Former prime minister Scott Morrison has proposed Muslim leaders issue a licence to preach and translate religious teachings into English to weed out individuals preaching hateful and distorted versions of Islam.

His comments come more than a month after the Bondi massacre, during which two “ISIS-inspired” terrorists opened fire on Jewish festivalgoers on December 14.

Alleged gunman Naveed Akram, 24, reportedly had links to ISIS through connections he made through notorious hate preacher Wissam Haddad.

Mr Haddad has denied any links to the terror attack.

Speaking to 2GB, Mr Morrison said it was up to religious leaders to “take charge” of the difficult issues arising within their faith, including radicalisation.

The former Liberal leader is overseas attending a major anti-Semitism conference in Israel.

“We have got to acknowledge that the terrorists, their radicalisation, took place in Australia,” he said.

“One of them was born here, and the other one came here over 30 years ago as a student.”

Mr Morrison pointed to immigration as a priority but claimed “it’s what’s happening here is what we have to address”.

“ … and that means we have to enlist our imams and all of those who are religious leaders in the Islamic faith, take charge of that and deal with the very difficult issues that are clearly there,” he said.

Mr Morrison claimed his proposal for Islamic leaders was no different to how other religions were practised in Australia, citing the accreditation process for Anglican, Catholic and Jewish preachers.

“If you want to be an Anglican minister, you’ve got to have the right accreditation, you’ve got to do the interviews, you’ve got to have the training in all the various things,” he said.

“You have to have training to make sure you’re compliant with Australian laws, and if you don’t do that, you don’t get a ticket.

“I’m not saying that the government gives you that ticket, that’s given to you by the Anglican Church.

“The Catholics work the same way. In Judaism, it’s the same.”

It was the responsibility of religious leaders to take “accountability and responsibility” for what was happening in their own faiths, Mr Morrison said.

“ … and that’s to protect the people who are within those faiths as much as anything else,” he said.
“And so I’m not proposing the government run religion at all.

“What I’m proposing is that religious leaders in all faiths have got to take responsibility for what’s happening in those faiths and their teaching has to be right.”

https://www.news.com.au/national/politics/scott-morrison-urges-muslim-leaders-to...