Bondi Beach and the Shadow of the Islamic State |
On Dec. 14 when two gunmen targeted a public celebration of the first night of Hanukkah at Bondi Beach in the Australian city of Sydney and killed 15 people, it was the worst mass shooting in Australia since the 1996 Port Aurther massacre in Tasmania.
The Bondi Beach massacre also became the deadliest terrorist attack on Australian soil. It occurred amidst a tide of rising antisemitism and a sharp increase in threats and attacks against Jewish people by a range of actors, from individual bigots, extremists, and even state sponsors since the Hamas attack against Israel on Oct. 7, 2023 and the subsequent Israeli military campaign in Gaza.
The police found two homemade black flags in the car used by the two perpetrators—Sajid Akram, 50, and his son, Naveed Akram, 24—suggesting that they are either conducting this attack on behalf of the Islamic State, or at the least inspired by Islamic State ideology. The two men travelled to the Philippines prior to the attack—a visit the police are investigating.
Whether they were enabled by a regional affiliate of the Islamic State in the Philippines or self-radicalized and acting completely of their own volition is not yet clear. But the nature of their assault and their use of the terrorist group’s black flags demonstrates that even though it is much diminished from the height of its caliphate era, Islamic State continues to be a powerful brand and persistent motivating force, able to marshal and exploit societal fault lines in the West to radicalize adherents.
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Terrorism and violent extremism threats in Australia diversified and grew more complicated and diffuse over the past decade. There is a growing and more organised neo-Nazi movement galvanised by the National Socialist Network that has not only motivated lone actor violence and plots but is seeking to mainstream their hateful ideology through a new political party and exploiting grievances among young men.
Online nihilistic and accelerationist violent movements are spreading online and preying on young people. After the Covid-19 pandemic, Australia witnessed the rise of grievance and conspiracy fuelled anti-government movements such as the