DARWIN Muslims have turned out in droves to hear acting imam Mohameden H’meida deplore the terror cells uncovered in Thursday’s raids across Brisbane and Sydney.
Speaking to about 150 worshippers at prayers yesterday at the Darwin Mosque in Wanguri, Mr H’meida said the plotters had taken lines from the Koran out of context and used them for their own evil ends.
“We look at them as criminals,” Mr H’meida told the NT News. “And thank God they were foiled.”
It comes as Prime Minister Tony Abbott revealed a deadly attack may have just been days away before the raids and arrests.
The NT News understands civilians are banned from entering Palmerston’s Robertson Barracks.
A Defence spokesman said members and families had been given advice about changes, but would not release further details.
“As a precaution, and consistent with the change of the national terrorism public alert level to high following advice from the director general ASIO, Defence has raised the security alert level at bases and establishments across Defence,” the spokesman said.
As Defence sends 600 members to the Middle East to help the United States fight ISIS, Darwin Muslims have urged Australian leaders to show restraint.
Vice-chair of the Islamic Council of the Northern Territory, Chowdhury Sadaruddin, warned more conflict in the Middle East could create a new generation of radicalised youth and spawn more terror cells.
“What Australian is doing, or what America is doing, will create problems in the future we cannot understand at this moment, which will create more frustration in the future, as has happened in Iraq,” he said.
“People can feel ‘go there and fight, finish them off’. It’s not that easy.”
Mr Sadaruddin said he was not aware of any Darwin Muslim joining the fight in Syria or Iraq.
Darwin has between 2500 and 3000 Muslims, most of them Sunni, the same Islamic faction as ISIS fighters.
Sunni and Shia Muslims worship together at Northern Territory mosques in Darwin, Palmerston and Alice Springs.
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