Revoking citizenship of suspected terrorists denounced by Australian Muslims

http://www.bignewsnetwork.com/index.php/sid/233688025

Big News Network (UPI) Wednesday 10th June, 2015

CANBERRA, Australia - Muslim Australians are denouncing government discussions of revoking citizenship for suspected terrorists.

Plans have been underway in Canberra to annul Australian passports for alleged terrorists of dual nationality since May, the BBC reported. A new legislation could enable Australia to revoke citizenship rights for more than 100 Australians believed to be fighting with the Islamic State.

Muslim activists in Australia said the move only strengthens executive power and called the measure one-sided, The Guardian reported.

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Silma Ihram, of the Australian Muslim Women's Association, said Muslims are "extraordinarily frustrated" at the lack of any "real" consultation with Muslim community groups, prior to the signing of a letter that supported the decision.

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott has received support from 40 Australian government officials on the issue - leaving Australian Muslims "numbed by the progress and speed of the government" on national security laws, according to Ihram.

"Some members of [the] Muslim community [in Australia] could end up like Rohingya - stateless...we could be the next lot shipped over to Cambodia," she said.

Amanda Vanstone, a former immigration minister, also criticized Canberra's growing inclination to deprive citizenship to suspected terrorists.

But Prime Minister Tony Abbott said stricter controls are necessary to protect Australia from those trying "to destroy us." He has said Australian nationals without dual citizenship could also lose their rights, including second-generation migrants, if they are eligible for passports from another country.

Australia is still pursuing the capture of a convicted terrorist, Khaled Sharrouf, who managed to pull his family into the war in Syria in 2013. In 2014, Sharrouf, a Sydney-based criminal of Lebanese descent, posted a photograph online showing his seven-year-old son holding up a severed head in Syria.

Sharrouf's wife, Tara Nettleton, said she wants to leave Syria and return to Australia with her five children.

Greg Barton, an analyst at Monash University in Australia, said Nettleton could face serious charges of supporting terrorism if she returns home.

"If she were to come back she would certainly face prosecution and time in jail," he said.