Editorial: If the law won’t keep out ISIS fighters, then change it
Here we go again. The prospect that people who turned their backs on Australia to join ISIS — a murderous cult which spread terror through the Middle East — may be allowed back into this country.
Here we go again. The prospect that people who turned their backs on Australia to join ISIS — a murderous cult which spread terror through the Middle East — may be allowed back into this country.
At least 16 ISIS brides and their children have returned since 2022, including 10 in May alone. Several have been charged with terror-related offences and crimes against humanity.
Now it seems 13 men linked to the ISIS cause may seek a way back.
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By continuing you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy.ISIS fighters captured large parts of Iraq and Syria, as far back as 2014. ISIS sought to establish an Islamic caliphate from which to wage jihad.
It carried out mass executions, beheadings and rape.
It released footage to instil fear. In 2015 a gruesome video showed a captured Jordanian pilot who was burned to death in a cage.
The members of this group were hard-core jihadists who want to overthrow the West.
They were finally defeated in 2019. Many of the women and children were taken to Syria’s Al-Roj detention camp, where they remained until finding their way back to Australia.
The 13 ISIS-linked men were among almost 6000 captured terrorists who were moved to Iraq for interrogation.
This week The Australian reported that a Perth-born paediatrician, Tareq Kamleh, known as “Dr Jihad”, who ditched Australia to join ISIS and treated wounded terrorists, is alive in an Iraqi jail almost a decade after he was declared dead.
Kamleh had attended high school in Perth. He was registered as a doctor in Perth in 2010 and worked in Adelaide and Queensland before returning to WA in 2013.
He told some people he was leaving Perth to work with Doctors Without Borders.
In a July 2017 propaganda video, a bearded Kamleh — who called himself Abu Yousef Al-Australie — wielded an assault rifle as he advocated violence. He urged Muslims to fight for their cause in the Middle East or Western nations, claiming that those who do not fight have “no honour” and “no love for fellow Muslims”.
“What more will it take for it to be (a) justified cause for you to come here to fight for Allah’s sake? And if you can’t make a way to come . . . jihad itself isn’t only in the lands of Syria or only in the lands of Iraq.”
The video appeared to be filmed in a cave or tunnel and was the first suggestion that Kamleh had survived two years of coalition air strikes and heavy fighting.
A year later, reports emerged that Kamleh had been killed in the final battle of Raqqa in September 2017.
But The Australian reported on Tuesday that Kamleh was alive in an Iraqi jail.
Kamleh is wanted by the AFP under an active warrant for terrorism offences including joining and recruiting for a banned terrorist organisation.
The Federal Government says it will not provide assistance to any Australian linked to the terrorist organisation.
That is a murky commitment at best, given that presumably travel documents were provided to ISIS brides or their children.
The Government also refers to constitutional and legal blocks on stopping the group returning.
That won’t wash with the Australian people.
If the men can’t be kept out of the country under existing laws, then the laws must be changed so it can be done.
