Australia’s left-wing government has finally admitted that the terror attack on Bondi Beach was likely motivated by radical Islam.
After initially refusing to comment on the motive for the attack in Sydney that saw 15 people killed and dozens injured at a Hanukkah celebration on Sunday, Australian police and the leftist government of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese both admitted on Tuesday that the alleged attackers, Sajid and Naveed Akram, were apparently motivated by ISIS ideology.
Speaking to Australian public broadcaster ABC on Tuesday, Prime Minister Albanese said, “It would appear that this was motivated by Islamic State ideology. The ideology that has been around for more than a decade that led to this ideology of hate, and in this case, a preparedness to engage in mass murder.”
For his part, New South Wales Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon confirmed on Tuesday that the suspects had “two homemade ISIS flags” in their car at the scene of the attack. Lanyon also confirmed that there were improvised explosive devices in the vehicle.
The acknowledgements came after it was reported that Australian security services had investigated Naveed Akram in 2019 over suspected ties to ISIS groups, but had dismissed him as a threat.
Albanese said of the previous investigation, “They interviewed him, they interviewed his family members, they interviewed people around him. He was drawn to their attention because of his association with others. Two of the people he was associated with were charged and went to jail, but he was not seen at that time to be a person of interest.”
“Now, whether he was radicalised further after that, what the circumstances are, that’s the subject of further investigation.”
According to the Sydney Morning Herald, citing police sources, the father and son duo are believed to have written a manifesto detailing their motivations before the attack on Sunday.
The paper also reported that Naveed Akram had been a member of an ISIS-linked Muslim street preaching group in Sydney, which included radicals who would go on to fight for the so-called Islamic State.
Meanwhile, police are also reportedly investigating a trip the alleged attackers took to the Philippines last month. According to ABC, the father-son pair is believed to have received “military-style training” in the country, which is home to one of the major ISIS networks in East Asia.
Additionally, police are said to be looking into how Sajid Akram — who immigrated to Australia in 1998 — was able to legally obtain six firearms despite his son’s connections to ISIS groups.
The left-wing Albanese government has focused heavily on further gun control, while largely downplaying the role that Islamic extremism and immigration apparently played in allowing the attack to occur.
Former Prime Minister John Howard criticised his successor’s push for further gun control laws as a “big attempt at diversion” after having allowed the “forces of hatred to go unchecked”.
The leader of the right-wing National Party, David Littleproud, echoed the sentiment, saying that the government “has ignored the cues that have come from society, including their own special envoy against antisemitism, that there is a violence problem towards those of the Jewish faith… This isn’t a gun problem, it’s an ideology problem.”
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