A threat too close to home

In early 2014, Julie Bishop warned of the dangers of radicalised Australians fighting with Islamic State in the Middle East “learning the terrorist trade, and if they come back to Australia of course it poses a security threat”. The Foreign Minister’s words are even more pertinent now given the possibility of Australian jihadis venturing to the southern Philippines, drawn by Islamic State, which captured the city of Marawi in May and has held it since. The Turnbull government is alarmed, rightly, at the prospect of Mindanao becoming a magnet for jihadis as the war in Syria grinds down.

The proximity of the battle zone to our shores is alarming. So is the footage of a man and a woman (who later was hospitalised) each receiving 100 lashes after being convicted of adultery by a sharia court in the Indonesian province of Aceh. Such brutality on our doorstep is a reminder that Australia must never be complacent about intelligence and border security or sugar-coat the cruel realities of radical political Islamism.

The threat it poses will not abate for many years, if not decades. It must be confronted in a multitude of ways, here and abroad. Australia’s counter-terror and security forces are fighting a vital battle, as Paul Maley reports today, in preventing Australian jihadis from joining conflict zones abroad. Doing so is tantamount to preventing the same jihadis, combat hardened, returning to Australia in several months or years to unleash terror on innocent Australians.

Three weeks ago, an English language video — the fourth in three months from Islamic State in Marawi — appealed to Muslims across Southeast Asia to join the fight against “the ­defenders of the cross”, the US and its “regional guard dog Australia”. The video showed militants destroying churches, a crucifix, statues of Mary, the mother of Jesus, and pictures of Pope Francis — despite his conciliatory and naive comments about Islamic terror and his support for open borders.

Australia’s military assistance to The Philippines should be matched by nations across our region with the same strategic interest in quashing the so-called Marawi “caliphate”. Check by check on passengers possibly headed for this and other conflict zones, Australians are indebted to the skill and thoroughness of our security services. The fact a dozen people have been stopped at airports in two months shows they’re doing their job well.