A growing drug scandal is swirling around young female Muslim leader Iktimal Hage-Ali. Last month, the 22-year-old was arrested, questioned and released by the NSW Middle Eastern Organised Crime Squad detectives investigating an alleged cocaine supply ring.

The Australian reports that she has now relinquished her 2006 NSW Young Australian of the Year title, which she has held for a very short time.

Hage-Ali has a major public profile as a Muslim leader and as a member of the Federal Government’s Muslim Community Reference Group. She is employed by the NSW Attorney-General’s Department.

Hage-Ali has just started an official blog called “It’s My Country Too” at news.com.au. Muslim leader Waleed Aly wrote in The Australian (before this scandal broke): “Many Australian Muslims are negotiating their identities. Some – probably most – will adopt the Hage-Ali model.”

Premier Iemma preemptively said she could be stripped of her title if found to have been involved in “wrongdoing” and that her employment position at A-Gs (she has taken leave) was being “reviewed”. News.com.au says that her blog is being reviewed. Yesterday, the blog stated “Sorry, this blog is currently not available.” Today it has disappeared. She has been boned.

At first, Hage-Ali strongly denied any wrongdoing. Now she admits she had “some involvement” with the men who have been charged in relation to the drug raid. The Australian also says that “it is understood that she admitted to police that she had purchased a small amount of cocaine for personal use on a number of occasions”.

If these admissions have been made to police, the question should be asked of the Federal and NSW governments: how it is that a coke user can get so high so quickly (so to speak).

Have we been blinded by political correctness? Has it been more important to promote an attractive, young, female Muslim at all costs? Were proper police enquiries made of her background and, in particular, of her association with criminal elements in Sydney? Does she have Muslim gang associates?

Maybe a better blog title would be “It’s my cocaine too”.

She has not denied cocaine use, and it now appears that she was arrested with a 17 year old male who cannot be named because he is a minor, but was linked to a gang related murder.

what qualities does Ms Ali have that make her a fit and proper person to be a role model for Muslims?

Regrets? I’ve had a few
By Luke McIlveen and Kara Lawrence

December 15, 2006 12:00

CONTROVERSIAL Muslim role model Iktimal Hage-Ali is allegedly a cocaine user arrested in the same raid as a youth linked to the killer of schoolboy Edward Lee.

The youth – who appeared in Parramatta Children’s Court yesterday charged with drug supply – was caught at the same time Ms Hage-Ali was arrested by Strike Force Kirban on November 22.

Ms Hage-Ali, 22, handed back her NSW Young Australian of the Year award yesterday and last night admitted: “I have made poor judgments and I have made some mistakes and I regret it.”

The Daily Telegraph this week exposed details of her arrest in the cocaine raid.

A covert police investigation allegedly established that Ms Hage-Ali was a cocaine user.

The juvenile and two adult males, Mohammed Fahda, 23, and Khoder Katrib, 22, are accused of supplying drugs. The 17-year-old from Telopea St, Punchbowl, cannot be named for legal reasons.

He appeared briefly in court yesterday and has not entered a plea to one charge of supplying a prohibited drug.

He is linked to a man convicted of killing schoolboy Edward Lee in Telopea St in 1998.

Mr Lee was stabbed to death by Mustapha Dib during a brawl between Asian and Lebanese gangs. Dib was convicted of manslaughter.

Ms Hage-Ali was not charged after the cocaine bust. She initially denied the claims, but agreed to relinquish her award yesterday.

“It is with a heavy heart that I relinquish this award and I sincerely thank the organisers and the people who have supported me,” she said.

“I do not want circumstances that affect me to diminish the status of the award or the fine reputation of people who work hard to make this award what it is.”

As Ms Hage-Ali dropped out of the Australia Day honours process, more details of her acquaintances came to light.

When reporters attended Ms Hage-Ali’s Punchbowl home for comment this week, a black Porsche bearing the number plate “FE1ONY” pulled up at the house.

An unidentified man began threatening reporters with violence if they did not leave.

The Daily Telegraph has established the Porsche belongs to a man who is well-known to police.

The men charged in the raids will appear at a bail hearing in Bankstown Local Court on Monday.

All I said was that as a community we have to support each other – that is not the same as stick by them – in the sense that we need to admit that these elements exist and move on – from those with mysognistic and sexist opinions, to those “leaders” who do not represent anyone but themselves, to people who drink alcohol, to those who use and abuse drugs; in that respect we are really no different to any other community. They are still part of the Muslim, Lebanese, whatever community that exists around Sydney and elsewhere.

If you had read any of my coments on this and other blogs which I frequent, you would see that I am hardly the type to be “sticking by” any of these people. But this does not change the fact that whatever personal tragedies these people have between themselves and the media affects all of us Muslims at some level. It increases the levels of animosity and “otherness” towards us, especially those who are clearly of Arab/Mediterranean background, and others.

Let these people defend themselves. I dam care if other people do worse, I don’t want to stand with them either. Why don’t you write saying that Muslims who themselves seek the media spotlight should be expected to clean up personal problems.

This woman chose to lie in bed with the media so I’m not sure what role I have in mothering her after a drug arrest.

The media seems to be an increasingly fickle business. I would not wish this on my worst enemy, and it seems that those who negotiate a path with the media do so at their own peril…

I think that about sums it up. Even if the allegations are not true, they have torn her to shreds already.