Fears that unwanted elements such as al-Shabab could infiltrate Somali cultural classes have been expressed by a community leader in Victoria

By Luke Waters

The have been calls for Somali cultural classes to be regulated, because of fears they could be infiltrated by extremist groups, but leaders in Melbourne’s Somali community have reacted angrily to the suggestions, branding them discriminatory and deeply offensive.

The comments come as three men have lost a bid to reduce their sentences for conspiring to conduct a terrorist attack at Holsworthy army base.

Community spokesman Aden Ibrahim warns the classes could be infiltrated. He says groups such as al-Shabab, which claimed responsibility for the recent shopping centre attack in Nairobi, have the capacity to target vulnerable Australian Somalis.

“They are kids who have issues with the law. They are kids who have issues with their study like their education and they have fallen off and they are prayed to by for example people who have a narrow-minded or very extremist ideology,” said Mr Ibrahim.

He is calling for community and religious leaders to devise a system where curriculum and teachers are regulated and scrutinised.

“It safeguards every teacher and every Imam and every politician exactly on what is going on,” he added.

But those running a cultural class in Melbourne’s north say they are deeply offended by the suggestion.

“I should say that’s illegal,” said Sheikh Abdinur Weli.  “It’s quite a discrimination against an ethnic community for something they have nothing to do with it”.

Sheikh Weli says regulation is unnecessary and that the classes offer an alternative to a risky return to Somalia for cultural education.

A Somali-born man was among three people convicted over a plan to attack Sydney’s Holsworthy Army base in 2009.

Professor Greg Barton from Monash University doubts the “dugsi” classes directly attract extremist recruiters, but says some may prey on vulnerable men on the fringes of ethnic communities.

“The fact that it’s happened once means it could certainly happen again. The fact that it didn’t get very far is a testament to the good relationship between police and community leaders”.

“We have to be very careful about intervening formally at government level in these sort of schools wherever they are in the world, but we need to work with these schools to look for signs of trouble when it occurs and have quiet interventions,” added Mr Barton.

Youth worker Mahad Atosh works with unemployed Somali men, a demographic which has been described as a potential target for recruiters.  He says he has never heard mention of al-Shabab.

“Absolutely not. With a lot of the young people I deal with day to day, they are not in touch with back home and they don’t know what goes on back home. They are more influenced by society here”.

Source: SBS