Alarm bells should ring

EACH time we are confronted by the horror of Islamic extremist terrorism, Australia seems to call it a wake-up call.

Each time there are attempts by sections of the media and political class to play down the Islamist element and each time there is a rush from the same cohort to leap to the “backlash” story, warning of repercussions against Australia’s Muslim communities.

We heard it after 9/11 when 10 of our nationals were killed in the US, and it was palpable after the first Bali bombing in October 2002 killed 88 of our citizens among 202 victims. Still, the wake-up calls came; the Jakarta embassy bombing of 2004 and the second Bali bombing of 2005.

Extensive domestic terrorist plots were uncovered and serious convictions secured — again, wake up calls and warnings about a backlash.

This year, more raids and more arrests as dozens of Australian citizens joined the Islamic State terrorists in Iraq and Syria and radicalised Melbourne teenager Numan Haider was shot dead as he stabbed two police officers.

There was hardly a need for any more wake up calls.

And the much-discussed backlash never seemed to arise.

Islamic State specifically mentioned Martin Place as a prime location for a terrorist atrocity.

Yet here we are again.

The brutal, pointless and sickeningly random killing of two young Sydneysiders after almost 17 hours of terror is portrayed as a “wake up” call.

We need to come to grips with a blunt reality; Islamic extremist terrorism, whether it is carried out by highly organised groups or deranged loners, whether it is imported or homegrown, is a real and present danger.

Our broader community and media need to deal with this reality in the matter of fact way that our security forces do. The few isolated cases of Islamophobic responses have normally been strongly dealt with and denounced by our citizens, not to mention our authorities.

They are always regrettable and intolerable but are far from the norm — such behaviour is simply not Australia’s way — and any attempt to find equivalence between them and deadly acts of terrorism is insulting to the victims of terror.

Yet, even while our fellow Australians were still cowering at the hands of an extremist gunman yesterday, social media was abuzz with a feel-good hashtag campaign to suggest Muslim Australians would be safe on our public transport.

Muslims are safe on our public transport each and every day.

In the huddled crowds at Martin Place yesterday there were Muslim women with head scarfs, mingling in the crowd sharing their concerns along with their fellow non-Muslim Australians. That is our way.

The idea that Australia needs to prove its plurality and tolerance is as wrongheaded as it is silly.

We have a vibrant Muslim community precisely because hundreds of thousands of Muslim migrants know and value our free and tolerant society.

And it is this same plurality and liberalism that makes us a target for the Islamic extremist terrorists. Denigrating ourselves and portraying all Muslims as the victims, rather than the drastically unlucky and blameless cafe customers and staff, is playing to the terrorist narrative.

Our prime concern needs to be for the protection of the victims and potential victims of terrorism.

And in this endeavour, Muslim and non-Muslim Australians share a common foe — Islamic extremist terrorists and their evil ideology.

No amount of publicly proclaimed love and empathy will assuage terrorists.