It’s in the interests of Islamic State for Muslims in Australia to be attacked or for their mosques to be attacked, because doing so would help divide the Australian community. But we should be very clear…

Stating the obvious is well and good. It’s very important to remember, whether here in Australia or overseas – it’s only a tiny minority of the Muslim community that are ever involved in any kind of extreme action. The vast majority are decent, ordinary people, who shouldn’t be attacked, and who should feel as respected and protected as any other member of the community.

The most effective form of good policing happens at an individual community level: having police officers on the ground, at local stations, involved with and knowing the Islamic community, and making sure that senior members of those community know that should anything happen – such as an attack on a mosque – that the police  take that seriously. It’s really important for police to protect the Islamic community. If they don’t, there’s a risk that people will feel isolated and that’s not in Australia’s best interests.

As for Islamic State, if they or their sympathizers can arrange a situation where we see parts of the Australian community pitted against each other, then that’s exactly what they want. That’s the kind of situation that breeds more sympathy for their cause, so that disenchanted young people end up either going overseas or else taking actions in their own country

Today we saw  AFP,ASIO and Police 800 of them raid,  televise and proudly advertise a one way action the total opposite of the advise offered by the UK  with a longer history a much bigger Muslim population than we have, with a far larger population overall. The above community approach not generally applied by our security forces here has managed to keep British terrorism to 7 instances over 8 years. It also needs to be pointed out that no instance was discovered by increased security but rather by an aware public noticing something odd. The Australian approach seems an antithesis to the British who have had years of experience with sectarian conflict in Ireland. Yesterday seems little more than a publicity exercise with a high potential to backfire.