Sydney Muslim community leader Dr Jamal Rifi told SBS Arabic24 that talks held behind closed doors between Muslim leaders from across the country and Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Thursday were "honest but amicable".
The two-hour meeting went ahead despite several prominent leaders of the Muslim community, including Grand Mufti Dr Ibrahim Abu Mohamed, opting not to attend.
Dr Rifi said a Muslim attendee verbally indicated to Mr Morrison during the meeting that the move by the community leaders not to attend was "not a boycott" and that they were "happy to sit down with the prime minister".
"The prime minister indicated that everything that was being said [during the meeting] was music to his ears and we indicated that everything that we've heard was music to our ears," Dr Rifi said.
"We needed to keep working collaboratively, amicably and respectfully to achieve the intended objective which is keeping Australia safe."
Dr Rifi said the talks resulted in an agreement to "appraise" government initiatives with the goal of combating radicalism within the community.
File: Muslim community leader Dr Jamal Rifi attended the meeting in Sydney Source: AAP
"We agreed that there would be an appraisal of government initiatives, with feedback from our community because we indicated some projects which are useful and some projects that are not," he said.
"We emphasised prevention and engagement with vulnerable people. We talked about young people who are at risk of radicalisation and how to combat that.
"We had varied opinion about a project that needs to be done at the grassroots level and the PM indicated that he would use the instrument of government to support the community to do its work in terms of preventative action."
Immigration Minister David Coleman and representatives from the Australian Federal Police and the Home Affairs Departments were also present at the meeting.
The meeting was held following calls from Mr Morrison for Muslim community leaders to do more to tackle extremism and that extremist Islam "opposes our very way of life" following the deadly Bourke Street terror attack on November 9.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison Source: AAP
Prominent Muslim community leaders indicated that they would not attend the meeting via a letter on Tuesday, where they criticised Mr Morrison's comments following the attack.
"Many in the Muslim community... are deeply concerned and disappointed with statements made by senior government ministers and the prime minister in the recent past, which infer that the community is collectively culpable for the criminal actions of individuals and should be doing more to prevent such acts of violence," the letter said.
"These statements have achieved nothing to address underlying issues, but rather, have alienated large segments of the Muslim community."
Mr Morrison responded on Wednesday through Twitter, saying the meeting would go ahead regardless of the boycott.
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