Terrorism-Related Arrests in Australia

In the last week, nearly 20 men have been arrested for terrorism-related offences. About half (those in Sydney) were allegedly conspiring an attack and had allegedly procured materials to create explosives and recruited a suicide bomber. The other half (in Melbourne) were simply alleged to be members of a terrorist organisation. The arrests were conducted via raids on the suspects' homes, and were the product of about 18 months of police work.

Despite being alarming, this is a very positive development. It seems everybody expected it to happen sooner or later (either arrests or an attack), so the existence of potential terrorists in Australia was not apparently in doubt. While it's not pleasing to have this potentially confirmed, it's nice to know that police have been able to conduct an effective investigation. And it's especially good to see that the suspects are being hauled before a court instead of being dealt with in secret. There's a very real chance that the latter will become a reality in Australia, with worryingly draconian anti-terrorism legislation (with sedition charges and provision for secret detention) being debated in Parliament right now. The timing of these arrests couldn't be better: the suspects will be tried under existing laws. If they receive a fair trial and a just outcome is achieved, then it will help to demonstrate that the new laws are not needed.

A good opinion piece in The Sydney Morning Herald (SMH) last week argued that Muslims feel less threatened in general, now that arrests have taken place and the courts will be handling the cases, as opposed to the situation before last week where the occasional raid would occur without arrests and without explanation. In other words, it's not possible that the latest raids were politically motivated because there's too much political risk in bringing the suspects to court. The writer was a regular contributor to the SMH on Muslim affairs, and is a moderate Muslim, and I'm struggling to remember his name. Anyway, in light of that positive piece, it was annoying, and predictable, to hear that the Lebanese Muslim Council protested recently about the police apparently targeting Muslims, blah blah blah.

What really inspired this blog posting was a letter in the SMH. Last night, I submitted one myself in reaction to the Lebanese Muslim Council's ramblings. It wasn't published, but a similar one was. I'm glad, because the one that was published said everything I wanted to say but much clearer and wittier.

Complaints about Muslims being targeted? Next thing it will be drivers complaining about being targeted for breath tests. Why shouldn't we concentrate where experience tells us the problems are? —Paul Frederick, Mosman

Anyway, I hope the suspects get a fair trial, and have no doubt they will.