1. 21/03/2016 2:50 pmAim must be to break the cycle of radicalisation | HeraldSun
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Aim must be to break the cycle of radicalisation
Mohammad Ali Baryalei.
ACCORDING to police, an alleged plot to launch an outrageous attack on Anzac Day
in Melbourne has been thwarted. That is certainly good news but it is not one of
those stories where we can simply move on and forget.
There are two questions to grapple with. Are alleged plots like this the shape of
things to come? Will more Australians be cajoled into attempting lone wolf attacks?
And will we be forever chasing our tails responding to radicalisation after the fact?
The experience of the past decade suggests that while we are lucky to live in a
country where major attacks can generally be prevented, we have not yet begun to
deal effectively with a problem that is accelerating.
A decade ago, a much bigger police operation in Victoria and NSW defeated nascent
terror plots linked to two cells inspired by Melbourne man Abdul Nacer Benbrika.
Operation Pendennis was the biggest and most expensive counter-terrorism
operation in our history and led to court proceedings that were the longest and most
costly we’ve seen.
Eighteen men were prosecuted and sentenced. The Sydney cell, at least, was
frighteningly close to launching a major attack.

2. 21/03/2016 2:50 pmAim must be to break the cycle of radicalisation | HeraldSun
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But when we take stock of what was achieved, the reality is grim. Most of the 18
sentenced, and many of their associates, remain unrepentant. In fact most are now
caught up with jihadi violence in Iraq and Syria, either inspiring their young acolytes
to join, as appears to be the case with the five remaining in maximum-security jail in
NSW and with Benbrika in Victoria or they have actively gone to join the ranks of
Islamic State or Jabhat al-Nusra/al-Qaeda.
We’re all too familiar with the sickening details of Khaled Sharrouf’s involvement with
IS, along with Mohammed Elomar, whose uncle of the same name continues to serve
a 28-year jail term arising from the Pendennis trials. And Adam Dahman who left
Melbourne aged 17 in November 2013 became a suicide bomber in Baghdad in July
last year, having been radicalised through his brother-in-law, Ahmad Raad, who had
also served time for his part in the Pendennis plots.
Amira Karroum moved to Sydney from the Gold Coast to stay with relatives, where
she came under the influence of two cousins. One, Fadl Sayadi, had served time
because of his links with the Sydney Pendennis cell and the other, Bilal Sayadi, was
involved in organised crime before joining the extremist Islamist group Street Dakwah
under the sway of Mohammad Ali Baryalei. Through Bilal and Street Dakwah she met
and married Tyler Casey.
Casey was born into a Christian family in Adelaide but became radicalised in
Colorado after falling in with criminal gangs and then finding escape, first through
conversion, then through joining al-Qaeda. The pair were shot dead a week after they
arrived in Syria to fight with Jabhat al-Nusra.
The list goes on. A web of social connections and friendships links young people
being radicalised and older people radicalising them across Australia and globally,
like runners linking disparate clumps in a bamboo forest. The networks run across
generations, linking youth in Australia with peers and mentors in Syria and Iraq, and,
as appears to be the case with the 14-year-old whose arrest in Britain on Saturday
triggered the Melbourne raids, joining them in a subculture of jihadis, wannabes and
fan boys. Digging a little below the surface reveals the “bamboo runners” that drive
the network’s expansion.
Police will allege the young men arrested in Melbourne over the past few days are
friends of Numan Haider who in turn was befriended by Mohammad Ali Baryalei and
his protege, fellow Melbourne boy Neil Prakash. Responding to these social
networks lies at the heart of the challenge to break the vicious cycle of radicalisation

3. 21/03/2016 2:50 pmAim must be to break the cycle of radicalisation | HeraldSun
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that drives this threat. Police operations, necessary though they are, are not the
solution in themselves.
VICTORIA Police, with other forces around Australia, is working with community
groups to help them recognise the signs of radicalisation. That awareness is
invaluable but, by itself, it is not sufficient. The next step is a nationwide case
management approach to dealing with everyone at risk. Every young Australian
whose passport has been withheld, or who has been taken into questioning by police
or faced arrest or stopped from travelling, needs to be followed up by an expert team
of community workers co-ordinating with community leaders. But for the program to
work, it needs to move beyond those who have already been in trouble and engage
with those at risk of radicalisation.
The devastatingly effective radicalisation dynamics of Islamic State depend upon
social networks formed through one-on-one friendships and to counter that we need
to do the same thing and invest in relationships.
It won’t be easy but the alternatives are much worse. Even successful police
operations merely buy time — they don’t solve the problem. This is something that
we will have to all do together.
PROFESSOR GREG BARTON IS DIRECTOR INTERNATIONAL OF THE GLOBAL
TERRORISM RESEARCH CENTRE AT MONASH UNIVERSITY