It seems that the media are slowly waking from a slumber that has seen them all but ignore the small but growing Islamist agenda in Australia.
In the wake of the horrific killing of Lee Rigby on London’s streets by barbarians yelling “Allahu Akbar” and clutching a meat cleaver, many are now asking ‘could it happen here’?
The answer, of course, is a resounding yes but it is a possibility many have refused to accept – until now.
For too long, anyone raising the spectre of home grown extremism, the problems of cultural relativism or the importance of defending Australian values has been denounced in the most pejorative way. This has had nothing to do with the merits of the argument but was seen as an easy way to discredit those who dare to see the emperor’s new clothes for what they are.
The truth has too often been dismissed in a flurry of invective and anecdotes of how splendid everything is in this country and statements that what has happened overseas will never happen here.
Unfortunately, it is already happening here.
Our domestic spy agency, ASIO, has repeatedly warned of the threats of home grown extremism taking root in our suburbs. We have seen signs in public demonstrations by extremists threatening those who offend Islam with decapitation. We have heard the hate preachers and their vile messages ministering to impressionable youth. So too have we heard the excuses from community leaders about incorrect translations and such incidents being ‘isolated’.
Forgotten by many are the reports of Al Qaeda recruiters holding teleconferences at the Lakemba mosque or mosque leaders acting as defence witnesses for subsequently convicted terrorists.
We now have regular reports of Australian citizens heading overseas to engage in civil war alongside butchers and zealots. Most recently in Syria the ‘rebel forces’ have executed children for the crime of blasphemy and encouraged other children to behead captured prisoners with machetes. One can only wonder what could happen when these Aussie jihadists return to our shores with their new found knowledge.
In the weeks since Drummer Rigby’s murder, there has been at least some interest by sections of the media in exposing the small but growing menace of the Islamist culture within our nation.
The tabloid network shows have exposed a ‘standover’ operation operating in some Australian suburbs by gangsters determining what can and cannot be sold in their area. Permitted are sharia-compliant products and services whilst the owners of stores deemed un-Islamic are intimidated into conformity or departure. This has all the hallmarks of the method used to establish sharia zones in the UK.
Sunday night’s Sixty Minutes program showed reporter Liz Hayes in the burbs of Sydney surrounded by a group of bearded thugs proclaiming that Lee Rigby was a ‘dog’ and deserved to die. The menace was clear to anyone watching.
Many of our food companies are paying a halal tax, which is utilised in a less than transparent fashion. In other countries, the administrators and beneficiaries of this tax have been linked to proscribed groups and illegal activities. What is it that makes Australian businesses feel the need to pay what is effectively a religious tithe on their products to satisfy a tiny subsection of the community?
In suburbs around the country, the concerns of ordinary people about some of the changes taking place in our communities have been dismissed by too many who are actually in a position to respond to these challenges.
The Greens and Labor have delivered us porous borders where security checks on illegal arrivals are minimal at best. A convicted jihadist has been kept in low security detention, an accused murderer has been released into the community and demands for acceptance of sharia have been met with an ambivalent response.
The Labor Government even went so far as to commission a report into supporting sharia finance in Australia. Strangely the report has not (to my knowledge) been publicly released in the wake of a public exposé of that process.
Of course, we should not overstate the current risk. It is a tiny proportion of our population who wish to pursue an agenda that’s at odds with our traditional cultural mores. However, neither can we afford to keep turning a blind eye to the progress that the radicals are making. Appeasement in any form only gives them legitimacy and the courage to continue their quest for an Islamic supra-state where everyone is forced to live under the yoke of sharia.
The lesson for us all is clear. We must learn from the mistakes of other nations lest we commit to repeating them.
Cory Bernardi is the author of seven books and has been a member of the Australian rowing team, a publican, an investment portfolio manager and spent nearly 14 years as an Australian Senator.
