16yo attacker showed no sign of extremism: Father
The father of a teenager accused of stabbing two Christian clerics in Australia saw no signs of his son’s extremism, a Muslim community leader said on Wednesday as police began arresting suspected rioters who besieged a Sydney church demanding revenge.
The 16-year-old spoke in Arabic about the Prophet Muhammad after he stabbed Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel and the Reverend Isaac Royel during a church service on Monday night that was being streamed online. Neither cleric received life-threatening injuries.
The Orthodox Assyrian congregation overpowered the boy and he remained in an undisclosed hospital under police guard. He sustained severe hand wounds in the struggle.
Lebanese Muslim Association secretary Gamel Kheir — an advocate for Sydney’s largest Muslim community — said he spent two hours with the boy’s distraught father at the family home soon after the attack. The family have since left their home for fear of retaliation.
“He was in shock,” Kheir said of the father, who has not been identified.
“He was not aware of any signs of becoming more extreme other than the fact that he was becoming more disobedient to his father . . . He didn’t see any tell-tale signs.
Kheir is among several community leaders who have accused police of unnecessarily raising community tensions with a premature declaration on Tuesday that the attack at Christ the Good Shepherd Church fitted the definition of a terrorist act under New South Wales state law.
“I’m concerned that we’ve rushed to a pre-judgment of a 16-year-old child,” Kheir said. “He used the language of religion, we’re not debating that at all. In a sense that he targeted another religion, that’s not debatable.
“What’s debatable is what mental state was this child in? Was he of a sane mind to even make such a rational call?” Kheir said.
New South Wales Police Commissioner Karen Webb on Wednesday stood by her declaration of a terrorist incident. She said whether the boy would be charged with terrorism offences was a separate consideration and would depend on the results of the police investigation. Police are also investigating the conduct of 600 people who converged on the church on Monday night and demanded police hand over the boy, who was barricaded inside for his own safety.
The crowd hurled bricks, bottles and fence boards at police. Two officers were hospitalised and several police vehicles were
damaged.
Security has also been increased at shopping malls around Australia after a lone assailant stabbed six people to death at Sydney’s Westfield Bondi Junction mall on Saturday. The rampage ended when the 40-year-old assailant, who had a history of mental illness and no apparent motive, was shot dead by police.
Meanwhile, Bishop Emmanuel has extended forgiveness to the teenager. In an audio message released by the church on Thursday, the bishop said he was recovering quickly, and called on followers to obey the law. “I forgive whoever has done this act, I say to him, you’re my son, I love you, and I will always pray for you,” Bishop Emmanuel said. “And whoever sent you to do this, I forgive them as well.”