Premier Chris Minns meeting with faith leaders on Thursday 19 April including Maronite Eparchy of Australia Bishop, Antoine-Charbel Tarabay, President of ANIC, Imam Shadi Alsuleiman, the two Grand Mufti’s, Dr Ibrahim Abu Mohammed and Sheikh Riad El-Rifai at the Maronite Church Of Australia in Strathfield. Picture: Courtesy Jonathan Ng
Within a space of two days, there were two unprecedented knife attacks in Sydney, the first on Saturday 13 April at a shopping centre in Bondi by a 40 year old man stabbing 18 people including a baby, killing 6 of them and then himself shot to death by police, while the second one on Monday 15 April at a Church in the south western suburb of Wakeley perpetrated by a 16 year old boy resulting in non-life threatening injuries to a number of people including the boy himself.
The labelling of the second incident promptly as a ‘terrorist act’ by police and government, while the first one with major loss of life being blamed on ‘mental health’ has come under fierce attack by community groups calling it ‘selective’, ‘discriminatory’ and ‘Islamophobic’ based on the faith and the ethnicity of the perpetrator rather than the severity of the crime.
The church attacker, although not identified but deemed to be a Muslim with a history of rebellion, out of parental control, absentee from school for a long time and with mental health issues has been charged with terrorism while his crime was declared by the NSW police commissioner as an act of terrorism even before he or his parents were questioned.
The boy’s lawyer Greg Scragg told the court last Friday that the boy had “a long history of behaviour consistent with suffering from a mental illness and or mental condition and or mental disorder”.
Gamel Kheir the secretary of the Lebanese Muslim Association, said the boy’s father had noticed increasing signs of mental illness but had not seen any evidence of him becoming radicalised.
Since police have acknowledged that the Bondi attacker had targeted mainly women, campaigners against domestic violence have questioned police as to why this act was not called terrorism considering the brutality and magnitude of the attack and large number of deaths and injured.
On the other hand the act of the Muslim boy of much less severity was promptly declared a terrorist act before any proper investigation as to his motivation, radicalisation or information if he acted alone or was part of a wider conspiracy.
Muslim organisation have been critical of the stereotyping by authorities generally and specifically with the example of these two cases where a Muslim perpetrator will be deemed a terrorist, and a non-Muslim one won’t even if they’re committing similar crimes.
Muslim leaders including the parents of the boy have called out the differential treatment of the perpetrators of the crimes with fears for the members of the family and backlash on the Muslim community, its institution and Muslim individuals specially women with hijab.
Dr Muhammed Afzal Kahloon, President of the Australian Islamic Medical Association (AIMA) while condemning both acts of violence has voiced his concern on this differential treatment of the two incidents by the authorities and their coverage by mainstream media.
“As a group of dedicated Muslim healthcare professionals, our mission is to safeguard and enhance the well-being of patients and the wider community. We find it contradictory that the devastating attack in Bondi Junction, resulting in the tragic loss of six lives and the harm of many others, was attributed solely to the perpetrator’s mental health issues, whilst the incident at Christ The Good Shepherd Church was swiftly attributed to the faith of the perpetrator and labelled as a terrorist act. This disparity in treatment sends a troubling message to the Australian community, suggesting that terrorism is exclusively associated with Muslims, regardless of the circumstances. Mental health issues and terrorism are not confined to any community, and it is irresponsible to suggest otherwise.”
In a letter on behalf of Alliance of Australian Muslims (AAM) dated Friday 19 April, President of ANIC Imam Shadi Alsuleiman highlighted the disparity in the application of labels and rules based on the demographics of the perpetrator, rather than the nature of the crime and its negative effects on social harmony.
“The Muslim community has long endured marginalisation and unwarranted targeting based on faith, yet has consistently demonstrated resilience, understanding, and tolerance. We remain committed to promoting social harmony and cohesion, and to upholding the laws of this land. However, the labelling of the Wakeley Church incident, particularly in the aftermath of the Bondi attacks, sends conflicting and damaging messages, particularly to our community,” Sheikh Shadi wrote.
He further added, “We urgently implore the NSW Police and law enforcement agencies to conduct a thorough profiling of the offender, encompassing their history and mental health, while refraining from racial or religious profiling or labelling.”
Lydia Shelly, President of NSW Council for Civil Liberties was highly critical of the authorities promptly laying terror charges without evidence.
“When police have an incident like this we need to make sure police have ample time to properly investigate the motivations of the accused before they settle on any of the charges,” she said.
“We’re hypersensitive in NSW and we need to take a step back and make sure law enforcement has the breathing space to conduct investigations appropriately such as determining whether motivation fits the legal definition of terrorism,” Lydia further added.
The Australian National Imams Council (ANIC) has criticised the rush to declare the Wakeley stabbing a terrorist claiming that attack risks undoing years of progress on religious tolerance in western Sydney.
In an interview to SMH, ANIC spokesperson, Bilal Rauf said to label it as religious terrorism completely overlooks a more primary factor: mental health.
“There is a real sense of disparity with Bondi,” he said. “There it was very quickly said to be related to mental health but here where it is a 16-year-old boy, they said this must be religious terrorism.”
“If anything in the community there is a real sense of disappointment that there was a rush to designate it a religious terrorist event. The designation was made even before police had spoken to the boy or his parents.”
Bilal said the terrorism declaration had generated cynicism about how these decisions are made and put at risk years of positive progress on religious tolerance made with the state government.
That confidence was dented by revelations in February that the Australian Federal Police had encouraged a 13-year-old autistic boy’s fixation with Islamic State before charging him with terror offences once he turned 14.
“People in the community are perplexed and disappointed. It increases Islamophobia and anti-muslim sentiment,” Bilal concluded.
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