A stabbing,a riot,a nation divided:Albanese’s toughest test

Division is easy when a video goes viral of a young man striding toward a bishop and appearing to stab him on an altar as he falls to the floor.

That sight creates an instant challenge for social cohesion and an urgent test for political leaders when the war in the Middle East has already set Australians against each other.

The response was swift after the alleged attack on Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel in western Sydney on Monday night,but we can all see a worrying limit to the power of political leaders to maintain calm.

At the very time NSW Premier Chris Minns hoped that community leaders could keep the peace,the crowd swelled from 50 to 500 outside the Christ the Good Shepherd Church and a riot began.

At the very time Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was being briefed on the events,the police had to be on guard against reprisals when they needed to establish the facts about the attack in the church. This made it harder,and slower,to be sure about whether this was terrorism.

Albanese and Minns did all the right things. They said all the right things. Yet the events exploded regardless – to the point where young men were smashing police car windshields.

In what world do people respond to a threat to a priest by throwing bricks at police,damaging 20 police cars,preventing paramedics taking people to hospital and breaking a policeman’s jaw?

The danger to Australia’s social cohesion is out in the open. And it’s live on Facebook.

One theory is that calling this terrorism will only make things worse. “You’re not going to create cohesion with that language and those words,” said Dai Le,the independent MP for the federal electorate of Fowler,which includes the Wakeley church.

But what else can it be called? Australian Security Intelligence Organisation director-general Mike Burgess said it was motivated by religious ideology. Islamist terror has the power to infect weak minds.

There is a justified fear of reprisals if Muslim Australians are wrongly blamed for the actions of one boy. The early reports suggest the accused attacker called out phrases about the prophet Muhammad. That helps explain the rapid work by Islamic leaders to tell their communities to avoid a confrontation.

“We reject violence in all its forms,” said Grand Mufti Sheikh Riad Al-Rifai in a statement late Monday night.

Most political and community leaders are doing everything they can to avoid any provocative words. Albanese was so intent on keeping the peace that he sidestepped an important question on Tuesday morning,when ABC Melbourne host Raf Epstein asked him the religion of the accused attacker.

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“We are ensuring that everything is confirmed before any information is released,” the prime minister replied.

In other words,Albanese knows the answer but is wary of making it public. Would angry Christians march on a mosque if they knew in the moment that the attacker was a Muslim? That scenario seemed possible on Monday night,and unfortunately the Lakemba mosque in western Sydney needs extra protection.

Peter Dutton,too,is being extremely cautious. His reaction was measured and bipartisan on Tuesday. The Opposition Leader has found fault with Albanese at other times – for instance,calling him weak on antisemitism – but has avoided that after the Bondi Junction murders and the Wakeley attack. The threat to unity is bigger now,and the need for bipartisanship is all the greater.

The riot was the critical event – more so than the alleged attack because the public response showed just how frayed society has become. The calming words from prime ministers and premiers sounded like feeble platitudes when contrasted with the passion on the streets.

Too many parts of the community want to default to division. And too many are eager for a domestic fight over the Middle East. There should be no dispute about the rise in antisemitism,for instance,when crowds chant “where’s the Jews” at the Sydney Opera House and synagogues need constant security. Political leaders are reluctant to say it in public,but many feel that the protestors for Palestine are more aggressive and troubling than those in favour of Israel.

Political leaders are setting the right tone,so far. Albanese,Dutton and Minns all condemned the attack in the church,sent bipartisan messages about cohesion and made no excuses for the way the crowd turned on the police.

Australia has been here before. The country regained its cohesion after the Cronulla riots in 2005 saw ugly racism against Muslim and Lebanese Australians. It recovered again after protesters made Nazi salutes in a crowd at St Kilda Beach in 2019. All communities feel targeted at times – Jewish,Muslim,Christian,Hindu and more. Over time,all put a priority on cohesion over conflict.

The most disturbing fact about Monday night was that so many chose conflict first.

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