The nation’s political leaders have been warned to put aside domestic politics and “sniping” in the vital debate about how the world should deal with Islamist terrorism.
As Malcolm Turnbull insisted “every single word” he said on the issue was based on advice from ASIO and the federal police so he did not “play into the hands” of terrorists, intelligence agencies expressed frustration with his predecessor Tony Abbott’s latest contribution to the issue.
Mr Abbott this week criticised the way some practised the Islamic faith, and suggested Islam was inferior to Western culture and needed to undergo a version of Christianity’s Reformation.
Peter Leahy, who commanded Australia’s army during the Iraq war and now advises on strategy, warned that the vital debate about how the world must deal with Islamist terrorism was at risk of being distorted by domestic politics and hijacked by “political snipers”.
Intelligence sources contacted by The Australian also expressed frustration at Mr Abbott’s remarks, saying they did little to aid the work of counter-terrorism agencies or law enforcement.
“The tone of Abbott’s remarks when he talks about all of Islam puts people off-side,’’ the source said. “It makes the job of agencies and law enforcement that much harder.’’
Mr Abbott stepped up his argument in a speech in Singapore, saying while the Saudis, Turks, Iranians, Russians, Americans and French had declared they wanted to destroy Islamic State, they all had other priorities. In the speech, published in The Australian today, Mr Abbott urged the French to use the “moral authority” due to them after last month’s attacks in Paris, in which 130 people died, for action he said was more urgent than ever.
The debate in Australia intensified as multi-billionaire Donald Trump, a frontrunner in the race for the Republican Party’s presidential nomination, called for a ban on the entry of Muslims into the US. Michael Fullilove, who heads the Lowy Institute think tank, said Mr Trump’s comments were “complete madness” and they should disqualify him from the presidential race.
Indonesian ambassador Nadjib Riphat Kesoema responded to Mr Abbott by telling the ABC: “This is a time when all nations must unite to defeat the scourge of terrorism. A rhetoric boasting of cultural and religious superiority over other cultures and religions is unhelpful to the cause and divisive.”
Professor Leahy, now head of Canberra University’s National Security Institute, told The Australian: “We need the debate. It must be had within the Islamic world and we need to have it in our communities so that we can understand and support Islam as it has these discussions.
“We need to be better informed about what’s going on. People who are trying to shut down the debate are not doing anybody any good.
“We need to avoid political polemicism, which we’ve seen too much of in our political discourse. The political snipers who try to shoot down every idea and every discussion do not do us any service because they throttle the debate and that diminishes our ability to understand what is happening. They are doing it for either party-political or personal reasons.”
His comments came after Mr Abbott called for Islam to “modernise from the kill-or-be-killed milieu of the Prophet Mohammed” and for Australians to stop being “apologetic” about the “clear superiority” of their Western culture. “We can’t remain in denial about the massive problem within Islam,” Mr Abbott said.
“Islam never had its own version of the Reformation and the Enlightenment or a consequent acceptance of pluralism and the separation of church and state. Cultures are not all equal. We should be ready to proclaim the clear superiority of our culture to one that justifies killing people in the name of God.”
Bill Shorten said Mr Abbott’s “inflammatory” comments could harm the work of intelligence agencies by undermining efforts to build a socially cohesive, mutually respectful society.
“Making assertions about cultural and religious superiority is entirely counter-productive,” the Opposition Leader said.
“It is time for Malcolm Turnbull to step up and pull Tony Abbott into line.”
Labor frontbencher Andrew Leigh said Mr Abbott’s comments framed him as an “Australian Donald Trump”. As ministers said they wanted to avoid adding heat to the debate, Mr Turnbull said Mr Abbott was entitled to his opinion, but he would choose his own words and not one-liners.
“What we must not do is play into the hands of our enemies and seek to tag all Muslims with responsibility for the crimes of a few,” the Prime Minister said, adding he was “sure Tony agrees”.
“Most of the victims of these terrorists who defame Islam, who blaspheme God, most of the victims of these terrorists are other Muslims, and that’s a very important point to bear in mind,” Mr Turnbull added.
In a speech in Singapore, Mr Abbott, who has indicated he has no plans to retire from politics soon, said the “death cult as it’s now increasingly called” thrived on conflict and had to be destroyed. Doggedly sticking to his call for Western troops to fight alongside local forces, Mr Abbott backed the establishment of no-fly zones and safe havens.
He welcomed Barack Obama’s decision to send more special forces to take part in the war against Islamic State and Britain’s decision to bomb targets in Syria.
Labor MP Ed Husic, the only Muslim in federal parliament, cautioned against attempting to “Trumpify” the nation’s politics by “building up straw men in an effort to create a headline or be able to get a few extra minutes on TV”. “I actually beg conservative politicians to think carefully about what they are saying, because what they are saying to the public is that, ‘if you are of the Islamic faith, you are being hard-coded against Western values’, which is garbage,” Mr Husic told Sky News.
Not only do I not have any answers to all of this, I am not even sure I know the right questions to ask from which answers might be drawn.
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