Jihadis must be tracked or deported or they’ll kill

Three little words stand between Islamic terrorists and Australian innocents: shoot to kill.

After Friday’s terrorist attack in Melbourne, it is clear we need more than words to protect us from the march of international jihad.

We need a moratorium on immigration from Islamist states. We need to deport jihadis and their ­Islamist sympathisers before they attack. And we need to ensure that police are trained to use lethal force as the first, not last, defence against an active terrorist.

The jihadi who killed and maimed Australians on Friday was Hassan Khalif Shire Ali. He was an immigrant from Somalia and, like many terrorists, he had a history of behaviour that alerted security and intelligence agencies.

Australian Federal Police national counter-terrorism manager Ian McCartney said Shire Ali was known to police for his radical views but was not considered a serious threat.

It is a common error to believe that people who hold jihadist views are capable of living peaceful and productive lives in a liberal democratic society. They are not.

For several years, I have written in these pages about the ideological basis of Islamist terrorism. You cannot hope to stop the violence unless you address the belief system that fuels it.

In 2015, Shire Ali’s passport was cancelled when ASIO revealed he had planned to go to Syria. At the time, Islamic State was gaining strength in Syria and Iraq. Back then I warned that Islamic State sympathisers should be deported because you cannot be a law-abiding and productive citizen of Australia if you believe in jihadism.

It is a comprehensive ideology developed by hardline Islamists. The Islamic State playbook, Management of Savagery, reveals the religious basis of jihadism and its central strategic objective to destroy freedom by destabilising nations from within. Jihadist tactics include sowing discord, creating chaos and draining the economic and protective capacity of legitimate states.

Permitting jihadist sympathisers to live in Australia poses a significant risk to our national security, economic stability and future prosperity.

Shire Ali was known to state and national terrorism authorities. Australians are asking why a man so well known to counter-terrorism authorities was allowed to roam free on the streets of Melbourne. If jihadis and their apologists cannot be deported, they should be fitted with GPS trackers to prevent them from manifesting violent ideology.

Many people also are asking about the police response to the Bourke Street terror attack.

Why did police officers attending the scene allow the jihadi to chase them and lunge at them repeatedly with a knife before shooting him? As news.com.au reported, bystanders were urging the officers to fire.

A witness called Markel told ABC Local Radio: “A lot of bystanders (were) actually just screaming at the police officers, because the police officers were trying to take the knife off him and arrest him but bystanders were yelling out: ‘Just shoot him, just shoot him.’ ”

Police have new powers to employ lethal force against terrorists but seem reluctant to use them. Victoria’s counter-terrorism laws were overhauled this year.

The Labor government said the new laws would “better protect Victorians from terror attacks”. The reforms were supposed to “clarify Victoria Police’s powers to use leth­al force in response to a life-threatening act where it may be the last opportunity to safely and effectively intervene”.

In other words, when you see a terrorist, shoot to kill. Young police officers need to be trained to understand they are duty-bound to stop an ­active terrorist by any means necessary.

Scott Morrison responded to news of the terrorist attack by saying “the greatest threat of religious extremism in this country is the radical and dangerous ideology of extremist Islam”. That’s right.

According to the four-stage model proposed by academic Randy Borum, the terrorist radicalisation process begins by framing an event or situation as a grievance (it’s not right), which is elevated to the category of injustice (it’s not fair).

Stage three is target attribution, where the injustice is blamed on a single entity and those associated with it (for example, the West).

The final stage is devaluation and distancing, where the identified target is devalued as evil and the terrorist in training is encouraged to distance themselves from it, providing the justification and impetus for aggression.

There should be no confusion about the Islamist belief system that drives radicalisation and culminates in an act of terrorism.

Extensive research has revealed how jihadis think and exposed their radical disrespect for Westerners and moderate Muslims alike.

The jihadi loathes Western liberal culture, its freedoms and citizens. He views the West as decadent and evil. In his mind, there is no universal humanity, only Muslim v non-Muslim. As such, he feels no obligation to the non-Muslim people of the West, our laws or culture.

Consider the words of teen­agers arrested in 2016 who were ­allegedly armed with bayonets and planned to decapitate Australians. One of them previously had abused police on film: “Whatever Allah orders me to do I’m going to do it … youse (sic) are nothing but a bunch of pigs and we are going to rule this earth by sharia.”

Or consider Sevdet Besim, who was sentenced to 10 years’ jail for planning an Anzac Day terrorist attack in Melbourne. His suicide note detailed plans to “establish jihad in Australia … to fight … those who have implemented man-made law … to defend Islam and put fear into those who are enemies to Allah and his religion”.

The jihadi’s loyalty rests not with his nation or fellow citizens but the Muslim caliphate. If Australia has a future as a liberal democracy, we must reject those who reject our way of life. The soldiers of international jihad have come to create an Islamic state on Australian soil. They have overstayed their welcome. It is time for them to go home.