05 October 2004	Tuesday	19 Shaban 1425

SYDNEY: Prime Minister John Howard's staunch support for the US-led war on terror and a post-September 11 increase in racially motivated attacks have left Australian Muslims hoping to see the government defeated in this weekend's elections, community leaders say.

Since the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington in September 2001, Muslims in Australia have been repeatedly subjected to verbal and physical attacks, community leaders say.

These problems worsened after Australian targets were targeted in the 2002 Bali bombings followed by last month's embassy bombing in Jakarta, as well as reports of extremist groups attempting to set up terror cells within Australia.

But Muslims lay much of their anger at Howard's door, accusing him of fostering an image of them as the enemy within through his hard line policies. "The perception has been created by the Liberal government of seeing Islam as an enemy," said Hassan Ghulam, a Muslim of Afghan origin who is running as an independent for the upper house Senate in Queensland state.

With several hundred thousand Muslims in a population of 20 million the political implications are potentially significant in what is expected to be a close race. Little of the "Muslim vote" is expected to go to Howard's conservative coalition.

Few issues raise as much ire as Howard's strong support of the US-led war in Iraq, especially as many within Australia's Muslim community came as refugees from Iraq in the early 1990s.

Also at issue is the government's treatment of illegal asylum seekers, again mostly from Muslim countries, particularly Iraq and Afghanistan. Campaigning on the slogan "Justice for all", 55-year-old Ghulam has made the treatment of asylum seekers the main plank of his campaign and one he plans to pursue in parliament if elected.

After September 11, 2001, the processing procedure for asylum seekers more or less stopped, he said, accusing the government of violating human rights of people who have already suffered a lot.

"They have been mistreated by Saddam Hussein and by the Taliban. These people instead of receiving a humane treatment, they have been put in detention centres." Ghulam will be running against the woman who indirectly sparked his own interest in politics, right-wing firebrand Pauline Hanson.

The activist said he originally wanted to set up a political party precisely to counter Hanson's anti-immigration views. Hanson's own anti-immigration rhetoric has been somewhat tempered since her brief jailing last year on electoral fraud charges, which were overturned on appeal. However, her former supporters are still a potent force in some parts of Australia.

Ali Roude, chairman of the Islamic Council of New South Wales, said many Australian Muslims were concerned about precisely the same things as other Australians - health, education and so on. But they are also especially concerned about their own position in society.

"Following September 11 and the invasion there has been an increase in the anti-Muslim sentiment, which obviously made our position extremely difficult," said Roude. "There have been many cases of vilification, hate mail, burning of places of worship following these events," he said.

The feeling is that anti-terrorism laws and other moves to prevent attacks have been made against Muslims. Roude said The Australian government needed to take proper measures to ensure that law and order was upheld. -AFP