Fr Rob Galea, 26, has been visiting the Mid North Coast in the week following terror attacks in France and Lebanon and delivering the message to young people.

"Very often these days young people have no sense of hope, or even excitement, for the future," Fr Galea said.

"Most young people can't face themselves and that comes from a lack of self-love.

"No matter what they go through as teenagers, hope is stable and it is always possible if they look towards God."

He said the posting of pictures of the French flag "on every landmark across the world" shows hope still binds people together.

"Doing that says 'even though you are in pain, I am standing here with you'," he said.

"That action takes a situation of hopelessness and replaces it with hope."

It is a message echoed by Charles Sturt University's Associate Professor Mehmet Ozalp, who leads the Islamic Studies course.

He migrated to Australia from Turkey in 1984, and in 2000 founded the Affinity Cultural Foundation which focuses on interfaith harmony.

The foundation hosts an annual Iftar dinner in Port Macquarie to promote diversity, which Associate Professor Ozalp last attended on July 4.

"The radicals of all sides expect us to become disunited and lose our strength ," Associate Professor Ozalp said.

"Unity gives us strength, and hope puts us in the circle of positive action."

The 2012 National Muslim Role Model of the Year said there is a dramatic difference between radicals and ordinary people.

"They are destructive and we should be constructive, and being constructive can only come from unity and hope," he said.

He warned against curbing religious freedoms if Islamophobia became mainstream in the community, citing those who say mosques should not be built in Australia.

"We can't stop being a beacon of freedom for the rest of the the world, we have to stand up for our rights and values and the principles that underpin our society.

"We must not let anyone, whether radicals or Islamaphobes, change us."