Many times over the past two years, Australia’s leaders have told us that there is no place in this country for hate.
Hidden away behind closed doors and iron gates, hatred has flourished, even as the rest of us condemn it. Jihadist preachers have spewed anti-Semitic, anti-Western bile, recruiting young men and corrupting their minds with a radical perversion of Islamic ideology.
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The so-called “factories of hate” from which they sermonise have operated more or less with impunity, their existence making a mockery of the oft-repeated platitude that there is no place in Australia for extremism or racial hatred.
From today however, there is one fewer.
Canterbury-Bankstown council in Sydney’s west has moved to shut down the Al Madina Dawah Centre, associated with notorious radical Wissam Haddad.
The Al Madina Dawah Centre is where alleged Bondi Beach terrorist Naveed Akram made links to Islamic State connections prior to last Sunday’s massacre.
The council says it has grounds to shutter the centre because it does not have development approval to operate as a prayer hall, and was recently approved to operate as a medical centre.
It’s the Al Capone approach to law enforcement, and it is part of a co-ordinated crackdown by NSW bodies aimed at stamping out anti-Semitism.
The State’s Parliament has been recalled and is expected to pass tough new gun laws as well as legislation banning protests after terror events on Tuesday evening. Further legislation including banning the chant “globalise the intifada” is before a committee.
The people of NSW were horrified to see their State’s most famous beach the scene of a bloodbath. In response, they’ve given extraordinary licence to their Government and Premier Chris Minns, who has shown repeatedly this month that he deserving of their faith in him.
Since the events of December 14, Mr Minns has been a pillar of strength, not just for his State but for the country.
He has led the nation in its mourning, and spoken with conviction and clarity about the task ahead of us.
His example has amplified the failures of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.
Where Mr Minns has shown contrition, readily conceding his own mistakes in confronting the scourge of anti-Semitism, Mr Albanese has exhibited defensiveness. Where Mr Minns has responded with humanity, Mr Albanese has responded with bureaucratic woodenness.
Mr Minns has promised to do what is necessary to ensure an attack of this nature never happens again, and has followed that promise with action. Meanwhile, Mr Albanese is continuing to hold out on giving the Jewish community the royal commission they are pleading for.
Mr Albanese will believe the criticism aimed at his handling of this crisis is motivated by partisanship. It’s not. He and Mr Minns hail from the same side of politics, yet one man has been embraced by the community and the other rejected.
