Gaza conflict adding to risks around domestic terrorism

Two stabbing incidents have shown the need for greater resourcing in community mental health support.

A teenage attacks Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel, stabbing him multiple times.

The Israel-Palestine conflict has been the best advertisement money can buy for extremist organisations, one of the nation’s top terrorism experts says, as the nation tries to understand why 16-year-old boys on opposite sides of the country allegedly took up knives and attempted to kill in the name of Islamic extremism.

The self-described jihadi responsible for Saturday night’s stabbing in the Perth suburb of Willetton was almost certainly encouraged in the actions that ended up costing him his life, either online or in person.

Greg Barton, an international expert on terrorism and extremism and the chair in global Islamic politics at Deakin University’s Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation, and Lise Waldeck, a senior lecturer at Macquarie University’s Department of Security Studies and Criminology who has worked for the UK Defence Ministry, told The Weekend Australian those behind terror attacks were almost invariably radicalised through social connections.

James Hollands, a 16-year-old student at Perth’s prestigious Rossmoyne Senior High School, was shot dead by police shortly after he stabbed a random passer-by in a Willetton carpark. He had earlier texted to friends and associates, telling them he was “going in the path of jihad tonight” and warning them to clear their devices of any sensitive material.

The scene of a crime in Perth's south after police shot dead a teenager who stabbed a member of the public. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Philip Gostelow

The incident came just weeks after another 16-year-old boy allegedly stabbed Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel at the Christ the Good Shepherd Church in the Sydney suburb of Wakeley.

Professor Barton said the attacks coincided with both Islamic State and al-Qa’ida showing signs of building strength.

At the same time, the conflict in Gaza was helping to grab the attention of susceptible youth.

Australian security expert Greg Barton Picture: Intercultural Org.

“If terrorist groups were trying to pay for an advertising budget, they couldn’t ever conceivably imagine any better way of getting … public attention to a tragic situation they can play to their advantage … they’re going to try and exploit that as best they can,” he said. “What’s happened over the last few weeks in Sydney and Perth may just be a coincidence, but in terms of planning, we need to assume it’s probably going to get more challenging, not less.”

While WA police have repeatedly said they are confident Hollands was acting alone, Professor Barton said he would be “extraordinarily surprised” if there was no one else who contributed to the boy’s descent to terrorism.

He had been involved in a deradicalisation program for the two years before his death, and his final text urged his “brothers” not to forget him or the mujahideen.