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Renouncing Islam Opens Australia’s Asylum Doors
SYDNEY, March 21, 2005 (News Agencies) – In a precedent that could cause serious consequences, a group of 30 Iranian and Iraqi detainees in Australia who had their asylum claims rejected have won a review of their cases after some converted to Christianity.
A spokesman for Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone said Monday, March 21, the 30 boatpeople, most of them Muslims and some who have been in detention for more than three years, had won the review after some claimed to be converts about two weeks ago, reported Reuters.
The group had exhausted all assessment and appeals procedures but would be able to begin the process afresh for a “variety of circumstances” including conversion to Christianity and changed conditions in their home country, the spokesman said.
He could not say how many had converted to Christianity but added that, in some cases, new information had also arisen about the dangers of them being returned to their homelands.
Muslim organizations in Australia estimate the number of Muslims in Australia at 350,000.
The move drew swift angry reactions from the opposition and Muslim minority leaders who warned against reviewing asylum claims based on religion.
They said Australia's international reputation could suffer and other detainees might convert merely to stay in the country.
“To see that Australia is actively encouraging Muslims to convert to another religion is something that we don't need to be stigmatized with,” Lebanese Muslim Association president Keysar Trad told reporters.
“Muslims generally aren't known for using their religion for worldly advantage, but there will be some weak in faith who will see it as a way of getting a visa,” he added.
Greens party senator Bob Brown, a staunch critic of the government's asylum seeker detention policy, said religion was only relevant if it was the reason detainees had been persecuted before arriving in Australia.
“The rule here is humanity, not the religious belief of some of those poor people who are facing export to countries where they face punishment,” he stressed.
“Let's not underestimate persecution that occurs in different countries but I think that if the government makes a decision on the basis of religion, as opposed to having a process of compassion and expediency, there is a real danger in causing people to go down that pathway,” leader of the Family First Party Peter Harris said on ABC radio.
But refugee advocate Marion Le downplayed fears of other Muslim detainees converting to Christianity to gain visas.
“There's never been an idea that by becoming a Christian you will be allowed to stay. They would know by converting they are doing a very serious thing and that other people who are Muslims in the detention centers could turn against them,” she said.
Howard Defends Move
Prime Minister John Howard, for his part, argued that Australia, which has a tough policy of automatic detention of asylum seekers who arrive illegally, was not discriminating in favor of Christians, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).
“There's no denominational or religious-specific clause in the administration of our immigration policy,” he told ABC radio.
“Concerns about religious persecution can vary from one religion to another (and) are always factors in deciding how we deal with people,” Howard said.
“The idea that we would introduce something that is peculiar only to people who convert to Christianity -- that's not correct,” he argued.
The Sydney Morning Herald said that these people, who have had their applications to stay rejected, could not be returned to their home countries for various reasons.
One detainee, Peter Qasim from Kashmir, has been in detention for more than six years but India will not take him back.
According to reports, these people would not be granted permanent residency in Australia but their applications would be assessed while they were living in the community rather than behind bars.
Australian immigration law calls for mandatory and unlimited detention of asylum seekers.
http://www.islam-online.net/English/News/2005-03/21/article04.shtml
Reuters - March 21, 2005
Muslim detainees in Australia convert, win review
SYDNEY - A group of 30 Iranian and Iraqi long-term detainees in Australia who had their asylum claims rejected have won a review of their cases after some converted to Christianity, government officials said on Monday.
A spokesman for Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone said the 30 boatpeople, most of them Muslims and some who have been in detention for more than three years, had won the review after some claimed to be converts about two weeks ago.
The spokesman could not say how many had converted to Christianity but added that, in some cases, new information had also arisen about the dangers of them being returned to their homelands.
Prime Minister John Howard said Australia, which has a tough policy of automatic detention of asylum seekers who arrive illegally, was not discriminating in favour Christians.
"There's no denominational or religious-specific clause in the administration of our immigration policy," Howard told Australian Broadcasting Corp radio.
"Concerns about religious persecution can vary from one religion to another (and) are always factors in deciding how we deal with people," Howard said.
"The idea that we would introduce something that is peculiar only to people who convert to Christianity -- that's not correct," he said.
Australia's opposition Labor party and Muslim leaders warned against reviewing asylum claims based on religion, saying Australia's international reputation could suffer and that other detainees might convert merely to stay in Australia.
