Author: Miranda Devine
Publication: The Sydney Morning Herald
Date: February 27, 2010
URL: http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/society-and-culture/the-warning-that-we-ignored-20100226-p912.html
The latest headache for NSW prison authorities
is how to safely house the five terrorists convicted this month of plotting
bomb attacks in Sydney. With sentences ranging up to 28 years, the challenge
will be how to prevent these unrepentant Islamist extremists from radicalising
other inmates in Goulburn's supermax high security prison.
This week the Premier, Kristina Keneally,
told Parliament the men are still a danger, as presumably were their four
co-accused who were sentenced earlier. She has reportedly ordered a ''deradicalisation
program'', although clearly the only surefire way is to keep them in isolation.
This reminder of the reality of home-grown
terrorism came as the Prime Minister released the government's counter-terrorism
white paper this week. As the Herald's Jonathan Pearlman reported, Rudd insisted
on highlighting the threat from jihadist and home-grown terrorists in defiance
of advice from departmental officials, who had deemed it inflammatory.
The timing of the release of the white paper
was questionable - in the middle of the insulation furore - but it is still
a credit to Rudd that he did not follow advice to sugarcoat the truth about
terrorist threats.
Among other things, the white paper states
the scale of the threat of home-grown terrorism depends on ''the size and
make-up of local Muslim populations, including their ethnic and/or migrant
origins, their geographical distribution and the success or otherwise of their
integration into their host society''.
This is something that is rarely discussed.
Debate over the make-up of immigration programs has been largely shut down
and marginalised as a redneck racist pastime. But we have vivid evidence of
the consequences of poorly managed immigration in the disproportionate number
of problems that have emerged from some Lebanese families who arrived in 1977
and integrated poorly into south-west Sydney.
The prime minister of the time, Malcolm Fraser,
has been out and about lately, accusing the modern Liberal Party of extreme
conservative tendencies, while promoting his new book. But he has never adequately
explained why he ignored warnings from his immigration department that relaxing
normal eligibility standards to accept thousands of Lebanese Muslims escaping
the civil war was problematic.
As cabinet documents from 1976 revealed, he
was warned that too many of the new arrivals were unskilled, illiterate and
''of questionable character'', and there was a danger ''the conflicts, tensions
and divisions within Lebanon will be transferred to Australia''.
The consequences of poor integration today
include social unrest, which culminated in the Cronulla riots and their violent
aftermath.
And some of our worst home-grown terrorists
have come from that community. They include M, the 44-year-old ringleader
of the five men convicted of preparing a terrorist act this month, who cannot
be named for legal reasons.
He came to south-west Sydney with his family
from Lebanon in 1977, along with 11 siblings.
NSW Supreme Court Justice Anthony Whealy said
in sentencing M this month: ''There is no present indication that [he] will
ever renounce the extremist views. [He] has all the hallmarks of an offender
whose motivation is not that of financial or other material gain but …
from an extremist religious conviction.''
Also born in Lebanon was his co-conspirator,
Mr K, 36, who migrated to Sydney in 1977 when he was three. Justice Whealy
said K had ''absolute contempt for the Australian government and its laws
[and an] extremist conviction that sharia law should rule, even in this country.''
Also convicted was his brother, L, 32, born
here and likely to represent a danger to the community ''even upon his release
many years hence''.
The court heard the five men had bought laboratory
equipment and chemicals that could be used to make bombs: vast quantities
of battery acid, acetone, hydrogen peroxide,methylated spirits and sulphuric
acid. They shopped at Bunnings for PVC pipe and silver tape.
Whealy said they had on a USB stick ''step-by-step''
instructions for manufacturing explosives; electronic copies of The Sniper
Handbook; and DVDs ''glorifying the 9/11 hijackers''.
There were videos showing the execution of
hostages or prisoners by the mujahideen which were ''particularly brutal,
distressing and graphic''.
Justice Whealy also refers to an instructional
video found in all but one of the offender's houses. On it, ''a masked mujahideen
speaks in English with a very obvious Australian accent and says: 'You kill
us, so you will be killed. You bomb us, so you will be bombed'. This is an
overly simplistic but reasonably accurate summation of the mindset of each
of the offenders in this trial.''
It's hard to believe in hindsight, now the
evidence has been laid out and the men found guilty, but in 2005, when counter-terrorism
laws were being amended and the men arrested, there was strident criticism
of police and the government.
Instead we should have been thanking police
and security agencies for protecting us from attack.
But as the white paper says, past successes
''should not give us any false confidence that all plots here can be discovered
and disrupted''.
''Australia is a terrorist target,'' it says.
''Public statements by prominent terrorist leaders and other extremist propagandists
have singled out Australia for criticism and encouraged attacks against us
both before and after September 11, 2001.
''There are Australians who are committed
to supporting or engaging in violent jihad in Australia and elsewhere. Most
of these were born in Australia or have lived here since childhood.''
The paper says one of our strengths is our
''inclusive multicultural society'' and we must all work together to ''reject
ideologies that promote violence'' and work at ''reducing disadvantage, addressing
real or perceived grievances and encouraging full participation in Australia's
social and economic life''.
Home-grown terrorism is as much a threat to
the vast majority of law-abiding Australian Muslims as anyone else. So efforts
to suppress the facts are counterproductive and ultimately lead to distrust
and disharmony.
- devinemiranda@hotmail.com
