Spare us the spin, Prime Minister: let’s be honest about true peddlers of extremism

Anthony Albanese on Tuesday, scenes outside the Wakeley church on Monday night. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman / Liam Mendes

In February, ASIO boss Mike Burgess warned that our greatest domestic security threat would come from Islamist extremists.

Now we witness the horrific scenes of a Christian bishop being stabbed several times in his own church in southwest Sydney while delivering a sermon. Thank god the bishop and his brave parishioners kept their lives after the brutal attack.

The assailant reportedly is a 16-year-old whose attack has been declared by the NSW Police as a terrorist act. As a society we will need to understand how this young man was radicalised into a terrorist and how this could happen in Australia, a nation that proudly provides Muslims with peace and opportunity in a tolerant and law-abiding society.

Anthony Albanese and NSW Premier Chris Minns are right to call for calm. But they won’t be able to end the conversation simply by saying “move along now, nothing to see”. We need our political leadership to have an honest and open conversation about Islamic extremism in this country.

Crucially, Labor needs to take a hard look at itself and see whether its own twisted acquiescence and excusing of blatant hate speech have contributed to what we now see in our community.

We know that imams in western Sydney in particular have been caught on video praising jihad and calling for death and violence to what they term infidels.

One imam, investigated by NSW Police, said in reference to the Gaza conflict: “Jihad is the only solution.” He was never charged. A few months ago another cleric, Wissam Haddad, gave a “kill Jews” sermon. Again no charges were laid.

Then, just after the October 7 massacre, we witnessed the national disgrace of pro-Palestinian protesters taking over the Sydney Opera House forecourt, burning flags and chanting anti-Semitic slogans. Whether protesters chanted “Gas the Jews” became a point of contention. After weeks of investigation by NSW Police it was concluded protesters actually chanted “Where are the Jews”, as if this was somehow less egregious or softened the offence. No one was charged.

It’s perhaps little wonder that police – who now appear so compromised and so fearful to offend hate preachers – were unable immediately to quell protests outside the Sydney church on Monday. NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb seems to spend more time trying to recruit spin doctors than she does hunting down hate crime.

We now know the terrorist involved was charged by NSW Police and found guilty of a knife crime just three months ago. He was let off on a good behaviour bond in January. He was known to police but was allowed to attack again.

But Labor appears just as compromised. Labor has been trying to avoid offending Muslim voters and forcing an exodus to the Greens or independents. In doing this, however, it has offended the Jewish community and the rest of us who value democracy and the rule of law.

Meanwhile, in the background, Foreign Minister Penny Wong effectively has endorsed Hamas propaganda, calling for a ceasefire and advocating Palestinian statehood with little thought to the reality on the ground in the Middle East.

Let us also not dismiss Iran’s act of war last weekend. Fortunately for Israel, true friends from the region, alongside the US, France and Britain, repelled that attack with military precision.

Labor wants to pander to the Muslim community and no doubt will congratulate the usual rollcall of Muslim community leaders who are always so quick, after the terrible events, to call for peace.

History shows when politicians and community leaders fail to call out extremism the public see through the obfuscation and empty, post-tragedy gestures. Australians aren’t fools. They need to trust the police will enforce the law and our leaders will stand up to extremism in all its forms.

Let’s be honest: Australia’s Muslim community harbours hate preachers. Through its silence it is allowing young men to be exposed to radicalisation. This cannot go unaddressed. This cannot be a matter of simple political lip service.

Those same community leaders calling for calm during a period of heightened tension know exactly who is calling for jihad in their mosques and youth centres. Yet nothing meaningful or effective seems to have been done. Perhaps they could’ve also listened to the imam calling for jihad who in the same sermon said “the youth is now boiling with emotions and rage”?

Labor has to stop chasing the votes and start standing up for the wider community’s shared values.

Christians, Jews and, yes, Muslims need to feel equally safe in our country. But Labor has been too silent on the threat of Islamic extremism in Australia. We can no longer import prejudice and religious-based violence from elsewhere into Australia. We are a multi-faith, multicultural community that respects the rule of law. Hate preaching, let alone openly teaching jihad and seeking to radicalise young Australian men, must be stamped out once and for all.

Surely now, after all the hand-wringing and dithering, the Prime Minister will finally call out Islamic extremism rather than just call out Islamophobia.