Fed: Muslim extremists 'recruit Australian Somali refugees'

AAP General News (Australia)
04-13-2007
Fed: Muslim extremists 'recruit Australian Somali refugees'

MELBOURNE, April 13 AAP - Muslim extremists are recruiting young Somali refugees in
Melbourne and Sydney for what a Somali community leader fears could be a terrorist attack
in Australia.

Herse Hilole, a Sydney Somali community leader and Islamic scholar, said the Somali
refugees were being influenced by radical Lebanese from a hardline Wahhabi group, The
Age reported today.

Dr Hilole will speak to the Melbourne Somali community tonight to mark the birthday
of the prophet Muhammad.

In his speech, Dr Hilole will say some Sydney and Melbourne Somalis have returned to
Somalia to join Islamic jihad, and some have been killed.

"We know that some people left Australia to join the jihad of the Islamic Courts (a
faction in the Somalian civil war) and have even been killed," Dr Hilole told The Age.

"We know there are supporters in Australia who want to recruit young Somalis to go
back or support financially the Islamic Courts.

"The community must be made aware of this and we must put a stop to it."

Victorian Somali Social Club president Osman Ali said between 10 and 20 Somalis had
returned to Somalia, as much to fight in the country's civil war for tribal and nationalist
reasons as religious.

Other Melbourne Somali leaders denied that Australian Somalis were engaged in jihad,
in Somalia or Australia, the report said.

An Australian Federal Police spokesman said he could not discuss investigations in
Australia but it was investigating the alleged death of an Australian in Somalia.

AAP jrd/cjh

KEYWORD: TERROR AUST SOMALI

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