New Australian Muslim Party hopes to contest next election
Australian Muslims have come together and launched a political party with a motive of winning a senate seat at the coming Federal election. The party named as The Australian Muslim Party is headed by Diaa Mohamed from Western Sydney.
Mohamed, who defended the timing of the launch of his party in the wake Paris attacks, said that there couldn’t have been a more critical timing, adding that he and the members almost called off the launch at this moment.
He further said that enough thought was given to this fact and then decided that any time was as good as the other to launch the party.
Mohamed, who is a 34-year-old businessman, has been quite confident enough of acquiring at least 500 members, which is a mandatory requirement for registering in the Senate ballot paper, ABC reports.
In a bid to provide Muslims of the country a stage to voice their opinions in the public debate, the party was at the national level. "Maybe it is because we didn't know how, or we were a bit too fragmented, so hopefully this will at least give us that opportunity," Mohamed said.
Mohamed also conveyed that the formation of the Australian Muslim Party could be seen as a response to the increasing political activism against Islam and the six anti-Islam parties that have expressed to stand for election next year. "Four or five anti-Islamic parties are being created and we thought we need to do something to address that," he said.
Citing the horrific incidents in Paris and Beirut that took place last Friday, he said he would never accept any justification for such heinous behaviour and his party would never support any military deployment in any Muslim country as a response to terrorism. "I don't think Islam is at war with the West but Islamic countries have been at war for many, many years," he was quoted by Sydney Morning Herald as saying.
The party has also expressed support and praised the government for accepting as many as 12,000 Syrian refugees, referring it as the "most humane thing to do” in such a crisis.
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