An alliance of peak Islamic groups has called for the classification of ‘religiously motivated terrorism’ to be removed from Australia’s terror laws. The group, led by national Imams council, says the laws marginalise the Muslim community and fuel Islamophobia.
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00:00400 counter-terrorism police, 13 raids and 6 teenagers charged with planning or preparing
00:08to commit a terrorist act.
00:10We will allege that these individuals adhere to a religiously motivated violent extremist
00:15ideology.
00:16Now an alliance of Islamic groups is calling for an immediate inquiry into the processes
00:21that led to the raids.
00:22The lack of evidence pointing to a concrete threat or plan among these youths, as noted
00:27by senior police officials, calls into question both the necessity and the manner of these
00:33operations.
00:35The groups also singled out ASIO head Mike Burgess, accusing him of using charged language.
00:41Sunni violent extremism poses the greatest religiously motivated extremist threat in
00:46Australia.
00:47They want the term religiously motivated terrorism removed from Australia's terrorism laws.
00:53The presumption that terrorism is inherently tied to religion is not only inaccurate but
00:59also harmful.
01:00ASIO says the term religiously motivated violent extremism allows it to accurately categorise
01:06a security threat based on its primary motivation.
01:10Saying ASIO does not investigate people because of their religious views, ASIO is concerned
01:15with actual or potential violence.
01:18The Premier agrees.
01:20The truth of the matter is that we do need to confront religious extremism.
01:24Some of it manifests itself in terrorism and it's important that there's a comprehensive
01:28police and security response.
01:30A sensitive debate with no easy answer.