Authorities in Britain, the U.S. and elsewhere, and now in Australia, are concerned about Islamic jihadists returning from Syria and continuing to wage jihad at home. Australian authorities are calling upon Muslim communities to tell their people that “by fighting overseas they are committing a crime” — meanwhile, these same Muslim communities are funding the Australian Muslims’ jihad in Syria. More clueless wishful thinking and fantasy-based policymaking from Western officials.
“Australian jihad recruits fughting [sic] in Syria may bring their terror skills home,” by Matthew Benns for The Daily Telegraph, January 29 (thanks to all who sent this in):
UP to 120 Australians fighting in the Syrian civil war and learning deadly skills which could be used on their return are being funded by Muslim communities here collecting money for humanitarian aid.
Federal Attorney-General George Brandis also warned yesterday that some fighters could commit terrorist acts in Australia.
“These individuals not only potentially breach Australian laws and commit offences offshore, but upon their return to Australia pose a significant national security risk,” he said.
Australians fighting in Syria would gain new skills “including the ability to conduct an attack on Australian soil,” he told 200 policing experts from around the world at the Interpol Global Security and Counterterrorism Convention in Sydney.
Australian Federal Police counterterrorism chief Assistant Commissioner Neil Gaughan confirmed most of the AFP’s counterterrorism attention was focused on the 120 Australians known to be fighting or assisting in the fighting in Syria.
A special unit was investigating how the Australians got there. “We are looking at the money,” he said. “A lot is being raised in the community with the expectation it is not to fight jihad but for humanitarian aid.”
However he said he was sure some of the money was being handed over with a knowing wink to support the fighters.
“The problem for us is when those 120 people come back,” Mr Gaughan said. “These people have seen horrific things, been exposed to a more radical form of Islam and they come back with a combat capability.
“International studies show that about one in nine persons who comes back is a concern and can be engaged in hostile activity in their own country.
“The question for us is trying to determine who the one in nine is. We have to monitor all these people and make sure.”
Last month the AFP arrested two Sydney men, Hamdi al-Qudsi and Amin Mohammed, whom they allege helped at least five people to travel to Syria.
“The community needs to take some responsibility here,” Mr Gaughan said “They need to be telling people that by fighting overseas they are committing a crime.”
Good luck with that.
Meanwhile Facebook pages are filling up with photographs of Australians posing with rifles and tanks on the battlefront.
Yesterday The Australian revealed one of the fighters, Mohammed Ayub, was the son of “jihad sheila” Rabiah Hutchinson and alleged former Jemaah Islamiyah cell leader Abdul Rahim Ayub.
Mr Gaughan said: “We are seeing Australians killed over there. It is not weekend warrior stuff. This is real war and some of them are now dead.”
This month Sydney woman Amira Ali became the first Australian woman to die in the war after travelling there to join her husband Yusuf Ali, who was also killed.