SOMALI community leaders have described the alleged terrorists arrested in Tuesday's dawn raids in Melbourne as "children".
* No, they are on their 20's, so are adults*

They have warned of a racial backlash * from who, for what ?* and played down fears that sections of their community have been radicalised by the extremist group al-Shabaab.


One community leader, Abdalla Ahmed, who knows several of the families of the alleged terrorists, said he was "shocked" and family members were "really struggling" with the allegations.

Another leader, Abdurahman Osman, president of the Somali Community in Victoria, who has warned against creeping fundamentalism,  *good on you for bringing this to light, well done * said angrily he had doubts about the arrests of "these children".

Their comments came after an extraordinary meeting between federal and state police and Somali religious and community leaders in Melbourne's Coburg council chambers yesterday, attended by almost 100 members of the Somali community.

After an obviously tense meeting, when Somalis criticised both the raids and media coverage, *whyever criticise hte polioce for actions against wannabe terrorists ?  *community leader Awes Amin said a young Somali girl had already been abused "physically and verbally" since the raids and called a "terrorist".

"We are not all terrorists,"  * how many are terrorists ?* he said. "We are very good people, we are ... part of Australia."

The longest-serving of Australia's imam, Sheik Fehmi El-Imam, said the allegations were "a serious matter" that should not be prejudged. He said Muslim leaders supported the police investigation.

Senior Somali cleric Sheik Isse Musse said police had assured the community that the raids were not racially motivated. Asked whether the radical Somali group al-Shabaab had approached members of the Muslim community, he said: "We are not aware of any approach made by al-Shabaab."

Describing the arrested men as "these kids", community leader Hassan Shuriye said yesterday's meeting was positive.

But in an angry outburst, Mr Osman questioned the need for raids in 19 homes that netted five arrests, and alleged the police were "hiding something". He said the community was feeling "very bad".

The meeting was called by Victoria Police and the Australian Federal Police to allay community concerns.

Normally cops only charge people for very good reasons

abu_rashid wrote on Aug 6^th, 2009 at 3:04pm:



They charged him for a very good reason.

And as even you know, charging is not the same as sending to trial. And sending to trial is not the same as finding guily. And even finding guilty is not the same as cutting his head off or machine-gunning him down.