Muslim parents are terrified their young sons will become unwitting victims of radicalisation "paranoia", an Islamic chaplain has revealed just hours after the federal government announced plans to target children as young as 14-years-old with new counter-terrorism laws.
On Monday night's Q&A, school chaplain Sheikh Wesam Charkawi said he was often begged by Muslim families to prevent their sons from uttering red flag phrases that could link them to Islamic extremism.
"I come across families all the time, mothers, fathers, where they tell me 'please make sure my son doesn't say the word 'ISIS', the word 'terrorism', or 'extremism'. They have so much fear," Mr Charkawi said.
"Mind you, this child doesn't have any inclination whatsoever but there's such a fear at the moment. When they go to a school, they are under such scrutiny.
"You can literally be a young Muslim boy and say the word ISIS and end up in the principal's office and led away in handcuffs. Society is very paranoid," he said.
Mr Charkawi said his job was to provide a safe space for young people to "air their grievances" without fearing they could be hauled away in handcuffs.
His comments came the same night Attorney-General George Brandis announced the Turnbull government would introduce legislation to Parliament that would seek to lower the age threshold for control orders from 16 to 14 under an overhaul of anti-terrorism laws.
The change would mean terrorism suspects as young as 14 would be subject to control orders that restricted their movements and activities.
The move follows the murder of police accountant Curtis Cheng by 15-year-old Farhad Jabar outside police headquarters in Parramatta earlier this month.
"The one message that I advocate to these children is that violence is never the answer," Mr Charkawi said.
"I mean, they see injustice in the world and they see inequality in the world, and we all see it, but violence is never the way," he said.
In July NSW Premier Mike Baird announced a state-wide audit of student prayer groups and urged school staff to contact a dedicated hotline if they suspected extremist behaviour among students following allegations a teenager at Epping Boys High School was spouting extremist views.
Mr Charkawi congratulated Mr Turnbull on his call for calm immediately after the attack, while seeming to criticise former Prime Minster Tony Abbott's response to the Lindt Cafe siege late last year.
"When somebody like the Prime Minister comes out and says, 'You know, we shouldn't discriminate and so on and so forth', and speaks about respect, that makes my job far more easy and effective'," Mr Charkawi said.
"When you look at the opposite of that, when you have somebody who says 'We want Muslims to talk about peace and mean it', it's very, very hurtful and it makes my job far more difficult and these are the differences," he said.
During his national security statement in February, then Prime Minister Abbott said he wished more Muslim leaders would speak of peace and "mean it".
