The Leaders’ debates next year will be quite interesting. Here is Labor under the headline, Terror shooting: radical groups ‘prey on teens like pedophiles’:
Bill Shorten has condemned organisations that incite “criminal thinking” in vulnerable young people, comparing them to pedophiles who prey on Australia’s youth.
The Opposition Leader said he had “no time for organisations fermenting dangerous” ideas amid reports the 15-year-old who shot dead a police employee in Sydney on Friday attended the Parramatta Mosque before the murder, including for a service associated with the controversial political group Hizb-ut-Tahrir.
Farhad Khalil Mohammad Jabar is believed to have been radicalised through worshippers he met at the mosque where other teenagers are known to have sympathies for the terrorist group Islamic State.
Asked about the reports and if the government needed to take a new approach to this type of violent behaviour, Mr Shorten said: “If there are organisations in this country preying upon vulnerable young people, filling their heads full of murderous crazy nonsense, then those organisations are breaching their social contract with the Australian people.
Here are the New Libs via Greg Sheridan, who obviously has now also received the memo from central command to be nice to Malcolm:
Malcolm Turnbull has passed his first test as a national security leader after the shocking terrorist murder outside the police centre at Sydney’s Parramatta.
The essence of Turnbull’s wisdom here has been balance.
He has said essentially three things. The first, this is a shocking, cold-blooded murder and our thoughts and prayers are with the victim’s family and the NSW Police Service.
Second, this is an act of terrorism.
Third, no one should attribute guilt by association for this terrible act to the Muslim community or to any other Muslims individually. The need for dialogue with the Muslim community is not only to maintain social cohesion but also to help in efforts to counter the radicalisation of young people. Each element of these messages was necessary. To miss any one would have been to unbalance the response.
Turnbull’s response has won appreciation and support from each of the relevant audiences: the public generally, NSW police, security agencies and leaders of Muslim communities.
Turnbull’s government signalled in its earliest days that it was going to change the tone of the rhetoric it used in relation to terrorism.
No one could doubt Tony Abbott’s abundant goodwill in this area, but his rhetoric had become a little clunky, the constant repetition of the phrase “the death cult” was off-putting and some Muslim community leaders felt he had been a bit rough with them, in particular
in his remark he wished more Muslim leaders would say Islam was a religion of peace and mean it.In any event, numbers of otherwise moderate and mainstream Muslim leaders felt alienated and some degree of co-operation had declined.
UPDATE: From Tim Blair. If I didn’t know this was never something to make jokes about, I would assume this was satire of a very dark kind.
Malcolm Turnbull’s more conciliatory approach to the Muslim community doesn’t seem to be working:
The teenage gunman who executed a NSW Police Force employee has been lauded as a “hero of the Islamic people” on a tribute page set up on social media …
A Facebook page has since been established in the North Parramatta teen’s memory, labelling him the “hero of Parramatta”.
“Hero of the Islamic peoples he will be gratly (sic),” one post read.
“Death to the evil police state of Australia who killed this young child all he is guilty of was being muslim!!”
A photo of Farhad’s face with a screen grab of footage captured outside the police HQ of him holding his gun above his head is accompanied by the statement: “Inshallah we will kill all the infidels”.
Another post states: “It is no secret that Australia seeks to destroy islam and there is no choice for followers of allah but to defend themselves.”
I’m not sure, but this might qualify as some of that divisive rhetoric Mark Kenny is always crying about. And check the line from Nick Kaldas:
Asked about the page, NSW Police Deputy Commissioner Nick Kaldas said it was disappointing.
“Just as disappointing as the right-wing extremist material,” he said.
Sure, Nick. Because right-wing extremists always rejoice online when one of them murders a police employee.