NEWCASTLE, Australia (AP) — Muslim groups in Australia criticized Friday the disparate police response to two knife attacks in Sydney this month, saying it created a perception of a double standard and further alienated the country’s Muslim minority.
The Australian National Imams Council said an attack at a Bondi Junction shopping center was “quickly classified as a mental health issue”, while the stabbing attack on a Christian bishop at a Sydney church two days later was “almost immediately classified as a terrorist attack”.
“The disparity in treatment of the two recent violent incidents is clear,” council spokesperson Ramia Abdo Sultan said in a statement to the Alliance of Australian Muslims and the Australian Muslim Advocacy Network.
“Such divergent responses create the impression of a double standard in law enforcement and judicial processes,” she said.
A 16-year-old boy is accused of repeatedly attacking Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel and a priest at Christ the Good Shepherd on April 15, two days after the Bondi Junction attack that killed six people and seriously injured a dozen others Church was stabbed by a lone gunman with a history of mental illness.
The boy was charged last week with committing a terrorist attack, a crime that carries a maximum penalty of life in prison.
Five teenagers aged 14 to 17 have also been charged with terrorism offenses in connection with the church stabbings. They were among seven people arrested in a major Joint Counter-Terrorism Team operation in Sydney’s southwest that attracted widespread attention.
The boys, accused of following a violent extremist religious ideology, appeared in a Sydney children’s court on Thursday, with only the 14-year-old being granted bail. He was still in custody as of Friday, pending an appeal.
Sultan called for an investigation into the events leading up to the police raids to ensure transparency and accountability within the justice system and prevent the marginalization of various ethnic and religious groups.
“We must also address the problematic and long-standing issue of racial and religious profiling, which has been part of the fabric of society for decades,” Sultan said. “The assumption that terrorism is inherently linked to religion is not only inaccurate but harmful.”
New South Wales state premier Chris Minns agreed it was important that terrorism allegations were made correctly, but rejected any need for changes.
“The truth is that in some cases, and these are few, terrorist activities are due to religious extremism,” Minns told a news conference in Sydney on Friday.
Meanwhile, a Sydney university student has settled his defamation lawsuit against Australian broadcaster Channel Seven for misidentifying him as the attacker in the Bondi Junction shopping center attack.
Channel Seven incorrectly identified 20-year-old student Benjamin Cohen as the attacker after he was named in several posts on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Police later identified the attacker as 40-year-old Joel Cauchi, who was shot by the first responding officer.
“Seven accepts that the identification was a serious error and that these claims were completely false and unsubstantiated,” Seven chief executive Jeff Howard said in a statement carried by the Australian Broadcasting Corp. published on Friday.
He said Seven “apologizes to you for the harm you and your family have suffered as a result of Seven’s statements about you.”
Further details of the agreement were kept confidential.