New Australian Muslim party aims to contest federal, state elections

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Monday 16 Nov 2015 - 18:42 Makkah mean time-4-2-1437 Diaa Mohamed, the founder of Australia's first Muslim political party, in Parramatta. Photo from The Sydney Morning Herald Parramatta (IINA) - Australia's first Islamic faith political party intends to field Senate candidates in all states and territories at next year's federal election and also contest upper house seats at state level, the Sydney Morning Herald reported. The party, to be announced on Tuesday, will be known as the Australian Muslim Party (AMP), Fairfax Media can reveal. Founder Diaa Mohammed defended the timing of the announcement days after the Paris terrorist atrocities, insisting there had never been a more critical time for the Muslim community to have a political voice in Australia. "I don't think Islam is at war with the West but Islamic countries have been at war for many, many years," he said. He also said, “The killings in Paris were "inexcusable" but drew a direct link between past foreign invasions in the Middle East and the spread of radical, most recently by the ISIS. Mohammed, a 34 year-old businessman from western Sydney, founded a group called "MyPeace" aimed at improving relations between Muslims and mainstream Australia. He said the establishment of the AMP was in part a reaction to the six anti-Islamic parties intending to stand for election, including the Australian Liberty Alliance, launched recently by controversial Dutch politician Geert Wilders, Rise Up and Nick Folkes' Party for Freedom. Dr Jamal Rifi, a respected voice on moderate Islam, said he would encourage young Muslims to get involved with established parties like Labor Party, the Liberal Party and the Greens but understood the compulsion to directly organize on behalf of Muslims. "We live in a democratic society and people are entitled to form anti-Muslim parties just as people are entitled to form the Muslim Party," he said. The party supports Australia accepting 12,000 Syrian refugees as the "most humane thing to do" in response to the crisis in that country.  SM/IINA