Australian Arrests Underline Continuing Battle Against Islamic State

Link to original story on Jamestown website

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott, on August 20, confirmed that seven suspected Australian would-be jihadists had been arrested earlier in the month at Sydney airport while trying to travel to the Middle East (The Australian, August 20). Abbott, not known for mincing his words on Islamist radical groups, said the arrests showed "the continuing allure of this death cult," a reference to the Iraq- and Syria-based Islamic State organization. While indeed underlining the continuing appeal of the organization to a minority of Australian Muslims, the arrests also underline that the Australian authorities appear highly vigilant to the threat posed by the Islamic State and are quick to take a range of actions, both conventional and unconventional, against suspected fighters or supporters of the group.

Particularly noteworthy are the Australian authorities' effort to encourage individuals known to have been involved with jihadist groups in Syria and Iraq to willingly return to Australia in order to face trial. For instance, in July, the Australian Federal Police negotiated the voluntary return of Adam Brookman, a 39-year-old nurse and convert to Islam from Melbourne, to Australia from Turkey (AAP, July 26). Brookman has claimed that he was forced to work as a nurse for the Islamic State in their capital Raqqa after initially entering Syria to perform humanitarian work. He was arrested upon his arrival in Australia and is currently awaiting trial. Another Australian convert, 18-year-old Oliver Bridgeman, is also reported to be trying to negotiate his return to Australia, having apparently joined Jabhat al-Nusra, al-Qaeda's official affiliate in Syria (Courier Mail, May 21; ABC, May 16). In response to Brookman's return, the Australian Federal Police's manager of counter-terrorism operations, Commander Peter Crozier, told the media that he was "hopeful" that other Australian jihadists would also return home, although he said that they would nonetheless face penalties: "If people think they are just going to walk through the front door and nothing is going to happen, then that is unfair and it is being naive" (Courier Mail, May 21). Australia's approach in this regard is almost unprecedented among Western countries and will be being watched closely by other governments, which are also struggling to find a way to balance the need to punish appropriately jihadists while also recognizing the need to help individuals seeking to exit jihadist groups, as they could pose a greater threat if they remain with these organizations.

At the same time, however, the Australian government is also pursuing a range of more conventional measures against known jihadist supporters. For instance, in August, the government imposed financial sanctions against Mostafa Farag (a.k.a. Abu Sulayman al-Muhajir), a former Sydney cleric who is one of the country's most prominent jihadists presently active in Syria (The Australian, August 20). Farag, who travelled to Syria in 2011 is now in the shura (leadership committee) of Jabhat al-Nusra. Focusing Australian governmental attention is the risk of returning radicals, or individuals inspired by the group, carrying out attacks domestically. Underlining this potential threat, a recent Islamic State "hit list" circulated online by a number of radicals, including prominent Australian Islamic State member Neil Prakash, formerly of Melbourne, that featured at least 11 Australians, including politicians and government employees (ABC, August 13; Herald Sun, August 13). Although this particular threat does not appear to be backed by any concrete plans to conduct attacks in Australia, Prakash is one of the Islamic State's most successful Australian online influencers, with a track record of attracting would-be recruits initially through public social media outlets and then radicalizing them further in private forums (Herald Sun, August 19). In December 2014, a lone Muslim radical, who was apparently partly-inspired by the Islamic State, took 18 hostages in a cafe in downtown Sydney; two of the hostages-and the perpetrator-were killed when police stormed the store, and the potential for such attacks clearly remains (The Australian, December 30, 2014).