Rita Panahi: When is a terrorist attack not a terrorist attack?

A radicalised teen assailant who stabbed a man in a Bunnings carpark in Perth’s south made his intentions and motivations crystal clear, so why are authorities baulking at calling a spade a spade?

When is a terrorist attack not a terrorist attack? The stabbing of a man in a Bunnings carpark in Perth’s south has all the hallmarks of a terror incident but authorities are reluctant to classify it as such.

The radicalised teen assailant – who was shot dead after threatening police with a large kitchen knife – was clear in stating why he was committing a violent act.

“Brothers please forgive me for any time I have wronged you, I am going on the path of jihad tonight for the sake of Allah,” wrote the 16-year-old Muslim convert.

“I am a soldier of the mujahideen of al-Qaeda and take responsibility for the actions that will … take place. Please don’t forget me and the mujahideen in your duat (afterlife).”

The stabbing of a man in a Bunnings carpark in Perth’s south has all the hallmarks of a terror incident. Picture: 7News

There you have it. The teenager made his intentions and motivations crystal clear and yet authorities, including the WA Police Commissioner Col Blanch, are baulking at calling a spade a spade.

“The motivation immediately prior to the attack is still under investigation,” Blanch said.

Is it because they don’t want to alarm the Australian public or have them ask uncomfortable questions given we had a stabbing allegedly by another radicalised Muslim teenager in Sydney just three weeks ago?

In the aftermath of the alleged terror incident at the Assyrian Christ the Good Shepherd church in Wakeley there were counter-terror raids across a number of Sydney suburbs with seven teenagers arrested.

Of course, the courts will decide if he’s guilty of the crime or not.

Predictably, some in the Muslim community claimed NSW police were too hasty to label the Wakeley attack terror-related.

In the aftermath of the alleged terror incident at the Assyrian Christ the Good Shepherd church in Wakeley there were counter-terror raids across Sydney suburbs.

Even more predictably, we had the usual cries of Islamophobia, as we do every time an incident like this occurs.

Perhaps it was with that in mind that Blanch gave this curious justification for obfuscating when clarity was required.

“You can say it is a terrorist act, I’m saying I don’t need to declare it an incident because I don’t need additional powers,” he said.

The teenager responsible for the Perth attack had been in a deradicalisation program for two years and there are reports he had mental health issues.

But being a terrorist and mentally ill are not mutually exclusive. Indeed, one could argue that every jihadist is mentally ill.

Rita Panahi is a Herald Sun columnist