"To see that Australia is actively encouraging Muslims to convert to another religion is something that we don't need to be stigmatised with," Lebanese Muslim Association president Keysar Trad told reporters.
"Muslims generally aren't known for using their religion for worldly advantage, but there will be some weak in faith who will see it as a way of getting a visa," Trad said.
Refugee advocate Marion Le downplayed fears of other Muslim detainees converting to Christianity to gain visas.
"There's never been an idea that by becoming a Christian you will be allowed to stay. They would know by converting they are doing a very serious thing and that other people who are Muslims in the detention centres could turn against them," she said.
Strict interpretations of Islam regard conversion as an offence, sometimes punishable by death.
Greens party senator Bob Brown, a staunch critic of the government's asylum seeker detention policy, said religion was only relevant if it was the reason detainees had been persecuted before arriving in Australia.
"The rule here is humanity, not the religious belief of some of those poor people who are facing export to countries where they face punishment," Brown said.
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?storyID=7956663&type=worldNews
Australian Broadcasting Corp. - 21 March , 2005
How are Australia's detainees converting?
Reporter: Marie Scoutas
MARK COLVIN: So how are detainees being converted?
Church leaders and refugee advocates say that detainees have regular access to Christian reading material and services.
But they say that the motivation for converting to a Christian faith does vary from a genuine interest to the hope that the new faith will help their case for asylum.
Marie Scoutas reports.
MARIE SCOUTAS: The Christian priests and nuns PM has spoken to have insisted they're not pushing detainees to convert to Christianity.
Jane Keogh is a Catholic nun and regular visitor to South Australia's Baxter Detention Centre.
JANE KEOGH: Now I'm sure that some of them have expressed an interest in Christianity because of the thought that this might give them a visa. I'm sure there are some of them there. Whether they started with that or whether that's part of it, I think there would be some of that.
But when you actually meet with them and see them, whatever it started as or wherever they are now, I think the trouble that they've been in and then being forced to turn back onto their search, most of those that claim to be Christian, that I know, I experience them as being genuine.
MARIE SCOUTAS: Refugee advocate, Marion Le, says it's not just priests and nuns who are spreading the word.
MARION LE: It's lay people as well who go in. Some of them, in Villawood particularly, I've sat in on Bible study groups where young people have gone in and shared their Christianity with the detainees.
MARIE SCOUTAS: So does the conversion service or a baptism then take place within the detention centre?
MARION LE: In some cases they've been baptised. In other cases they haven't. I think some people still fear reprisals. I mean, I've had people slipping to me their baptismal certificate so, so that other detainees don't know. So, it depends on what kind of baptism.
MARIE SCOUTAS: None of the Iranian detainees contacted by PM were prepared to publicly comment about their conversion.
The nation's peak Islamic body, the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils, says it would be very concerned if detainees were made to think conversion to Christianity would help their case.
Amjad Mehboob is the Federation's CEO.
AMJAD MEHBOOB: It's a pretty serious matter for someone to convert. It's, you know, if a person is a Muslim and a believer, and you know truly believes, then it's not an easy process to, you know, in one's own mind and heart to leave your faith. And that will be the case with any person of any faith. But of course people are converting in the world. But, you know, those people may not be so strong in their own faith.
MARIE SCOUTAS: Mr Mehboob says Australia should be careful not to give other nations the impression that it favours Christianity.
AMJAD MEHBOOB: There is a potential for that happening if news of that nature were broadcast in the region or in some Islamic countries of a misperception about Australia that perhaps there might be some undue pressures being put on people.
MARIE SCOUTAS: It's an argument backed by ethicist, Dr Simon Longstaff, the Executive Director of the St James Ethics Centre.
SIMON LONGSTAFF: What I am concerned about is not so much the governments in the region might form an improper view of Australia's approach in these things, but that people in their general communities might do that. Look, it's just too easy to manipulate this information in a way that can actually excite adverse opinion about Australia.
Now that's something that we need to manage. It's not that we should stop reviewing cases of anybody who might be a risk, irrespective of how they come to be there. We have to do that whether they've converted or not. But we do have to be very careful to explain why we're doing that and to show by our actions that we are consistent in the application of the policy to Christians and non-Christians alike.
MARK COLVIN: The ethicist, Dr Simon Longstaff, ending that report from Marie Scoutas.
http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2005/s1328470.htm
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