Conservative MP George Christensen has been forced to back down after suggesting an incident at a Sydney police station was a “failed terrorism attack” and linking it to radical Islamism.
NSW Police said a man drove at speed into the car park at Merrylands police station in western Sydney on Thursday night, hitting a roller door. It appeared some form of accelerant had sparked a fire inside the vehicle, police said. The man sustained serious injuries and was taken to hospital.
#BREAKING: Police sources have told the ABC there has been an attempted terror attack directed against a western Sydney police station.
— Siobhan Fogarty (@Siobhan_Fogarty) July 21, 2016
A number of news organisations, including the ABC, initially reported that the incident was terrorism-related.
Christensen quickly posted on his Facebook page: “Failed terror attack on a police station in Merrylands tonight. The same police station had received terror threats by radical Islamists last year.
“I wonder how quickly some idiot is going to inanely say this has nothing to do with Islam or talk about a religion of peace or blame those who oppose radical islam on even Australia as a whole for marginalising some ‘disaffected youth’.”
Asked whether the incident had any links to violence extremism, NSW police assistant commissioner Denis Clifford told reporters later on Thursday: “That’s not one of our lines of inquiry. There’s nothing to indicate this is in any way related to terrorism. We’ll keep an open mind, but we’re not leaning that way at this stage.”
Christensen then posted: “Surprisingly for Merrylands, this incident may not have been a terrorist attack as the ABC originally reported it to be. News is still rolling in, so we will see.
“But the point I make in this post is not lost: why is it every time there is a terror attack (here or overseas) we get the same platitudes from the Left and the political & media elite.”
Late on Thursday night NSW police had not identified the man, and were continuing to investigate the circumstances of the incident.
