Sydney church stabbing was religiously motivated terrorism, Australia police say

A knife attack on an Assyrian church bishop and some followers in Sydney was a terrorist act motivated by suspected religious extremism, as the country reeled from a second stabbing incident in three days, Australian police said on Tuesday.

The incident at the western Sydney suburb of Wakeley triggered clashes outside the church between police and an angry crowd of the bishop’s followers who demanded the attacker be handed over to them.

Police arrested a teen at the scene on Monday and were forced to hold him at the church for his own safety after a crowd gathered outside.

“We believe there are elements that are satisfied in terms of religious motivated extremism,” New South Wales state Police Commissioner Karen Webb said during a press conference. “After consideration of all the material, I declared that it was a terrorist incident.”

Bishop Emmanuel’s live-streamed sermons attract a global audience and his video clips rack up hundreds of thousands of views online. He became well known for his hardline views during the pandemic when he described lockdowns as “mass slavery”, media reported at the time. A sermon uploaded on YouTube last year showed the bishop criticising Islam.

Australia’s spy chief said he would check people close to the attacker to rule out any further threats to the community.

“It is prudent that we do this to determine there’s no threats or immediate threats to security. At this time, we’re not seeing that,” said Mike Burgess, director general of security for the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation.

Asked by a reporter about a video circulating of the alleged attacker pinned to the ground, his face obscured, with a voice speaking in Arabic “if they didn’t insult my prophet, I wouldn’t have come