Complacency exposes the fragility of democracy

It is delusional to think Islamist extremism is behind us. The much derided ‘clash of civilisations’ remains a central challenge for Western countries.

A pro-Palestinian demonstration in Sydney on October 29. Picture: NCA Newswire/Monique Harmer

The fragility of our democracy, of our society, is exposed. Our hubris about multicultural success and new world tolerance has led to ugly manifestations of age-old division.

It is delusional to think Islamist extremism (which has created domestic terror threats along with political and social tensions since 9/11) is behind us. The much derided “clash of civilisations” remains a central challenge for Western countries.

We have been complacent; extremism still lurks in our suburbs and it is animated by events in the Middle East, which is part of the reason groups such as Hamas commit barbaric acts. They seek to inspire Islamist terrorists worldwide. We should be alarmed, and alert.

We have not had a moment of national shame comparable to Monday, October 9 – when crowds chanted “Gas the Jews” and “F..k the Jews” on the forecourt of the Sydney Opera House while police stood by and watched, having warned off the Jewish community.

An event to show solidarity with Israel by lighting up the Opera House, two days after more than 1200 innocent lives were taken in an unspeakable Hamas atrocity, instead was gifted by our authorities as a platform for those celebrating the atrocity and denouncing the victims.

This episode turned our national values upside down. It set the tone for what followed, emboldening supporters of Hamas and undermining the security of Jewish Australians.

It is telling that apart from those chants against the Jews and “Allahu Akbar” the Opera House crowd also chanted “Shame, shame, Australia.” Here is a nation divided, even hated from within.

This was far worse than the infamous Cronulla riots of 2005 which, while occurring along similar ethno-religious fault lines, related more to teenage disagreements about beach behaviour and perceived territorial rights. Violent and unforgivable, those riots fell short of celebrating terrorist atrocities or inciting murder and they were strongly policed, with hundreds of arrests.

Since the Opera House obscenity, we have seen so-called pro-Palestinian protests target Jewish neighbourhoods in Melbourne and Sydney – vile attempts by one group of Australians to intimidate and frighten another. There has been violence against Jewish Australians, hateful graffiti, death threats and even a jumping castle hire company refusing to deal with a Jewish school, rejecting its “blood money” for a “Zionist booking”.

Anti-Israel protesters are roping in schoolchildren, our media is saturated with biased and incorrect slights against Israel. Leading members of the Palestinian community have refused to condemn Hamas. Anger is being fomented. Police and security agencies largely seem to be spectators as hate speech and provocative actions unsettle the broader population and strike fear into the hearts of Jewish Australians.

It is difficult to comprehend how our fellow citizens can resist condemnation of an extremist Islamist terror group while it still holds more than 200 hostages. We have to reconcile our fellow citizens tearing down posters that name those hostages and seek to keep a public focus on their fate – imagine trying to cancel innocent Israeli victims whose lives remain in the balance.

This is the worst schism in our national history, an ugly reality a long time in the making that tarnishes the ideal of Australia. Many of our institutional and political leaders are letting us down by looking for an easy path and failing to understand that weakness is provocative.

The most blatant mistake came from the NSW police. Their shameful handling of that October 9 protest set the tone. Police feared resistance from the protesters so let them have the run of the city, celebrating an unimaginable atrocity and chanting for more bloodshed, while the Australian Jewish community was warned to stay away and two men with Israel flags were forcibly removed. Since that moment of official cowardice, Jewish Australians have felt imperilled in their own country.

It is worth remembering that for three Covid-crazy years these same police were heavy-handed, arresting people for walking in the park, straying too far from home or protesting for basic liberties. So, governments and police will muscle up to impose inane laws on harmless individuals but cower from bullies preaching hate and threatening violence. Such weakness from authorities can only enfeeble our society.

The federal government has not been much better. Anthony Albanese has been consumed by “whataboutism”, seemingly incapable of calling out the horrific violence and evil intent of Hamas without finding an equivalent provocation from Israel.

