Australian Islamic school denounces terrorism, preaches unity

EXCLUSIVE: SBS has been granted access to a Sydney Islamic school to witness students being taught to respect both their religion and their national identity.

They are a group of proud young Australians, who also happen to be Muslim.

Al Amanah College is a kindergarten-to-year-12 Islamic school with four campuses across Sydney and Melbourne.

With home-grown terrorism and racial divides dominating the headlines, SBS was given a rare insight into how Islamic educators are responding.

In special sessions twice a week, teachers denounce extremism and focus on explaining their religion in that context.

"They are taking different ideologies, and they are changing and trying to tarnish the name of Islam,” a religious studies teacher told his year 11 and 12 students.

“We are not allowed to harm one another. We are not allowed to deceive one another. The religion does not teach us this."

Terrorist acts, such as the fatal shooting of a police worker in Sydney's west-suburban Parramatta and the Paris massacre of 130 people, are also openly discussed.

"Ignorance leads to a person being vulnerable,” the teacher said.

“Then he is, obviously, easily deceived. And this will explain what happened in Parramatta. This will explain what happened, also, in Paris."

Islamic school Al Amanah denounces terrorism
K-6 students at Al Amanah College sing 'Advance Australia Fair'. (Photo: SBS) Source: SBS

A captain at the school's Liverpool campus, in Sydney's south-west suburbs, Sibal Chams, told SBS News it was a way for young Muslims to avoid radicalisation.

"Our teachers, we bombarded them with questions," she said.

"We asked them questions like, 'Who are these people doing this, what are the motives behind why they're doing it, and how do they justify it?'

“It protects us from going into these groups and being brainwashed...and, that way, we can protect the ones that we love and the Australian community."

Fellow school captain Hussam El Dana said the approach the teachers took was an extremely helpful initiative.

"It helps because, when you talk about it more, when you express the situations happening, more people are being aware in order to stay away from these devious groups,” he said.

“It warns us of the various strategies utilised by these extremist groups, in order to be aware and to prevent any youth radicalisation."

Islamic School denounces extremism
Principal Al Amanah College in Liverpool, Ayman Alwan, says he is a proud Australian Muslim. (Photo: SBS) Source: SBS

Principal Ayman Alwan moved to Australia from Lebanon 15 years ago.

He said his students were being taught a simple message: love this country and your religion.

"Being Muslims in Australia, we are Australians, and we work for a big cause: to make sure that we are living in harmony with everybody,” Mr Alwan told SBS.

“We are all Australians."

Mr Alwan said unity was the strongest way to defeat what he called the ever-present threat of extremism.

"It is very important to be united as a whole,” he said.

“In regards to the larger community, the wider community, we need to work together with the larger Australian community in order to eliminate all the bad images about Islam."

It is a view shared by students, including Hussam.

"By standing together as one and not conflicting with each other, we are better able to spread the true knowledge of Islam so fewer people are radicalised," he said.


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3 min read

Published

Updated

By Omar Dabbagh

Source: SBS



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