Australia PM Blamed Anti-Muslim Protesters for Stoking Divisiveness
Turnbull called for calm on Friday as police prepared for clashes between protesters at a planned rally outside a Sydney mosque that was attended by a teenager who killed a police officer a week ago.
Farhad Khalil Mohammad Jabar, 15, was shot and killed by police after he opened fire on police accountant Curtis Cheng as Cheng left police headquarters in the Sydney suburb of Parramatta last Friday.
The shooting and subsequent arrest of five people in raids in Sydney has stoked anxiety over further militant violence and retaliatory attacks against Muslims.
Turnbull called mutual respect between faiths "the glue that binds this very diverse country together" and blamed anti-Muslim protesters for stoking divisiveness.
"Those who do that aremaking the work of the police and security services ... who seek to prevent violent extremism much harder," he told reporters in Sydney.
Protests between anti-racist groups and anti-Islam parties have turned violent several times this year in different Australian cities.
Police Deputy Commissioner of State of Sydney Nick Kaldas condemned the exploitive attempts of using the Parramatta attacks to launch malicious campaigns against Muslims.
In the same context, the Premier of New South Wales Mike Baird said that the shooting that occurred in Parramatta is an isolated incident and that it has been denounced by the Muslim community as well as the rest of society in the country.
Source: World Bulletin