“I make no apologies for standing up against anti-Semitism, and I will do it unequivocally as someone who led a campaign against a council in my own electorate, against the BDS campaign, two decades ago, I think. I have a track record on this and I’m proud of it,” the Prime Minister told parliament this week.

“But I also have a track record of standing up for the rights of and justice for Palestinian people, I make no apologies for being a consistent supporter of a two-state solution.”

That might have been an acceptable line if Israel had sent its soldiers into Gaza to slaughter children, rape and murder the women, torture and murder the men and take a few hundred hostages. That might have been an acceptable equivalence if Israel had spent years firing rockets indiscriminately into Gaza trying to kill civilians.

But none of this, of course, is remotely true or likely. Islamist terrorism needs to be called out for the evil it is, rather than gentrified by using it to amplify the political causes it uses. Islamist extremists in Gaza, Iran, Indonesia, Afghanistan and elsewhere will be delighted by the response of the political left in Western countries. Think of the grotesque strategy that works for them; they slaughter Israelis to agitate the political left against Israel.

“Jewish Australians are fearful at the moment,” Albanese recognised. “The sort of activity that is occurring is scaring them, and I stand with them. No one should threaten people because of their religion or their race in this country.”

Well said. But he did not stop. In the same breath he continued: “But it is also the case that Arab Australians, Islamic Australians and women wearing hijabs in the streets of Sydney and Melbourne are being threatened, and I stand against that as well.”

Really? Our Prime Minister talks up exaggerated or imagined anti-Muslim incidents (which would be deplorable if they were happening). This seems to be an obvious hedge against a Muslim backlash for condemning anti-Semitism. It is invertebrate leadership.

Remember the political left and anti-Western brigade warned about an Islamophobic reaction after 9/11 and it did not happen. They warned of the same after the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Still nothing. After the Bali bombings and the rise of Islamic State, and after domestic terror plots were thwarted, and after the Lindt Cafe siege in Sydney, we always heard the warnings about Islamophobia being on the rise. But this hate fails to materialise.

The Lindt Cafe siege looms large for me, partly because I walked out of that cafe a minute or two before the terrorist locked everyone in, but also because of the “I’ll ride with you” disgrace. A do-gooder convinced the siege would lead to an Islamophobic backlash invented a story about a woman in a hijab being abused on public transport. This prompted a Twitter campaign where people used the “#Illridewithyou” hashtag to demonstrate their virtue.

Images are projected onto the Lindt Cafe building during a ceremony to commemorate the first anniversary of the Lindt Cafe siege at Martin Place in 2015. Picture: AAP

Despite this all being based on a lie, the NSW police set up a taskforce to tackle Islamophobia. And while we had an official response against an imaginary backlash, the innocent hostages were being held at gunpoint by the madman – two never made it home.

We have learned nothing. Instead of working hard with Muslim communities to guard against extremism and encourage tolerance and diversity, we have been complacent. And when extremism re-emerges we blame ourselves for victimising Muslim communities.

We are not alone, of course. This same dynamic plays out in Britain, Europe and the US.

But it is heartbreaking and worrisome because the unique promise of Australia lies shattered. This diverse, robust nation, fashioned almost accidentally as a kind of utopia for all those keen to work and prosper alongside all other comers, has succumbed to imported enmities. We need leadership and a unity of purpose around common values – but we are floundering.

Even with my experience of terrorism here and overseas, from time to time over the past decade I have wondered whether the security at Jewish schools is overdone. No longer. Parents now are worried sick about leaving their children at those schools that could be targeted; some students have stopped wearing identifiable uniforms.

Australian Jews who have lived here for generations now feel vulnerable. I noticed a shopfront sign this week saying, “Life is beautiful”. I wondered if it was a marketing ploy or a way of reassuring the Jewish community.

It brought a crushing realisation that the false bravado, the feigned sense of reassurance at the heart of that film, was not just a Holocaust story. It is an allegory for how Jews must live everywhere, all the time, even here, tragically, and especially now, pretending that the hate does not exist.