Fran O'Sullivan: Australia bound to follow US on terrorism

A Muslim community prays at a peaceful demonstration at Lakemba, Sydney, after the raids. Photo / AP

Australians woke today with a sobering realisation of how close we came to one or more of our own, on our soil, being abducted, tortured and beheaded.

"The grisly evil was to have been filmed and displayed on social media for the world to witness."

That was the sobering message in yesterday's editorial in the Australian newspaper.

More than a decade on from the Bali bombings in which Kiwi holidaymakers lost their lives alongside Australian citizens, this week's terror raids were a sharp reminder that our part of the world is hardly a benign environment.

Isis (Islamic State) supporters were said by Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott to be within days of committing an atrocity on the streets of a major city. One of the people charged in the wake of the raids has been accused of plotting to kidnap an innocent member of the public off the street and execute them.

Inevitably, many Australians will see the alleged plot as an oblique warning to Abbott for Australia not to deploy troops in Iraq beyond their pledged "mentoring role" for Iraqi forces, or move even further afield by working alongside the United States to neutralise Isis in its base in Syria.

There will be premonitions - as in the earlier fight against al-Qaeda in Afghanistan - that Australians will once again become a target. Not just on Australian soil but in places with less security where they holiday.

The harsh reality is that at least 70 Australians are known to be among the foreign fighters working within Isis territory. Already some of them are being trained in ruthless and craven behaviour and sent back to Australia to wage terror there.

The official rhetoric is heavy.

Abbott praised Australian Federal Police, the security organisation ASIO and the Joint Counter-Terrorism taskforce for thwarting what he calls the "cult of death".

US Secretary of State John Kerry chimed in, saying the terrorist sympathisers were foiled plotting an "extravaganza of brutality".

Now the Australian Government has increased security on the Parliament in Canberra.

It seems that heightened security will be kept in place until well after the G2 Leaders Meeting which takes place in Brisbane in mid-November. Major leaders such as China's Xi Jinping, America's Barack Obama and Germany Angela Merkel will rub shoulders with leaders of lesser nations.

Some of those leaders - including Xi - are expected to make official visits to New Zealand after the G20 is concluded.

That most difficult challenge Abbott faces is how to have a debate that embraces Australian's Muslim communities yet does not target them.

So the Government rhetoric emphasises how the vast bulk of the Muslims in Australia "are good, patriotic Australians"... "we have to get our arms around them because they are our best allies in the fight against extremism".

Would that it was that straightforward.

Already the Sunni fundamentalist group Hizb ut-Tahrir Australia, which wants a global Islamic caliphate, has staged anti-police protests in Sydney attracting more than 400 supporters.

The threat does not seem likely to diminish any time soon given US moves.

Obama's team has asserted that a military campaign in Syria and Iraq against Isis is covered by the prior authorisations to use force against al- Qaeda and the approval of the Iraq War.

When the phone call comes (again) from Obama, Abbott's DNA is such that he will in all likelihood follow suit.