MARCH: Ikebal Patel was appointed as president of the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils in February last year.

His time as leader of the umbrella body of Islamic groups in Australia came to an end over the weekend when six of the seven state member councils present supported a vote of no confidence in the Fijian migrant.

In May 2006 as the then-treasurer of AFIC, he spoke out about problems of internal mismanagement within the organisation.

Vice president of the federation Hafez Malas says Ikebal Patel was removed from his position because of problems with his leadership style.

MALAS: we stood beside him and supported him in 2006, until he became the office then he changed and started to do things differently as any other people might do.

MARCH: How has his behaviour changed?

MALAS: Well he started to do jobs for the boys.

MARCH: Ikebal Patel has been replaced by Haset Sali, a Queensland lawyer, who attracted attention last year when he compared the actions of controversial former mufti of Australia Taj Din al Hilal to those of Adolf Hitler.

Reports have labelled Haset Sali as more moderate than his predecessor.

But Sydney-based writer on muslim issues Irfan Yusuf says the change in AFIC's leadership will have little effect on muslim communities in Australia.

He says federation members are out of touch with those they claim to represent.

YUSUF: It's dominated by middle aged migrant males - first generation migrant males - many of whom have poor english skills who many of whom don't understand mainstream Australian life very well. And again it's a problem of representation: they don't really reflect the reality of muslims, at least 50% of whom are female, most of whom are brought up in Australia and are under the age of 30.

MARCH: He says another problem is that the organisation only represents religious institutions.

YUSUF: Muslims by and large are fairly sort of, you know, like the rest of the population, they are fairly secular - some of them are interested in religion, some of them are not.

MARCH: Despite it's apparent narrow representation, the federation is also an advisory body to state and federal governments.

But Irfan Yusuf says that doesn't matter.

YUSUF: I think governments tend to talk to AFIC because they have to be seen to be talking to AFIC, but I think they know quite well that this is an organisation that has had its day and it's really irrelevant, largely.

MARCH: AFIC also manages over $50 million of assets, mostly land housing Muslim schools.

But Irfan Yusuf says muslim communities see little benefit from the money earned by AFIC in the form of grassroots community projects.

YUSUF: A lot of AFIC's money has gone into litigating, a lot of their litigation is pretty much intra council litigation - they have tried to kick out state councils and introduce new ones and then kick them out , then they have to go to court - so I guess really the people who are benefiting the most from AFIC are the private legal profession, so I guess for he sake of those for those lawyers I think AFIC should continue to exist, because otherwise I guess those lawyers would be out of a job.

MARCH: He says there is not much the group can do to save it's reputation.

YUSUF: I guess there is really not much AFIC can do I think it's pretty much a rotting carcass and perhaps the best thing that can happen is that it is buried.

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