Sydney, Australia - Australia's Muslims gathered on Friday for prayers at mosques around the country under a suspicious spotlight yet again after another radical cleric inflamed tensions with his extremist views.
The widening gulf between Australia's small, mainly Sunni, Muslim community of some 280,000 people, and the rest of the country is leaving many Muslims feeling under siege and young Muslims trapped between two cultures -- Islam and Australia.
Friday newspaper headlines read "Jihad sheik" and "Crazy sheik's DVD of hate" after news that Sheik Feiz Mohammed, head of the Global Islamic Youth Center in Sydney, had called for child martyrs for Islam in a series of DVDs called the "Death Series."
Muslims arriving on foot under a blazing hot sun at Sydney's Lakemba mosque look nervously at a Reuters television crew, scared by previous encounters with local media they believe portray Islam and Muslims as evil.
"I'm Australian, I was born here, this is the only country I know. We will defend this country against anyone," one angry Muslim says in publicly declaring his patriotism for Australia.
Suspicion, misunderstanding and ignorance lie at the heart of the widening gulf between Muslim and non-Muslim Australians. The war on terror and nightly television news reports of death and mayhem in Baghdad only exacerbate the tensions.
"There is still an element of fear out there," says Keysar Trad, spokesman for the Islamic Friendship Association of Australia, and one of the faces of Islam in Australia.
"I have had people put the head of a pig on my car and pigs' trotters (feet) in the letterbox. I have had hate mail," says Trad, who came to Australia with his family from Lebanon in 1976.
Trad says that when he arrived as a boy, Australia was a very conservative and Christian nation, and he was forced to hide his Islamic faith. Religious prejudice then was based on ignorance, unlike today when Muslims live under the shadow of terrorism.
"A lot of people do not view Islam as modern or civilized," he explains. "Today, Australia is less Christian, but less tolerant of Islam. Buddhism is more readily accepted because people see it as a force for peace and spirituality."
SIEGE MENTALITY
Like many migrants in Sydney, Muslims have grouped together for support, living in a handful of southwestern suburbs. One is nicknamed "Little Lebanon" due to the proliferation of Arabic signs and Muslim women shoppers in hijabs and scarfs.
But this limited interaction between a small community and the rest of Australia has seen them categorized simply as Muslims, no matter where they were born. No other ethnic group, such as Vietnamese or Greek, is grouped by religion.
Yet the steps of Lakemba mosque during prayers present an image of young, multicultural Australia -- boys and young men in baseball caps, boardshorts and rubber thong sandals.
Very few wear skull caps and traditional Muslim long shirts and pants or sport long beards. Yet they stand facing Mecca in a distant land most have never seen except on television.
Many were born in Australia, and while many others come from the Middle East, there are many too from Malaysia and Indonesia.
The Friday sermon is about Islamic family values and is aimed squarely at these boys and young men. Anti-Muslim sentiment has been inflamed not only by the war on terror and radical clerics, but also young Lebanese Muslim gangs which clash with police.
Many young Australian Muslims are struggling to find an identity.
At home they are told by parents to adhere to their Islamic faith and way of life, but out on the street it brands them as un-Australian by many ignorant of Islam and fearful of terrorism.
"Many young Muslims are torn between two cultures," says 20-year-old Suheil Damouny, a blond-haired Muslim who arrived with his family from the United Arab Emirates in 1999.
"If you feel deeply about your faith, for a Muslim that is your identity, not your country. But Australian culture is not religious-based," Damouny told Reuters after Friday prayers.
Struggling to find an identity, some have formed street gangs which clash with police over street drag racing and drugs, exacerbating Islam's negative image in Australia.
"So many of them see themselves as outcasts in society. Until authorities catch up with them they will destroy lives and damage the image of Islam," says Trad.