Sydney teen terror plot
On 24 April 2024, nine days after the Wakeley church stabbing, more than 400 officers from the NSW Joint Counter-Terrorism Team executed 13 search warrants across south-west Sydney and arrested seven teenagers. They were reported to be associates of the 16-year-old charged over the stabbing of Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel, and police alleged they "adhere to a religiously motivated violent extremist ideology" (ABC News, 24-26 April 2024).
According to a police fact sheet tendered to court and reported by The Daily Telegraph, the teens were alleged to have described themselves as "soldiers of Allah", talked about obtaining guns including a "shotty", looked for abandoned homes to use as stash houses for a "kuffar plan", and listed Jewish people as targets.
Two days after the raids, on 26 April 2024, the Australian National Imams Council, the Alliance of Australian Muslims and the Australian Muslim Advocacy Network issued a joint statement calling for an inquiry into the raids, citing "the lack of evidence pointing to a concrete threat or plan among these youths", and for the term "religiously motivated terrorism" to be removed from Australia's terrorism laws. Their spokeswoman, Ramia Abdo Sultan, said: "The presumption that terrorism is inherently tied to religion is not only inaccurate but also harmful." ASIO said the term allows it to "accurately categorise" a security threat and that it "does not investigate people because of their religious views". NSW Premier Chris Minns said: "we do need to confront religious extremism".
On 2 October 2026, four of the teenagers, all minors at the time and unable to be named, pleaded guilty in the NSW Supreme Court to conspiring to prepare a terrorist attack, The Daily Telegraph reported. They are due to be sentenced in 2027. Earlier, in the Children's Court, two had pleaded guilty to sharing violent extremist material and one to supplying a firearm.
More sources:
- ABC News - Seven children arrested in counter-terrorism raids (24 April 2024)
- ABC News - Islamic groups call for review of Sydney counterterrorism raids (video, 26 April 2024)
- The Daily Telegraph - New details of alleged Islamic teen plot (Derrick Krusche, 29 April 2024)
- The Daily Telegraph - Sydney teens enter pleas to thwarted terror plot (Alexi Demetriadi, 3 October 2026)
