The happy-go-lucky country of Australia, located at the far-end of the globe, away from the geopolitical turmoil in Europe and the Middle East, is a peaceful and pleasant place to live – or should be.
Most of the immigrants seem to have assimilated comfortably, enjoying generous benefits such as state-sponsored medical care, welfare packages, high wages, vast open spaces and low crime. Life is good in Australia, with thousands of applicants from all over the world keenly seeking a better life in the sun. Although with a relatively small population of some 25 million, four of its cities are currently rated among the world's top 20 most livable.
However, an undercurrent of extremist Islam exists within Australia's Middle Eastern community. This development exploded into the headlines when, in January 2025, a serious firebomb attack on a Jewish childcare facility in Sydney took place, not surprisingly causing horror among the peaceful community. When innocent children are threatened with death, it can be said that the jihadist-Islamist crisis in the country has finally arrived.
Anti-Semitic acts had, in fact, become common in Australia before January, with more than 2,000 incidents in 2024 alone. They included 65 physical assaults and 600 cases of verbal abuse. According to Mike Burgess, the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation's director-general for security, "Jewish Australians, are increasingly conflated with the state of Israel, leading to an increase in anti-Semitic incidents."
"[T]he Israel-Gaza conflict has exacerbated antisemitic incidents in Australia" Burgess also said, thereby "giving extremists an excuse to escalate threats and violence.... communal violence is expected to rise over the next five years, further straining social cohesion."
According to Deborah Stone, editor-in-chief of The Jewish Independent news website:
"There are clearly extremists within the Islamic community and it is upon the broader Islamic community to do something about them and it is upon the multicultural authorities and the people who fund them to make sure that those extremists are not allowed to influence the broader attitude of their communities."
It seems rather naïve of Stone to expect the "broader Islamic community" to assist in erasing this view from within their community.
The Australian government, led by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese of the leftist Labour Party, called an emergency cabinet meeting in January to address the crisis. At the time, the Federal Police taskforce was "investigating at least 105 anti-Semitic attacks." To date, no convictions have resulted for these offenses, including the firebombing of a major synagogue, causing its destruction.
It is understandable that the Jewish community in Australia is highly distressed by the support given by "Muslim and pro-Palestinian groups to the actions of Hamas, which openly desires to destroy the Israeli state." This support has become clear from the vociferous pro-Hamas protests such as the one that took place at the iconic Sydney Opera House on October 9, 2023.
The murderous jihadist ideology of Jew-hatred regrettably seems to know no bounds. The apparent normalization of jihadist-Islamist radicals, such as Hamas and Hezbollah, became frighteningly real when a video revealed that two Muslim immigrant nurses working in a Sydney hospital boasted that one of them had "killed Israeli patients" and the other had sworn to "let them die." The male nurse is recorded as saying, "you have no idea how many Israeli dogs came to this hospital and sent them to jahannam (hell)." The nurses were suspended pending an investigation.
At the end of February, nurse Sarah Abu Lebdeh was eventually charged with "three very, very serious offences" and awaits trial. The male nurse, Ahmad Rashad Nadir was arrested and charged in early March and awaits a court appearance date.
After local Sheikh Wesam Charkawi declared his support for the two nurses, "Pro-Palestinian teachers led dozens of schoolchildren in chants of 'Allahu Akbar' outside a western Sydney public school" in support. Charkawi, who is employed by the New South Wales Department of Education, was "ordered to work from home after defending the two nurses in an Instagram post."
Islamist indoctrination certainly starts at a young age. Activists such as the Teachers and School Staff for Palestine group actually encourage schoolchildren to get involved. The pro-Palestine cohort is active at the far-end of the world as well as in the northern arena, as their openly stated objective is a worldwide Islamic Caliphate based in Jerusalem.
As usual, the issue harkens back to Israel. According to The Jewish Independent:
"In his Instagram video, Sheik Charkawi... criticised the 'hypocrisy' of Anthony Albanese and NSW Health Minister Ryan Park for remaining silent 'when confronted with the most egregious acts of violence committed by Israel.'"
As has occurred in Scandinavian countries such as Sweden, or in many other countries in Europe, Islamic extremism in Australia is becoming brazen. When Salwan Momika, a Christian Iraqi immigrant who criticized jihad, was murdered in Sweden, the event was met online with applause. Sofie Löwenmark, an Arabic-speaking journalist and expert in Islamist extremism, "told media that the celebrations of Momika's murder are indescribable; there are 'tens of thousands of comments with shouts of joy.'"
Fortunately, Australia has not (yet) experienced the cold-blooded murder of a member of the Jewish community and hopefully the authorities can maintain control of the situation, as they have pledged to do.
None of Australia's jihadist Jew-hatred occurrences should come as a surprise. Official opposition leader Peter Dutton noted that the present Labour government irrationally brought in 3,000 migrants from Gaza, "without security checks."
"If you bring in people from a war zone controlled by a listed terror organisation and on tourist visas without checks, it's negligent at best.... This is an attack on civilisation."
Egyptian journalist Mouna Al-Hilmi explains that Islamic jihadist ideology exists for the precise purpose of eradicating Western civilization through world-wide "jihad to establish a global Islamic caliphate." Why, therefore, should Western nations be shocked when it becomes active and causes social chaos?
Australia's Islamist problem, sadly, can be laid squarely at the door of Albanese and his Foreign Minister Penny Wong, both of whom irrationally backed the recognition of a Palestinian state. Hence the relocation of 3,000 unvetted Gazans into Australia.
As Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded to the suggestion of an independent Palestinian state:
"There was a Palestinian state, it was called Gaza. Gaza, led by Hamas, was a Palestinian state and look what we got – the biggest massacre since the Holocaust."
Perhaps Australia's Labour Party leaders might take cognizance of Netanyahu's explanation of why the dangerous ideology of Palestinianism should be rejected, and act to protect their citizens from Islamist terror for generations to come?
Nils A. Haug is an author and columnist. A Lawyer by profession, he is member of the International Bar Association, the National Association of Scholars, the Academy of Philosophy and Letters. Dr. Haug holds a Ph.D. in Apologetical Theology and is author of 'Politics, Law, and Disorder in the Garden of Eden – the Quest for Identity'; and 'Enemies of the Innocent – Life, Truth, and Meaning in a Dark Age.' His work has been published by First Things Journal, The American Mind, Quadrant, Minding the Campus, Gatestone Institute, National Association of Scholars, Jewish Journal, James Wilson Institute (Anchoring Truths), Jewish News Syndicate, Document Danmark, and others.
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