‘World asleep at wheel’ as extremism spikes, says top historian Niall Ferguson

The world is waking up to rising anti-Semitism and Islamic extremism after October 7, and all humanity must be alert to the threat, one of the globe’s most respected historians has warned.

Historian Niall Ferguson at the InterContinental Hotel in Sydney ahead of his keynote address on Tuesday at the ARC forum. Picture: NewsWire / Monique Harmer

The world is beginning to wake up to simmering anti-Semitism and rising Islamic extremism after the events of October 7, 2023, and all humanity – not just Jewish people – must be alert to the threat, one of the globe’s most respected historians has warned.

Sir Niall Ferguson on Monday said the West had been “asleep at the wheel” on extremism, alleging police forces had become too focused on policing Islamophobia rather than cracking down on anti-Semitism.

The respected historian is in Australia for the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship conference – a forum co-founded by former deputy prime minister John Anderson and which will bring together some of the country’s most influential conservative voices.

Sir Niall is the star international speaker at the ARC forum in Sydney on Tuesday. The forum will also see former treasurer Peter Costello make his first public remarks since his resignation as chairman of Nine Entertainment.

Mr Costello – who resigned in June after he made physical contact with a reporter from The Australian at Canberra Airport, sending him tumbling to the ground – will give a keynote address on the costs of a “reliance of government”.

Arriving just weeks after Australian streets were taken over by protesters glorifying eliminated Hezbollah terror leader Hassan Nasrallah, Sir Niall told The Australian that extremists had “exploited” the Western world’s tolerance “to pursue their intolerance”.

“We’ve been asleep at the wheel,” he said.

“For much of the last decade there haven’t been many major terrorist attacks, and this has caused people to relax (and believe) that the problem has gone away.

“It hasn’t, and we’re failing to see that if you just ‘wait’ for terrorism, then you’ve left it too late.”

People hold up pictures of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah at a protest in Sydney in early October. Picture: Damian Shaw

Sir Niall said he was not shocked to see the rise of pro-Islamist groups since October 7, but for those who graduated from some of the world’s top universities it was a “big shock” to see campuses dominated by pro-Palestine movements and encampments, including in Australia.

“People who hadn’t really paid attention to their universities since graduating, it was a big shock (to see), and that’s because so much of the change has happened in the relatively recent past,” he said, saying the rise and convergence of extremists was “very alarming”.

“We’ve seen some confluence of familiar threats … the old fascist right, but you’re also dealing with traces of the old Leninist anti-Zionism, which is still alive and kicking in the form of (politicians such as) Jeremy Corbyn.

“But you’ve also got Islamists … whose numbers (in the West) have increased and we haven’t been able to stop Islamist networks from flourishing.”

The Australian has reported on the re-emergence of fringe extremist group Hizb ut-Tahrir domestically, and Sir Niall said multi-fronted threats to society and the Jewish community should concern everyone.

“In the UK, you have a surreal situation where police seem more concerned about policing Islamophobia than anti-Semitism, which I find bizarre,” he said, saying that while free speech was paramount, society should not tolerate the intolerable.

“One of the goals of the conference is to remind people that a free society is not some kind of blank slate that tolerates absolutely everything until there’s a terrorist attack.

“Free society has to have some real foundation, the rule of law (is not) compatible with sharia law, and it (society, rule of law) cannot be compatible with a project to overthrow a society based on equality of sexes.”

The ARC conference will also hear from former Liberal prime ministers John Howard and Tony Abbott, as well as Mr Anderson and Jacinta Nampijinpa Price, and follows its successful launch in London last year.

“The goal (of the ARC) is to build a network of like-minded people who are concerned about the state of our society,” Sir Niall said.

“And it’s not explicitly political. Conservatives and liberals have a common interest in preserving the institutions of a free society, rule of law, free speech and press, representative government – all those things that are common to free societies around the world.”