fall short of their ideals.

Muhammad Salikh, in The Turkish Daily News commented: "In Islam we do not hold to the Shariah to the degree that Allah commands: nor does the West observe the rules of democracy as demanded by democratic principles."

There is no question that September 11 caused serious roadblocks on the journey to understanding.

Samuel Huntington was quick to say that this was the clash he predicted. And Efraim Halevy, the head of Mossad went further: he called it the start of World War III. He did however concede that some Muslims sought peace.

Here in Melbourne, we were directly affected. For ten months, Islam has been under intense scrutiny. There has been a clamour for information, as Australians have sought to comprehend a Faith that was virtually unknown and misunderstood. Suddenly, Muslims – a nation-wide community previously receiving minimal recognition – have become the focus of concerted attention.

The outcome has revealed: Growing interest in Islam across the country – from Government, other Faiths, and, at times, the media; and the existence of a minority of bigots and racists, bent on violence and spreading discord.

Initially, there was cause for concern. Mosques were attacked in five States. In Brisbane, the mosque was destroyed by arson. Here in Victoria, graffiti defiled the Preston mosque, a rock was thrown through a window in Doveton, and several bomb threats were reported.

Over fifty cases of victimisation were reported, including a women in a Broadmeadows supermarket who was struck in the face and admitted to hospital for surgery.

There was an outpouring of support. Special task forces were set up by the State Police, the Victorian Multicultural Commission, the Office of School Education and the Equal Opportunities Commission.

Church leaders and a representative of the Jewish community – who knows something about discrimination – made statements or support.

Prime Minister Howard visited the Preston Mosque and in response to a welcome from Sheikh Fahmi replied: "I want to tell you that you are all a treasured part of our society."

But there were negatives. A journalist on the Melbourne Herald Sun, Andrew Bolt, led a media minority in emphasising negatives about Islam, that prompted sharp rebukes from the ICV and the Victorian Imams. The Australian Muslim Public Affairs Committee has also made a valued contribution.

An extremist group that claims to be a Christian church has demeaned Islam and the Prophet at scheduled meetings and on the internet. A complaint from three Muslims has been lodged with the Equal Opportunities Commission.

Muslim leaders have used the current development to counter the negatives. They have appeared on television and talk-back radio. In addition, the Islamic Media and Education Centre of Victoria has been formed specifically to create understanding.

But it is a fragile co-existence and there remains a lingering concern that some group calling themselves "Muslims" will strike again. The result will not only be the suffering inflicted on the innocent people targeted. Another victim, of collateral damage, will be Islam round the world, including Muslims in Australia.

The issue of terrorism and jihad has transfixed opponents of Islam as well as the faithful. Each has his or her own view, and there is probably no issue that provokes such heat and reaction.

Certainly all cultures and all states accept the principle of just resistance to oppression. All equally allow, as the United Nations charter does, for self-defence by states.

Nor should it be forgotten that the word "terrorism" began life, not as applied to the tactics of rebels, but as an arm of state policy in the French and Russian revolutions.

All religions have, if people chose to dig them out, texts and precedents that legitimize violence. That is why terrorism has been used in modern times by, among others, Fenian Catholics, Hindu assassins, Zionist gunmen, Buddhist fanatics and Islamic militants.

For myself, I am satisfied with what Dr Muzmil H Siddiqi, former President of the Islamic Society of North America, has unearthed. He reports: "Allah says very clearly: ‘Fight in the cause of Allah those who fight you, but do not do aggression, for Allah loves not the aggressors’". He adds: "Jihad is not terrorism. It is to be emphasised that terrorism against innocent civilians, whether through aggression or suicidal means, is under no circumstances permissible in Islam".

This debate will continue as the future evolves. And what do the days ahead involve?

Essentially the call of Islam is a moral and spiritual call to order, and it starts with the Muslim community itself here in Melbourne. We need to be more self-critical and politically active. It is important that we speak out on all domestic and international, social, political and environmental issues. In both historic and geo-political terms, we have much to offer. Young Muslims, in particular, have an important task. Many of you were born or raised in Australia, and are not intimidated by cultural or language barriers. Therefore you are in a favourable position to become directly related to the broader Australian community.

Muslims cannot remain an exclusive little sect. If we are not involved, we are not relevant. There needs to be engagement in the affairs of the nation – and circumstances in recent months ensure that we are increasingly assuming responsibility. But as part of a global commitment, we have a long way to go

Each one of is responsible. Each one of us is Allah’s Viceroy on Earth.

I’d like to make brief mention of my former craft in relation to Islam. Journalists hold a great responsibility. In the press and on radio/television they exert immense influence.

Over the years, Islam has not had a favourable press. One reason is the shallow knowledge reporters have of the subject. Without a depth of understanding, it is not possible to convey the profound and subtle nuances of Islam. On television you have the shouting rantings of the cast performing at Fox News, here in Australia the bias and prejudice of talk-back radio hosts,— and newspaper columnists who form views that reason will not change.

Time and again, there are glaring examples of bias. Take the linking of "Muslim" to any number of associated words. President Saddam Hussein is a despot who calls himself Muslim. But in the West the two words "Muslim President" are linked, even though they have no relationship.

But is reference made to the Christian Nazis? (after all Hitler evoked his Lord when campaigning against the Jews); or Catholic Fascists such as Benito Mussolini in Italy or Genralissimo Franco in Spain. Or today do we hear about Christian Serbs on a rampage in Bosnia or Chechnya, or those two war criminals – the Christian leaders Radovan Karotich in Bosnia and Slobodan Milosovich, currently in the Hague? Or what about Buddhist protesters demanding freedom for Tibet?

Unfortunately, and unjustly, the word "Muslim" has become enshrined as a thoughtless journalistic epithet.

I started on a personal note, and I will end on one. When I became a Muslim, I soon realised what Islam’s biggest problem is – it’s Muslims. We have great strength in our diversity, but this is also a major weakness. For some reason, we concentrate on our differences, rather than appreciate our common bonds. I am still touched by the Brother/Sisterhood that is symbolised by our greeting and response. But it must go further than that. Anyone who has made a Shahada commitment must rank with our direct families as a key person in our lives. We share a common commitment to Allah and His Beloved Prophet. That is more important than whether someone is labelled a Sunni, a Wahabi, a Sufi, or what ever.

We don’t have to agree with each other, but we should acknowledge that our disagreements are so much less than the uniting bond of our Faith.

I ask you, genuinely, to excuse and forgive anything that I might have said that is inaccurate or offends you. I extend my hand in friendship – an old man who has been greatly touched by my experience with the young Muslims I have encountered – their commitment, intelligence, and dynamism has stirred me. And I express my sincere gratitude.

Above all, I ask that, regardless of our varied backgrounds, we stand together, shoulder to shoulder, loyalists to our Faith.

Unity is the greatest weapon we can have to face the enormous challenges that confront us.