Politics

Morrison slams ‘lame excuse’ for Bourke Street attacker

Scott Morrison appeared on Studio 10 where he spoke about Friday's terror attack in Melbourne. Source: Twitter.com/9NewsMelb and Getty

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has dismissed claims the man behind Friday’s deadly Bourke Street stabbing was suffering from mental health issues.

Hassan Khalif Shire Ali’s family said the attacks carried out by the 30-year-old were a “cry for help” and that he wasn’t a terrorist. Appearing on Monday’s episode of Studio 10, Morrison said those defending Shire Ali by saying he had mental health problems were making excuses.

“I think that’s an excuse,” he said. “This bloke, radicalised here in Australia with extreme Islam, took a knife and cut down a fellow Australian in Bourke Street. I’m not going to make excuses for that.”

The PM said mental health was an important topic and acknowledged it can lead to many serious problems, but dismissed it played a role in Friday’s deadly attack.

Host Sarah Harris questioned whether Shire Ali was really a terrorist or if he was simply a madman, to which a fired-up Morrison replied: “He was a terrorist. He was a radical, extremist terrorist who took a knife to another Australian because he had been radicalised in this country and we can’t give him excuses and we can’t allow others.”

He also dismissed claims that he was racist for calling on the Muslim community to do more in preventing radicalisation on Australian soil.

“That is the same lame, old, tired excuse for not dealing with this problem as has always been served up,” Morrison said. “Whether it’s [Labor MP] Anne Aly saying it or whether it’s someone else in the community saying that, I don’t believe that’s where the majority of decent, hard-working, respectable Australian Muslims are at.”

He said those in the Muslim community want it to be safer but that people were coming in and “infecting their young people” with hatred and false-teaching.

“That has to be called out and it has to be stopped,” he warned. “This happened because of an Australian citizen who was radicalised in Australia. He didn’t bring it from somewhere else. He learned it all here. It’s the elephant in the room and you’ve got to acknowledge it.”

Morrison was criticised on Saturday after he released a video on his social media channels, calling out “religious extremism”. He said that while he is the first to protect religious freedom in Australia, he has no patience for extremism.

“Religious extremism takes many forms around the world, and no religion is immune from it … But here in Australia, we would be kidding ourselves if we did not call out the fact that the greatest threat of religious extremism … is the radical and dangerous ideology of extremist Islam,” he said.

Imam Isse Musse, a representative for Shire Ali’s family, spoke to 9 News on Sunday, insisting Shire Ali had mental health problems and that the family was in a state of disbelief over the deadly attack.

Shire Ali’s sister also released a public statement, explaining that her brother suffered from mental illness for years and refused help. She also asked people to stop using her brother’s actions as a “political game”.

Read more: ‘Not a terrorist’: Family of Bourke Street killer breaks silence

“This isn’t a guy who had any connections with terrorism, but was simply crying for help,” the letter read.

Restaurant owner Sisto Malaspina, 74, was killed during the knife attack, while two others were seriously injured.

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