‘We dropped the ball’: Former spy boss calls for debate on radical Islam

Former ASIO boss Dennis Richardson has called for an open discussion about the role of extremist Islamists in promoting antisemitism as he warns against political correctness shutting down important national security debates.

Richardson, who abruptly quit his role as a special adviser to the antisemitism royal commission in March, said the nation had failed to respond with appropriate vigour as attacks on Jewish Australians soared following the October 7 attacks and war in Gaza.

“I tend to agree with those who argue that, following 7 October, we dropped the ball and failed to draw a line,” Richardson said in a speech to the Lowy Institute on Wednesday night.

“I am not implying a straight-line connection to the Bondi terrorist attack, as the ingredients that gave rise to that terrible incident are more complex.

“I do believe, however, that a more forceful and consistent response to the blatant antisemitism we saw in the immediate aftermath of 7 October may well have set a different tone and drawn a clearer line between the acceptable and the unacceptable.”

The veteran public servant, who led the Department of Defence and Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, said the sources of antisemitism “must be addressed in a sensible and mature way, including open discussion about extremist Islamists, without Australian Muslims as a whole feeling targeted”.

“Mainstream Muslim leaders should have a central role in any such discussion,” he said.

“Pretending the issue is not there simply leads to conspiracy theories and plays into the hands of other extremists at the other end of the spectrum.”

Liberal frontbencher Julian Leeser has questioned why Bell did not call controversial Muslim clerics such as Wissam Haddad and Sheikh Ibrahim Dadoun to give public evidence at the commission.

Some commentators also accused Bell of failing to sufficiently examine the role of radical Islam in the royal commission’s interim report and expressed concerns the issue would be glossed over in the final report.

Richardson contrasted the saturation media coverage given to prominent footballer Israel Folau when he made homophobic comments on social media to the muted response in 2023 when Haddad posted inflammatory comments about Jewish people.

While Folau was “almost run out of town” in 2019, Richardson said Haddad’s comments had “received barely any media attention at all” when they were posted.

A Federal Court judge last year found Haddad’s comments to be “fundamentally racist and antisemitic, and devastatingly offensive and insulting”.

Richardson said there would be a “stain on Australia’s social cohesion and multicultural tradition” as long as Jewish Australians needed special security in order to worship, attend school and play sport.