Isis ‘is coming if it can for every person and every government with a
simple message: submit or die,’ Australian PM tells delegates from 25
countries
Tony Abbott has opened a regional summit on countering terrorist propaganda in Sydney, telling delegates Islamic State “is coming if it can for every person and every government with a simple message: submit or die”.
Representatives from governments and civil society groups from 25 countries are meeting for two days to share ideas for challenging the appeal of Isis and other jihadi groups at the countering violent extremism (CVE) summit. More than 15,000 foreign fighters are estimated to have travelled to Iraq and Syria to join the conflict, including at least 100 Australians.
The prime minister said waves of immigration had helped Australia flourish, “yet the tentacles of the death cult have extended even here as we discovered to our cost during the Martin Place siege last December”.
The prime minister also referenced claims of an Isis plot in Melbourne last year, likely to be the alleged stabbing of two police officers by 18-year-old Numan Haider in September.
He said Isis had inflicted death “mostly on Muslims in the Middle East”, but added: “This is what the death cult has in store for everyone if it has its way.”
“Daesh is coming if it can for every person and every government with a simple message: submit or die,” he said. “You can’t negotiate with an entity like this, you can only fight it.”
Abbott again paid tribute to the Egyptian president, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, for his call that “Islam needed nothing less than a religious revolution to reverse centuries of false thinking”.
“In the end though, the only really effective defence against terrorism is persuading people that it’s pointless, persuading people that God does not demand death to the infidel,” he said. “Above all we need idealistic young people to understand that joining this death cult is an ugly, misguided and wrong-headed way to express their desire to sacrifice.”
The foreign minister, Julie Bishop, also addressed the summit, revealing that 115 passports had been cancelled, nine had been suspended and 14 refused to Australians currently in Iraq and Syria or suspected of wishing to join the conflict in the region.
She said “it defies all comprehension” that women made up around one-fifth of those flocking to join Isis, “given that it is women who are disproportionately affected by extremist groups”.
There were between 30 and 40 women “known to be either engaging in or supporting activity in Iraq, Syria or here in Australia”, she said.
Over the next two days the summit will hear from intelligence chiefs, academics, leaders of Muslim organisations and representatives from Google and Facebook. The sessions are closed, but one of the speakers, Michele Grossman from Victoria University, told Guardian Australia she would emphasise the need to support the families of young people at risk.
“Families can be a frontline of defence,” she said. “Those who are closest to us are often the very first to see early or subtle changes in attitude, in behaviour, in social networks, and this means we really need to see some new ways about how we can educate families on how to read and how to act on such early warning signs.
“[But] it’s often unclear about where they can turn for support and information and guidance.”
Clarke Jones, an expert in deradicalisation at the Australian National University, will share his research on community-led responses to the issue of young people flirting with extremism – in contrast to the law-enforcement approach he said the government had so far favoured.
“The further a young individual is processed in the criminal justice system the greater the likelihood they will reoffend,” he said. “There are countries taking a softer line, developing a community-led approach, as in you’ve got religious leaders, psychologists involved.”
He said it was “dangerous” to see terrorism offences inspired by Islam as distinct from other crimes. “If you take the case that was around last year, of a neo-Nazi sympathiser, when they raided his house it was full of explosives,” he said. “Now that person got a good behaviour bond.
“Because you add Muslim and add Islamic State to it, it changes the way governments and the courts handle this.”
Greg Barton, a terrorism research from Monash University, will chair a panel alongside the head of Asio, Duncan Lewis. He told Guardian Australia the summit marked a change in the government’s approach to the issue.
“I think the initial instincts of the Abbott government were to think that this is a soft, left-of-centre approach which wasn’t going to be what they wanted to do. So initially they were very cold on CVE approaches,” he said.
“Beginning in the middle of last year they awoke to the fact they had to do it. This summit suggests we’re finally at the point where CVE is being mainstreamed.”
The head of Australia Post, Ahmed Fahour, and the head of government affairs for Google, Samantha Yorke, will also address the summit.
Representatives from governments and civil society groups from 25 countries are meeting for two days to share ideas for challenging the appeal of Isis and other jihadi groups at the countering violent extremism (CVE) summit. More than 15,000 foreign fighters are estimated to have travelled to Iraq and Syria to join the conflict, including at least 100 Australians.
The prime minister said waves of immigration had helped Australia flourish, “yet the tentacles of the death cult have extended even here as we discovered to our cost during the Martin Place siege last December”.
The prime minister also referenced claims of an Isis plot in Melbourne last year, likely to be the alleged stabbing of two police officers by 18-year-old Numan Haider in September.
He said Isis had inflicted death “mostly on Muslims in the Middle East”, but added: “This is what the death cult has in store for everyone if it has its way.”
“Daesh is coming if it can for every person and every government with a simple message: submit or die,” he said. “You can’t negotiate with an entity like this, you can only fight it.”
Abbott again paid tribute to the Egyptian president, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, for his call that “Islam needed nothing less than a religious revolution to reverse centuries of false thinking”.
“In the end though, the only really effective defence against terrorism is persuading people that it’s pointless, persuading people that God does not demand death to the infidel,” he said. “Above all we need idealistic young people to understand that joining this death cult is an ugly, misguided and wrong-headed way to express their desire to sacrifice.”
The foreign minister, Julie Bishop, also addressed the summit, revealing that 115 passports had been cancelled, nine had been suspended and 14 refused to Australians currently in Iraq and Syria or suspected of wishing to join the conflict in the region.
She said “it defies all comprehension” that women made up around one-fifth of those flocking to join Isis, “given that it is women who are disproportionately affected by extremist groups”.
There were between 30 and 40 women “known to be either engaging in or supporting activity in Iraq, Syria or here in Australia”, she said.
Over the next two days the summit will hear from intelligence chiefs, academics, leaders of Muslim organisations and representatives from Google and Facebook. The sessions are closed, but one of the speakers, Michele Grossman from Victoria University, told Guardian Australia she would emphasise the need to support the families of young people at risk.
“Families can be a frontline of defence,” she said. “Those who are closest to us are often the very first to see early or subtle changes in attitude, in behaviour, in social networks, and this means we really need to see some new ways about how we can educate families on how to read and how to act on such early warning signs.
“[But] it’s often unclear about where they can turn for support and information and guidance.”
Clarke Jones, an expert in deradicalisation at the Australian National University, will share his research on community-led responses to the issue of young people flirting with extremism – in contrast to the law-enforcement approach he said the government had so far favoured.
“The further a young individual is processed in the criminal justice system the greater the likelihood they will reoffend,” he said. “There are countries taking a softer line, developing a community-led approach, as in you’ve got religious leaders, psychologists involved.”
He said it was “dangerous” to see terrorism offences inspired by Islam as distinct from other crimes. “If you take the case that was around last year, of a neo-Nazi sympathiser, when they raided his house it was full of explosives,” he said. “Now that person got a good behaviour bond.
“Because you add Muslim and add Islamic State to it, it changes the way governments and the courts handle this.”
Greg Barton, a terrorism research from Monash University, will chair a panel alongside the head of Asio, Duncan Lewis. He told Guardian Australia the summit marked a change in the government’s approach to the issue.
“I think the initial instincts of the Abbott government were to think that this is a soft, left-of-centre approach which wasn’t going to be what they wanted to do. So initially they were very cold on CVE approaches,” he said.
“Beginning in the middle of last year they awoke to the fact they had to do it. This summit suggests we’re finally at the point where CVE is being mainstreamed.”
The head of Australia Post, Ahmed Fahour, and the head of government affairs for Google, Samantha Yorke, will also address the summit.
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