Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has refused to say radical Islam is the greatest security threat to Australia, and equated it with sovereign citizens and neo-Nazis.
Mr Albanese was asked the question at a press conference on Friday after confirming that the Bondi Islamic terrorist attack was “ISIS inspired”, based on advice from the Office of National Intelligence.
He also announced a gun buyback scheme while standing alongside AFP Commissioner Krissy Barrett, who has also been criticised for saying earlier this week that the Bondi massacre carried out by Indian Muslim immigrant Sajid Akram and his son Naveed Akram was not a “religious” incident.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is asked whether radical Islam is the greatest domestic security threat.
He responds by saying it’s “one of the issues” along with sovereign citizens and “neo-Nazis thinking it is OK to march down our streets dressed in black”.
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“Is radical Islam, in your view, the greatest domestic security threat Australia faces?” Mr Albanese was asked.
“That is one of the issues that we’re dealing with, I want to deal with all of the threats, whether it be extremist perversions of Islam leading to support for the ideology promoted by ISIS,” the Prime Minister responded.
“[I’m] also concerned about the issue of sovereign citizens killing police in Victoria and Queensland. I’m concerned about neo-Nazis thinking it’s okay to march down our streets dressed in black, not worrying about their faces being covered, explicitly promoting that as well.”
He went on to say “some of these things are not new” and brought up running as a student candidate against a “reprehensible fascist at Sydney university in 1983”.
“This has been around a long period of time, there are issues have escalated, and we need to take action against all of them,” he said.
His comments come after he faced global criticism for repeatedly deflecting to “right-wing extremism” in the days following the Bondi attack while refusing to mention radical Islam, and for declaring that “diversity is our strength” after announcing new hate speech laws on Thursday.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says Australians expect people who come to our country to leave old divisions behind, arguing there is overwhelming support for embracing diversity as a national strength. pic.twitter.com/FFk4Ib8NE8
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The sweeping reforms create new “hate speech” offences, increase penalties, and also outlaw “vilification based on race and/or advocating racial supremacy” and make hate an aggravating factor in sentencing crimes related to online threats and harassment.
The AFP Commissioner said earlier this week that the Muslim gunmen were aligned “with a terrorist organisation, not a religion”, sparking concern from security experts.
Adjunct fellow at the Institute of Public Affairs, Peter Jennings, told The Daily Telegraph Ms Barrett appeared to be trying to “deploy a very comfortable talking point that it’s a perversion of Islam, it’s not really real, it’s a political ideology – but that’s not true”.
“I think it’s just a fact that there are actually quite large numbers of people inside the Muslim religion that do take a more extremist view,” Mr Jennings said.
“We need to confront this reality and work out how do we, as a Western democracy, deal with it.”
Two ISIS flags were found in the Akrams’ vehicle along with explosive devices, and Naveed, 24, was investigated by ASIO in 2019 for linked to a Sydney-based Islamic State cell and two convicted Islamic terrorists, but Sajid, 50, was still given a gun licence.
Naveed was charged on Wednesday with 59 offences, including commit terrorist act, 15 counts of murder, 40 counts of cause wounding/grievous bodily harm to person with intent to murder, discharge firearm etc intend cause grievous bodily harm, cause public display of prohibited terrorist org symbol, and place explosive in/near building with intent cause harm.
Header image: Left, Mr Albanese on Friday. Right, the ISIS flag on the Akrams’ car.
