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Was Parramatta’s teenage terrorist a lone gunman or part of a group?
The pointless and callous shooting of civilian police employee Curtis Cheng on Friday night outside Parramatta Police Headquarters was tragic on so many levels.
Tragic because it represented the destruction of the innocence of two people, the victim and the perpetrator.
I say the innocence of the perpetrator, as we need to remember this was a child committing this heinous act. A fifteen-year-old representation of Australian societies failure to deal with the social issues in this country that lead to disenfranchised youth seeking acceptance through street gangs, criminal networks, or in some cases religious extremism.
Yesterday Wixxyleaks received assurances from sources within the Islamic community that the 15-year-old wannabe terrorist was indeed part of a group and despite assurances from police that he was unknown to them that police had been made aware of the group and that some had even been arrested prior to this event.
Farhad Khalil Mohammad sources claim was part of a group of no more than a dozen young Muslims that had been radicalised. It was also claimed that two members of this group of friends were in fact stopped in April this year at Sydney Airport by customs as they attempted to leave and join ISIS in Syria. It is alleged that he knew these brothers and others from the group through school.
This group reportedly does not go by a name like other groups have, but are known within the community even if not by name, by recognition. They are viewed as a close-knit group of friends rather than a gang or extremist group, but some in the community claim that members of this group have extremist views. We have now seen those views come to the surface with three of them.
One hopes that the different agencies and forces that do investigate terrorism leads work hand in hand and share information.
Is this the face of evil or the face of gullibility?
Politicians, the police and the public need to work together to ensure that disenfranchised youth are not radicalized and events like those on Friday on highlight how much further we have to go the reach that point.
Politicians like to talk about lifters and leaners. At the moment we appear to be asking all of the lifting to be done by the Islamic community. Our efforts in prevention of radicalisation appear to be minimal at best, instead we muster our energies for cleaning up the mess that radicaliation brings, whether that be in terror raids or the aftermath of a shooting.
Those in the Islamic community I have spoken with think that politicians are too hasty to tick the box marked “supported Islamic de-radicalisation project” and are perhaps utilizing the wrong members of the community to reach the target audience. If we are going to reach these kids it has to be via people they can relate to and respect.
The other thing that we need to do is change our expectations of the Islamic community.
Before the shooting Farhad Khalil Mohammad headed for a final prayer at the Parramatta Mosque, a Mosque that he visited on irregular occasions. Police asked the Mosques chairman if he knew the killer, when the Mosques Chair told them he recognized but did not know the boy’s name or his family, he then stayed with police until the wee hours of the morning to try to identify the killer and find his family.
I wonder if the killer had gone to McDonalds for a bite prior to the shooting instead of the Mosque if the manager of Macca’s would have spent the night finding the family, or been expected to.
Those who seek to recruit to extremist groups will seize upon any opportunity to spread their unique brands of hatred. It is not just Islamic groups. Right wing extremist group Reclaim Australia were quick to letterbox drop their propaganda in the Parramatta area. Reclaim Australia are a modern-day version of the Blues Brothers Illinois Nazi’s. With their membership full of meth-heads, skinheads and dunderheads that bikie gangs rejected this group of extremists are best known for their protests that turn violent.
Disenfranchised youth are a problem in the Australian community not the Islamic community. The Islamic Community do not need the singling out. The sooner we stop treating this as an “us and them” issue than the sooner we can have a real conversation about addressing the issue rather than just yelling at each other about it.
We are all sick of the hating.
Peter – I quote from your post:
“A fifteen-year-old representation of Australian societies failure to deal with the social issues in this country that lead to disenfranchised youth seeking acceptance through street gangs, criminal networks, or in some cases religious extremism.”
So, and according to your reckoning, these episodes of barbarism are somehow OUR fault?! Individuals, and the families and institutions to which they belong, are not responsible for these uncivilised acts? Really?
This kid is a product of his environment and yes, we are a part of that I believe
Well, if that is true, how is it that only Muslim kids engage in these barbaric criminal acts? How come the alleged “neglect” by Australian society appears to disenfranchise only Muslim kids to the extent that they feel compelled to engage in hideous acts of wanton murder? Why don’t we see immigrant kids from other cultures and other religions committing crimes of this nature? I have yet to hear of Buddhist migrant kids, or Taoist migrant kids, or Christian migrant kids attacking police, planning terrorist acts and murdering innocent citizens. The disenfranchisement you claim exists seems to be very selective as to which migrant kids it touches. The disenfranchisement you allude to seems to have an effect only on those kids of the Muslim faith, You quote a number of Muslim adults you have consulted following the criminal acts of terror and murder committed by Muslim young. The response you got was that Australia, Australian society and the Australian government have not done enough to stop this barbaric behaviour from happening in the first place. But Muslim adults would say that, wouldn’t they? It is far easier, and more convenient, to look outwards rather than look inwards when it comes to apportioning blame.
The fact is, not all Muslims are terrorists. But it seems that all terrorists are Muslims. You say that we are all tired of the hatred. I agree. But the hatred does not stem from Australians calling out Muslims for their criminal behaviour. Instead, the hatred stems from a religious creed that advocates the beheading of all infidels (or non-believers). The hatred stems from a religious creed that perpetrates crime on innocent victims simply because the victims are not of the Muslim faith. Australians are a good-natured and caring people. It is therefore totally inappropriate that chastisement and admonishment be directed against the very people who are being targeted by these “disenfranchised” Muslim kids. The time has come to call a spade a spade. The time has come for Muslims to step up and take responsibility for their kids. Or is it only Christians or other non-Muslims who are expected to take responsibility for their kids?
I think if you check in a youth detention centre you will find that while it is full of disenfranchised youth, the overwhelming majority will not be of Islamic background, the same applies to jail.
People of all races commit violent and barbaric acts, Australia’s worst carried out by a white male of Christian background, Martin Bryant.
It is comments like “how come only Muslim kids engage in these barbaric criminal acts” that are a large part of the problem. Not only are the utterly false they only serve to increase tensions which in turn creates an environment where the only those who seek to radicalise youth have so anything to gain.
On the contrary, it appears that it is only Muslims that are expected to take responsibility for their kids… If parents of kids who committed violent crimes who came from a White Anglo Saxon Christian background were held to account the same way the press hold someone of Islamic background to account the papers would be full of little else.
Generalising does not prove anything, yes Australians are good natured and caring people… Yet all over the country there are prisons full of them.
Peter – I am unable to agree with you, and we’ll simply have to agree to disagree. But I would like to offer just one more comment in reply.
To me, your argument is akin to blaming victims for the crimes perpetrated against them. Would any sensible person seriously suggest, for example, that a woman who was raped somehow contributed to the rape because of the way she was dressed? Of course not. Such a suggestion would be totally repugnant, and it most certainly would not be entertained by any Australian court. Indeed, a “devil made me do it” argument would not be accepted as a defence by anyone accused of serious crime. Except, apparently, when it comes to a Muslim murdering an Australian innocent. It seems that when Muslim kids murder or attack Australian innocents, the society to which the Australian innocents belong is somehow culpable. I’m sure that line of argument will provide great comfort to the grieving family of Curtis Cheng.
I can’t speak for the family of Curtis Cheng obviously, but I was full of admiration for the friends and family of the Lindt cafe siege victims who came out in support of the Islamic community, as they realised that these people do not represent the Islamic faith, and that the Islamaphobia is just for those with narrow minds looking for the easy target…