Click here to watch: Australia’s Link To Islamic State
What just happened in Australia is part of a disturbing trend threatening the west. Islamic lone wolf terrorism is now the great threat to our way of life. Once shielded by its distance and isolation, the island continent now finds itself in the gun sights of Islamic militancy. This should not come as a surprise. Australian forces have been active in operations around the Middle East and Africa that have enraged al Qaeda and its heirs in Islamic State. Hundreds of Australian troops, including members of the Special Air Service, are on the ground in Iraq training soldiers to fight IS, while its bombers are part of the international coalition attacking fighters who have unleashed their death cult most bloodily in Iraq’s north. An estimated 60 to 70 Australians are believed to have travelled to Syria to join IS. Among them is Abdullah Elmir, 17, who recently appeared in an IS recruitment video exhorting supporters to attack Australia and America. He is believed to have been recruited by Mohammed Ali Baryalei, a former bouncer, who also managed to get Mohammed Elomar, 30, to Syria where he tweeted a picture of an Iraqi soldier pleading for his life and said: „Look at the end of these Iraqi Maliki dogs bunch of girls can’t wait to see an Australian soldier crying saying bakia.” Elmir’s appearance at the centre of a group of armed men shows him bragging and pontificating in scenes that his family said indicated that he had been „brainwashed”. His comrades are bearded – he is baby faced. But not as chillingly as the son of Khaled Sharrouf, another Australian, who tweeted a photograph of a child holding up the severed head of a man in Syria and has campaigned for others to join his jihad. These calls appeared to have been heeded.
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In September, 800 Australian police officers were deployed in the nation’s biggest counter terrorism operation ever to thwart an alleged plot to behead an innocent civilian. Other self-starter groups have been rounded up and Australia’s role at the centre of operations in the Middle East has bound it ever more closely into the western alliance of Europe and the United States. They have apparently been inspired by Australians and are calling on their fellow countrymen to join them at war in a 13-minute production titled „There Is No Life Without Jihad”. It shows five extremists urging people to „respond to Allah” and „wake up and be part of the effort”. One militant, identified as Brother Abu Yahya ash Shami, who spoke with a strong Australian accent, is believed to have been killed shortly after the film was made. Another Australian, named as Brother Abu Nour al Iraqi, says his „reasons for coming to jihad are plenty” and „when it comes to jihad there are two types of people”. „Those who will fight every single excuse to come to jihad, and those who will fight every single excuse not to come to jihad,”‘ the man says from behind a face mask. The attacker in Sydney’s Lindt shop has not bothered with a mask – and in the early stages of the hostage crisis he avoided the bloodletting that has been the hallmark of IS operations. He may want to share the notoriety of IS but he might not have the stomach for its tactics. That may fire a small glimmer of hope that Australia can avoid an Islamist orgy of violence in its midst… for now.
Source: Sky News
