Islamic-inspired terrorism strikes again in Bourke St., Melbourne

A lone-wolf terrorist has struck in Bourke Street, in the Melbourne CBD, on a busy Friday night (9 November 2018), killing one person and injuring two others with a knife. When police intervened, he lunged at them with the knife.

30-year-old Hassan Khalif Shire Ali was born in Somalia, and was allowed into Australia as a refugee likely back in the 1990s, as part of the insanity that then gripped the Liberal Party, under former Prime Minister John Howard and his Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone.

Turning their back on all previous calls for Australia to accommodate considerable numbers of black African refugees, Howard and Vanstone, for whatever naive, foolish, or wilfully ignorant, short-sighted reason, decided that Australia could accommodate people from countries like Sudan and Somalia. Yet the current African crime wave in Melbourne, as well as the odd terrorist strike, are all part of the long-term consequences of Howard and Vanstone getting it so monumentally wrong back in the 1990s.

It’s been reported that, according to police, Hassan Khalif Shire Ali was radicalised in Australia, and had links to Islamic State. He was known to Federal Police and his passport was cancelled in 2015, should he have attempted to fly to Syria to join the civil conflict there. So, Ali decided to strike at home instead.

It’s worth noting that Ali’s attack could have been far more destructive if it had gone according to his likely plan. Reports are that he had attempted to blow up a car filled with gas cylinders. However, if his intention was to commit suicide and wreak more casualties in the process, his plan had failed, and so he began randomly attacking passers-by with a knife, until he was shot by police.

As the dust settles from the latest attack, it’s been interesting to note the differing rhetoric and differing agendas from different public figures as they respond to the latest strike. Liberal Party politicians seem to have changed their rhetoric from previous terrorism incidents. Prime Minister Scott Morrison suggested the Muslim community “needed to do more to stop radicals”, whilst outraged Muslim lobbyists called for Morrison to apologise, and suggested instead that it was a failure of Australia’s security agencies.

West Australian Labor MP Anne Aly, who is a Muslim, scored another own-goal when she attempted to brush aside the latest terrorist incident, attempting to conflate terrorism with domestic violence, which she rightly received much public condemnation for. One journo even suggested that she should “shut her stupid mouth”.

There must be an election around the corner. And so there is — the Victorian state election.

Meanwhile, a Victorian court has just been told by Australia’s spy chief, Duncan Lewis, that a new ASIO recruit had helped authorities foil a major terrorist strike intended for Christmas Day in 2016, as four wannabe Jihadists, using vehicles, knives and suicide vests, had intended to strike at crowded Melbourne landmarks including Federation Square, Flinders Street Station and St Paul’s Cathedral.

However, no matter how clever or fortunate Australia’s security agencies may be, at least there was some honesty from a few commentators. No matter the means and methods used to try and prevent Islamic-inspired terrorist attacks on Australian soil in the future, there is bound to be a few that will get through the cracks.

References:
Calls for new counter-terror squad, Dutton ‘open to suggestions’ after Bourke Street attack”, SBS, 12 November 2018
Why the Bourke Street terror attack frightens Andrew Bolt”, 2GB [Sydney radio], 12 November 2018
Bourke Street: Scott Morrison says mental health an ‘excuse’, blames IS radicalisation for ‘terrorist’ attack”, ABC News, 12 November 2018
Islam remarks ‘desperate’”, The Australian [subscriber only]
Australia’s Grand Mufti rejects government calls to do more to combat radicalism”, SBS, 12 November 2018 (Fares Hassan, Nick Baker)
Scott Morrison steps up population debate after Bourke Street attack”, The Australian Financial Review, 12 November 2018
Bourke St was ‘reality check’”, The Australian [subscriber only]
‘We must be kidding ourselves’”, The Australian [subscriber only]
Rookie ASIO spy foiled terrorists”, The Australian [subscriber only]
David Penberthy calls out Federal MP’s “stupid” terror comments”, FiveAA [Adelaide radio], 12 November 2018
2018 Melbourne stabbing attack”, Wikipedia

Comments

  1. I recall back in the day when we were told how John Howard was successful in keeping out about 1000 illegal boat people per year…but yet we were never told about the 200, 000 they allowed in LEGALLY each year-usually from the third world. And it frustrates me how when they want to actually leave-we cancel their passports and stop them going! Instead of letting them go, they remain here where they pose a risk to Australians.
    I hold government responsible for anyone killed in a terrorist attack-or any other crime involving ‘new Australians’. They’re complicit in these attacks, and they know it.

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