Push to de-radicalise Muslim inmates

A Queensland Islamic leader says introducing proper religious teaching in jails would help neutralise radical Muslim inmates.

Islamic leaders believe imams and sheiks should be sent into Australian jails to neutralise any radicalisation among Muslim inmates.

Islamic Council of Queensland spokesman Ali Kadri said on Monday he would push for such a program to be introduced in jails across the country.

Mr Kadri said he'd received information from intelligence agencies that a number of Muslim inmates had become radicalised in jail.

He said this was happening because they were not receiving the proper religious guidance.

"It is my firm belief that proper Islamic education de-radicalises people, because the only reason young men radicalise is because they have some deviant version of Islam taught to them through the internet, through unreliable sources," he told Fairfax Radio.

He said there was no existing official program now to allow Muslim leaders to regularly visit jails to teach inmates.

"What they (should) do is go into the jail, teach them Islam in the context of what the religion is, a 1400-year-old religion, rather than in the context of what's happening in the Middle East at the moment," he said.

"Anybody who does show extreme views does do because they don't understand Islam, and once they've been debated through proper Islamic ideology they are countered and neutralised to a large extent."

Mr Kadri said he was not aware of any instances of Queensland inmates being recruited by overseas terrorist groups.

He added he believed Queensland was immune to this problem.

"Being a smaller state and being a more close-knit community we don't have those issues," he said.

"We have an established Islam community in this state, there's proper teaching of Islam and people aren't left to learn about Islam from internet or from sources of terrorists."


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Source: AAP


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