Andrew Bolt: Don’t pretend there’s no link between refugees and terrorism
ASIO boss Duncan Lewis should tell us the truth about refugees and terrorism, or shut up. The danger is too great for our top spy to pretend there’s no link, writes Andrew Bolt.
Andrew Bolt
Don't miss out on the headlines from Andrew Bolt. Followed categories will be added to My News.
- Britain’s fight within a warning to Australia
- Bloody links between Islam and violence
- It’s time to end this lie about Islam
ASIO boss Duncan Lewis should tell us the truth about refugees and terrorism, or shut up. The danger is too great for our top spy to pretend there’s no link.
Last Friday, Lewis was asked by One Nation leader Pauline Hanson at a Senate committee hearing whether more refugees meant more risk of terrorism.
Lewis seemed too eager to smack down Hanson because his response was bizarre: “I have absolutely no evidence to suggest there is a connection between refugees and terrorism.”
Twitter instantly lit up in mockery of Hanson, and Sydney Morning Herald political writer Mark Kenny gloated that “the spymaster’s testimony was a hammer blow to Hanson’s prejudice”.
Her “racism” had been smacked down by “an evidence-based exemplar of frank and fearless advice”.
Except the opposite was true. Hanson was right and the ASIO boss astonishingly wrong.
No link between refugees and Islamic terrorism?
How could Lewis have said that just two days after the NSW coroner reported on the death of two hostages in the Lindt cafe siege, staged by Iranian refugee Man Monis?
How could he say something so obviously false only five days after the son of Libyan refugees blew up 22 people at a pop concert in Manchester?
And what of all the other terrorism by refugees Lewis ignored?
Farhad Jabar, who murdered Sydney police accountant Curtis Cheng, was an Iraqi-Kurdish refugee.
Numan Haider, who stabbed two police in Melbourne, was an Afghan refugee.
Mohammad Ali Baryalei, a top recruiter in Australia for the Islamic State, was an Afghan refugee.
Saney Edow Aweys, jailed for his role in a plot to attack the Holsworthy Army base, is a Somali refugee.
In fact, ASIO, itself, warned the Turnbull government that at least 30 refugees trying to get here from Iraq and Syria since early last year were on its terrorism watchlist.
More refugees were red-flagged by other intelligence agencies.
ASIO acts as if there’s a link between Muslim refugees and terrorism, so why did Lewis claim there wasn’t?
That link is not even a new phenomenon.
Two-thirds of terrorists jailed here are from Muslim-Lebanese families, many initially allowed in under a concession by the Fraser government, which treated them as refugees fleeing a civil war.
Scores of children of Lebanese families are now among the more than 200 Australians who have fought and died for jihadist groups in Syria and Iraq.
It is the same in Europe. Refugees and asylum seekers have taken part in terrorist attacks in Paris, Ansbach and on a German train.
Lewis has so far declined media requests to explain why he said something that appears so false, but if the ASIO chief truly doesn’t know of any links between refugees and terrorism, then he must be sacked, instantly, for being asleep at the wheel.
But I suspect he was just uttering the elites’ conventional sweet untruths about the real danger, to allegedly stop Australians from being “racist”, and to stop Muslims and refugees from feeling so picked on that some would indeed prove dangerous.
In fact, two years ago, Lewis privately told Coalition politicians to stop criticising Islam for fear of a “backlash”.
Incredibly, he publicly added: “I think it’s blasphemous to the extent I can comment on someone else’s religion.”
“Blasphemous” to even comment on Islam? Islamists say the very same thing as our ASIO boss.
Lewis, far from criticising Islam, defended it with another claim contradicted by evidence: “I don’t buy the notion the issue of Islamic extremism is in some way fostered or sponsored or supported by the Muslim religion.”
We’ve heard this same untruth repeated by politicians, church leaders and the media, all claiming there’s no link between Islam and terrorism.
Yet last week, even Muslim Labor MP and anti-terrorism academic, Anne Aly, to her credit, confirmed that was untrue: “There are certainly parts of the religion that do justify or that can be used, that are easily manipulated to justify violence.”
That’s why IS and other terrorist groups quote passages from the Koran to justify their attacks. It’s why they shout “Allahu Akbar” — Allah is the greatest — as they kill.
Lewis’s spin can’t be excused.
It makes voters (rightly) feel they can’t trust authorities to tell the truth about Islam, refugees and terrorism.
It also encourages a wilful denialism among the elites that stops us from protecting ourselves properly by say, banning immigration from some Muslim countries.
Lewis owes it to Hanson — and us all — to admit he was wrong.
There is a link between refugees and terrorism, and we must address it before more Australians get hurt.
Lockdown will kill Victorians — but not from coronavirus
Politicians are destroying Australia — throwing a million people out of work, causing suicides — because they’ve fallen for two great weaknesses, both of which will extend crippling lockdowns much longer than necessary, writes Andrew Bolt.
Record day proves crude bans on freedom don’t work
Victoria’s new record of 725 infections is more evidence that the government’s hard line policies on masks and lockdowns aren’t working as planned, writes Andrew Bolt.