Release of Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) Strategic Insight No. 37/2007

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ASPI today released a new Strategic Insight publication ‘Beyond belief: Islamism, radicalisation and the counter-terrorism response’ examining the strategies employed by Dutch, British and Singaporean agencies to counter radicalisation. It finds they blend a proactive, managerial policy that addresses issues of cohesion, identity and alienation and seeks to build more effective relationships with local Muslim communities at the provincial and metropolitan level, with a more determined prosecution of those promoting the ideology and practice of jihadism at the national level. While Australian security agencies don’t face a radicalised Islamism here that has developed to the capacity of its European equivalent, our homeland security will require the cooperation of Australia’s Islamic communities, which represent 1.7 % of the population. The paper suggests five measures that should be undertaken to prevent the type of violent extremism that has evolved in Europe and elsewhere from establishing itself in Australia. 

  • Crafting a long-term policy response to drain the ideological swamp in which radicalisation thrives, before it becomes fully established. A national counter-radicalisation strategy should be developed by the Council of Australian Governments (COAG).
  • Establish an Australian Muslim National Security Forum to develop strategies for tackling extremism that may lead to acts of terrorism while enhancing cooperation between Australia’s Islamic communities, state and federal Police.
  • Establish a Major Urban Counter-Terrorism Policing Program to assist state police improve their capacity to interdict violent extremism.
  • Australian Muslims must continue their efforts to make clear that they have no sympathy with groups promoting extremism.
  • An information hub on the research undertaken both here and overseas on counter – radicalisation.

  “To ensure the homegrown terrorist threat is both contained and over time negated, security, police and national leaders will need to reassure Australian Muslims that they can practice their faith freely and that they have a place within a pluralist Australian society. Integrated into wider social networks, they are less likely to experience the rejection and alienation that militant Islamists seek to exploit,” says report co-author Dr Anthony Bergin.