Australia’s anti-terror programs failing to stop extremists

DERADICALISATION programs in schools, sport and social clubs have largely failed to sway the “polluted” views of extremists. And authorities fear the threat will only get worse.

DERADICALISATION programs in schools, sport and social clubs have largely failed to sway extremists’ “polluted” views with authorities now receiving 400 hits a week on an online support service to report and combat violent views.

And authorities fear returning foreign fighters could further inflame extremist anti-West sentiments to launch lone-wolf low tech public assaults.

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NSW Counter Terrorism Minister David Elliott has told News Corp Australia that the nation’s most respected imams were also struggling to alter perverse views held by some youths of the Islamic faith and what was keeping him up at night were those in our midst plotting harm.

Mr Elliott said the Step Together phone and online service — designed to help people who may suspect a loved one was heading down the path of extremism — is receiving 400 online hits a week with people, some anonymous, expressing concern about a colleague or family member. Its phone version only received two calls a week and is to be reviewed.

The minister conceded nobody could look into someone else’s mind.

“My view is if Step Together call line saves one life and stops us from one radicalisation leading to a terrorist attack then it’s paid for itself,” he said.

“But that is the great challenge. We have no long lasting case studies or certainly reportable case studies that have proved deradicalisation has worked and even if it has worked the thing that keeps me up at night is I don’t know if they have truly deradicalised. Even if they say all the right things to the parole authorities, say all the right things to the intelligence agencies and the police force, people have faked conversions before, faked their views before to seek gain to seek freedom and nobody can look into a man’s eyes and see if he is telling the truth about his faith.”

EARLY INTERVENTION IS KEY

He said he worked closely with some Muslim community leaders to ensure they had what they needed to present a moderate interpretation of the Islamic scriptures particularly to those with extreme views.

“My work with the imams is at the beginning of the extremists’ journey and it is diversionary work and they are doing that with football clubs, juvenile justice and schools and community groups but at the back end I can’t sugar coat it. Even the imams say to me even by the time they’re radicalised and they finish a prison sentence there is very little the imams can do.”

He said the Continued Detention Orders and Extended Supervision Orders for those released from jail was the last line of defence but had gone as far as they could go. Such has been their successful national adoption though, the program to deal with current or former prisoners is being formally reviewed by authorities in Britain and elsewhere in Europe where hundreds of convicted terrorists are due to be released from prison

In the next 18 months 200 jihadist inmates who formed the first wave of more than 12,000 European foreign fighters that had streamed to Syria and Iraq to join ISIS and al-Qaeda are due to be released from jail with no evidence they had reformed. France and Belgium which have borne the brunt of attacks in recent years are alone to release 57 and 80 terror-related inmates respectively.

“That’s reassuring for me that we are doing something that is setting a European standard but that’s not the reason why we introduced these policies we did to keep the community safe and secure,” Mr Elliott said, confirming he was in talks with British ministerial counterparts and overseas intelligence agencies since imposing CDO and ESO prisoner policies.