Andrew L. Urban
The pizzas famously delivered to them after their hide ‘n’ seek arrival made angry headlines. But that’s only the crust of the matter.
The second group of women who left Australia to join the men of the terrorist organisation as “ISIS brides” in 2014-2019, returned last week as ISIS widows. Most of the husbands may have died but the underlying antisemitic ideology of ISIS is alive: the desire to eliminate Jews is a major part of ISIS ideology. They have called for attacks on Jews worldwide, synagogues, and Jewish communities, describing the battle with Jews as fundamentally religious. They endorse apocalyptic hadiths about killing Jews. These characteristics are totally alien to Australians.
The furore about them returning to Australia has been characterised almost exclusively as a national security issue. That provides the political context and reveals the antisemitism of Australia’s Labor government via the fears of terrorism on Australian soil.
But, in my opinion, the deeper issue is that Australians do not want these women and their children in their midst. They are not just fearful; they are morally disturbed and angered by this cohort. They don’t like the idea that the fundamental issue – loyalty v treason – is being whitewashed by the government. I say that because the women committed crimes when they left to support a terror group; ISIS.
By rights, that crime should be prosecuted in every case. What about the children, you may say. Children of criminals are always damaged by the acts of their parent/s; always separated from them. Always a burden for others (usually family). And forget deradicalising the children. There is much evidence to show children who are radical are usually more radical than adults; they lack the controls to behaviour that maturity usually brings. I don’t have a solution for this problem in a democratic society.
These ‘new Australians’ are early teenage children radicalised since birth from whom the soured milk of human unkindness oozes like puss. If you think that’s too harsh, take a look at the venomous ISIS children in one of the Syrian camps attacking a US news reporter. NBC News reporter Richard Engel and his crew have stones thrown at them by children from a camp housing former ISIS fighters and their families in Syria.