Resiliance to Stating the Bleeding Obvious

Today's newspapers included an ad from the Commonwealth Attorney General's department offering grants to community groups who could assist with the national "Building Resilient Communities" program. The aim of that program is to reduce terrorism.

The program and its related website ignores the obvious, that most ethnic communities represent no physical threat to Australians whatsoever, and pretends this is a widespread problem which could come from anywhere. For example this page which talks about the number of Australians killed in terror attacks.

More than 110 Australians have been killed in overseas terrorist attacks in the past decade

Australians have been directly affected by terrorism and violent extremism. We are not immune to these threats, nor should we forget the many Australians who have lost their lives to acts of terrorism, including the 88 people who lost their lives in the Bali bombings on 12 October 2002. Over 200 Australians have also been injured, many seriously, in overseas terrorist attacks.
Since 2001, Australian law enforcement and security agencies have foiled four major terrorist plots on Australian soil

Law enforcement and security agencies in Australia have been successful in detecting and disrupting terrorist attacks before they could occur. In some cases, information provided by the community has been instrumental in preventing attacks that could have caused serious loss of life. While law enforcement will continue to be important, broader strategies including community initiatives are needed to challenge the ideologies and grievances that fuel terrorism in the first place.

Notice any descriptors missing? Indeed the only specifics about any terrorist were in this paragraph:

Not all violent extremists are part of an organised group. Some act alone

Although many violent extremists are part of international and national extremist organisations, others have acted individually. Examples include Anders Behring Breivik in Norway and Roshonara Choudry in Britain. We need to be vigilant against lone extremists as well as the ideologies that push them to commit violence.

What rubbish. Roshonara Choudry didn't act individually at all. She was well and truly a member of an international extremist organisation. It just doesn't have an office building.

The police investigation found that in the last quarter of 2009 Choudhry began downloading from the internet sermons and material from Anwar al-Awlaki, the Islamist cleric who western officials say is the spiritual leader of al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula. He preached the need for violent action to combat the atrocities of the west against Muslims around the world, and urged followers to do what they could, when they could, no matter how small.

The AG Department's definition of "violent extremism" is just as pathetic for its desperate avoidance of stating the dominant threat to this country.

Examples of violent extremism

Separatist and nationalist causes

• Violence linked to anti-immigration causes
• Violence to gain political/national independence, such as action by the Irish Republican Army (IRA) in the United Kingdom, or ETA (a Basque separatist group operating primarily in Spain)

Political–ideological motivations

• Violence during anti-globalisation protests
• Anarchist violence
• Right-wing violence (such as the July 2011 attacks in Norway and the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995)

Political–religious motivations

• Violence by individuals or groups against abortion clinics or doctors
• Violence in the name of religion (such as attacks conducted by Al‑Qaeda)

Issues-based causes

• Violence or destruction of property by groups for causes such as environmental protection, animal rights or anti-gun control

One might conclude that the "attacks conducted by al-Qaeda" were something to do with abortion or gun-control. Also, while they specified the "Right-Wing" was responsible for violence, I'm pretty sure the smelly hippies at every anti-globalisation protests were from the Left-Wing, unnamed.

What a joke.

Yes, yes, not all Muslims are terrorists. But too many are and you can't deal with a problem if you don't dare name it.

This program is the same one which awarded grant money to Preston Mosque, as previously reported here, who sponsored an anti-ASIO rant about Jews.

Your tax dollars at work.