I Warned Them

For more than a decade, I’ve warned that radical Islam is not just someone else’s problem, it’s ours.

And for my trouble, I was smeared: Bigot. Islamophobe. Racist.

The usual insults from the usual suspects; academics, bureaucrats, media sycophants, and political cowards, all determined to ignore the growing threat in plain sight.

But yesterday, on Bondi Beach, the cost of that wilful blindness hit home.

At the time of writing, what we know is horrifying: gunmen opened fire on Australians, men, women, and children, as they relaxed on Bondi Beach. The target is likely to have been Jews celebrating Hanukkah. Twelve people are dead. Children and a police officer is among them. At least 18 are in hospital. One of the attackers is dead, and another in custody. The police are scrambling. Witnesses say the shooters shouted “Allahu Akbar!” as they pulled the trigger. Along with that, a photo of one of the gunmen quickly circulated showing a man of Middle Eastern appearance. His name, according to news reports, is Naveed Akram. What a totally Aussie-sounding name. Not!

It’s the nightmare we were told would never happen here. Except it just did.

And the attack didn’t come without warning. Not just the kind whispered by intelligence services or buried in briefings, I mean public, plainspoken, unavoidable warnings. Like the one I gave in 2015:

“This is no longer something that is ‘over there’; it’s not a threat that only exists on foreign shores; it’s a threat that is within our midst as well. There are those within our shores who sympathise and even support and actively recruit for Islamic State. These people have declared war on Western civilisations and we would be foolishly naïve to think we are not at war.”

That was at a Reclaim Australia rally. Ten years ago. I copped flak for it, of course, but I wasn’t wrong.

When I announced I’d be attending that rally, I made my reason plain:

“I want to support people who seek to defend our Australian way of life, our culture and our freedoms from the threat of radical Islam.”

I was speaking directly about this; imported hatreds turning violent in our streets, while our leaders play dumb and our institutions parrot empty slogans.

The truth is this: when you ignore radical Islam, when you coddle its apologists, and when you demonise anyone who tries to expose it, you don’t get peace, you get Bondi Beach turned into a killing field.

This shooting was not random or senseless. It was the logical endpoint of years of cultural cowardice and strategic blindness.

And still, we’ll hear the same pathetic lines:

“We don’t know the motive.”

“This isn’t who we are.”

“Now’s not the time.”

No. Now is exactly the time.

The time to confront the ideology of radical Islam. The time to defend our values. The time to stop sacrificing Australians on the altar of political correctness.

Because the stakes are no longer theoretical. They’re bleeding out on the sand.

“We would be foolishly naive to think that we are not at war with radical Islam.”
– George Christensen, 2015