Australia raids over 'Islamic state plot to kill'

Reports in the Australian media said a plot involved beheading a random member of the public after draping them in an Islamic State flag.

At least 60 Australians are believed to be fighting with jihadist groups in Syria and northern Iraq, and 15 Australians have been killed so far in these conflicts, including two suicide bombers.

About 100 more Australians are thought to be actively supporting these groups, police say.

The news of an alleged plot to publicly behead a random Australian will shock many people here, including the vast majority of this country's long-established moderate Muslim community.

Many Muslims are unhappy with what's going on in Iraq and Syria but would never resort to violence. These raids risk antagonising the broader Islamic community.

Other raids took place in Brisbane. Acting Australian Federal Police Commissioner Andrew Colvin said they were not "directly linked" to the Sydney operation but related to a raid last week on an Islamic centre that led to two men being charged with terrorism offences.

The government has said it believes about 100Australians are actively supporting extremist groups from within Australia, recruiting fighters and grooming suicide bomber candidates as well as providing funds and equipment.

"BRAH" said
How many of these folks are in Canada / Calgary right now?

The group�s tactics are so brutal, even al-Qaida has disowned them. The militants have ignored international borders, capturing territory from the fringes of Aleppo in Eastern Syria to Fallujah in Southern Iraq.

They have also attracted foreign fighters from every corner of the world, including Canada. The latest federal report from Ottawa, now months old, indicated more than 130 Canadians abroad taking part in terrorist activities, and another 80 returned to Canada.

A group of disillusioned British jihadists who wanted to return home after fighting for Islamic State in Iraq and Syria have been taken prisoner by their militant commanders.

The men were stripped of their weapons and marched to a punishment centre in the militant-held city of Raqqa in Syria, according to reports.

The five Britons were accompanied by three Frenchmen, two Germans and two Belgians. They had complained that they were spending their time fighting other rebel forces instead of the government of Bashar al-Assad and were concerned that they were killing fellow Muslims.
The men were rounded up after apparently delaying returning to Britain for fear that they would be arrested on arrival.

But security sources say the new development shows that defectors cannot afford to try to bargain with British authorities and should just �drop their weapons and leave�.

"BartSimpson" said
Naturally, this has nothing to do with islam.

In writing about these raids it has been impossible to avoid mentioning the �I� and �M� words � Islam and Muslim � because Islam is the religion the accused claim to follow and Muslim is the identity they choose.

Yet already our politicians from Prime Minister Tony Abbott to Queensland Premier Campbell Newman and NSW Premier Mike Baird are doing everything they can to avoid associating those at the core of these anti-terrorist raids with �either word.

The closest Newman came yesterday to admitting any link was his admission that some �criminals are using the Muslim religion as a badge to get others on board�. Please. The public can join the dots.

IS, Islamic bookshops, deluded idiots claiming to be imams preaching hatred in mosques, men being arrested in homes in which the women are covered from head to toe in black covers, and no one can openly recognise the link to Islam, no matter how much the ideology may have been distorted?

Get real people. The battle cry of Allahu Akbar is being screamed by combatants from every side in the conflict raging from Syria to Iraq and across the mountains and valleys of Afghanistan. It is not the call to Evensong.

That so many in the Australian Muslim community are now co-operating with the authorities is a sign of maturity and, hopefully, a recognition that the deadly tribal feuds that keep the Middle East drenched in blood should never be permitted to find a home here where so many refugees from religious and ideological wars have found a haven.

While the nation appreciates their assistance, their true acceptance of residence or citizenship must include recognition that this is a pluralistic society.

We can choose (or leave) our own religion and adopt or reject ethical beliefs no matter how repugnant and (the Racial Discrimination Act�s 18C aside) offensive that may be to others.

Islam cannot be treated as a sacred cow. It must be open to the same sort of scrutiny, and indeed even mockery, as the ABC routinely dishes out to Catholics, Mormons and others.

Growing numbers of Muslims call Australia home. They must accept the house rules and reject those who insist on enforcing a set of disputed medieval religious edicts on others sheltering under the same roof.