A fundamentalist Islamic group is using the image of children to promote an upcoming conference in Melbourne, Australia.
According to News.com Australia, a 5-year-old child featured in flyers is touted as the youngest Daee or reciter of the Koran, the Muslim Holy Book. The boy will also be a speaker during the event.
The Daee's image, together with 7 other children, is used by the Islamic Research and Educational Academy (IREA) to promote the upcoming Australian Islamic Peace Conference to be held at the Melbourne Convention Centre.
Other speakers at the event include Sheik Isa Graham, who regularly addresses the Hume Islamic Youth Centre (HIYC).
The HIYC is accused of being a means to recruit jihadists, The Australian reported. Australian suicide bomber Jake Bilardi, who died during an attack on the city of Ramadi near Baghdad in Iraq, allegedly attended the centre regularly before he was radicalised.
At least three other teenage militants in the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria were reportedly visitors to the centre or were fans of its leading sheiks.
The conference faced criticism after previous IREA engagements featured Islamic speakers known for their anti-Semitic and pro-jihadist stances, The Australian said.
However, the IREA defended the conference, telling The Australian that their goal is not to promote jihad but to "increase Muslim and non-Muslim understanding and awareness through interfaith dialogues."
The group extended invitations to "members of the community who may have misgivings or misunderstandings about the teaching of Islam."
It is not the first time the conference has courted controversy. The 2013 Peace Conference organised by the IREA was to feature Abdul Rahman al-Sudays, a Saudi cleric that had once called on Muslims to eliminate Jews, and a doctor who said "every Muslim should be a terrorist." Both the Saudi cleric and the doctor were unable to attend the 2013 event.
