Australia sees surge in public violence despite tough gun laws. Some blame extremism.

Australians are demanding answers after a deadly knife attack in a Sydney mall and a stabbing during a church service. Some locals argue that tough gun laws prevented a deadlier attack. Others worry religious extremism is rising unchecked.

First Look

A teenager has been accused of wounding a Christian bishop and a priest during a church service in the second high-profile knife attack to rock Sydney in recent days, leaving communities on edge, leaders calling for calm, and a besieged church urging against retaliation.

The 16-year-old was overpowered by the shocked congregation at Christ the Good Shepherd Church after he allegedly stabbed Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel and the Rev. Isaac Royel during a service on the night of April 15. The service was being streamed online.

Police have confirmed the teenage assailant’s hand injuries were “severe” after church attendees retaliated against him.

Video of the attack spread quickly on social media and an angry mob converged on the church demanding vengeance. They hurled bricks, bottles, and fence boards at police, who temporarily barricaded the boy inside the church for his own safety. Many in the crowd chanted “an eye for an eye” and “bring him out.”

Several people including police officers required hospital treatment following the hourslong riot.

The church said in a statement on April 16 it “denounced retaliation of any kind.” Police stood guard around mosques in parts of Sydney on April 16 after reports that text messages were circulating urging the Assyrian Christian community to retaliate against Muslims.

Sydney’s Lakemba Mosque, Australia’s largest, has hired additional private security for the next week after receiving fire bomb threats on the night of April 15.

Police and community leaders said public anxiety had been heightened by a lone assailant’s knife attack in a Sydney shopping mall on April 13 that killed five women and a male security guard who attempted to intervene. Joel Cauchi, the assailant, had a history of mental illness and trouble with women and a fascination with knives. He was shot dead by police.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said there was no place in Australia for violent extremism.

“We’re a peace-loving nation. This is a time to unite, not divide, as a community, and as a country,” he said during a media conference.

He urged the public not to take the law into their own hands.

“We understand the distress and concerns that are there in the community, particularly after the tragic event at Bondi Junction on Saturday,” Mr. Albanese told reporters, referring to the Westfield Bondi Junction shopping mall.

“But it is not acceptable to impede police and injure police doing their duty or to damage police vehicles in a way that we saw last night,” Mr. Albanese added.

News South Wales Police Commissioner Karen Webb on April 16 declared the church attack a terrorist incident, but not the shopping mall rampage.

The declaration gives police expanded powers to stop and search people, premises, and vehicles without a warrant.

Ms. Webb said the teen’s comments and actions pointed to a religious motive for the attack. She didn’t detail the wording of the comments that led her to believe he had been religiously motivated.

Ten Network television reported the boy had told churchgoers who restrained him, in Arabic: “If they didn’t insult my Prophet, I wouldn’t have come here.”

New South Wales Premier Chris Minns said state police were urging social media platforms to shut down accounts posting misinformation that incited violence since the stabbing on April 15.

“New South Wales Police and community leaders have been battling misinformation spreading around the web inciting community members to rush to particular religious facilities and mosques and churches on the hint or the rumor of some kind of violent activity taking place,” Mr. Minns told Australian Broadcasting Corp.

“It’s very difficult to maintain community cohesion when outright lies are spread within the community inciting the worst fears of particularly young people,” Mr. Minns added.

The teen suspect was in hospital on April 16 under police guard. He has yet to be charged.

Ms. Webb said he had been known to police, but was not on a terror watch list. He had been convicted in January for a range of offenses including possession of a switchblade knife, being armed with a weapon with an intention to commit an indictable offense, stalking, intimidation, and damaging property, ABC reported.

A Sydney court released him on a good behavior bond, ABC reported.

The boy used a switchblade, which is an illegal weapon in Australia, in the attack on April 15, ABC reported.

Juvenile offenders cannot be publicly identified in New South Wales.

The church in a message on social media said the bishop and priest were in stable condition and asked for people’s prayers. The church said in a statement on April 16 that the Iraq-born bishop’s condition was “improving.”

Mr. Emmanuel has a strong social media following and is outspoken on a range of issues. He proselytizes to both Jews and Muslims and is critical of liberal Christian denominations. He also speaks out on global political issues and laments the plight of Palestinians in Gaza.

The bishop, described in local media as a sometimes divisive figure on issues such as COVID-19 restrictions, was in the national news last year over comments about gender.

Political leaders and policy experts pointed to the stabbings as reminders about how much worse a public attack could be if it was easier for the perpetrator to get a gun, Reuters reported.

Australia introduced tough new gun laws in 1996 after the “Port Arthur Massacre,” the country’s deadliest mass shooting, when a lone man with no police record used military-style weapons to shoot dead 35 people in and around a cafe at a historic former prison in Tasmania, Reuters reported.

Australia banned all semi-automatic rifles and all semi-automatic and pump-action shotguns. Thousands of unlicensed firearms were surrendered under a gun amnesty program, and licensed gun owners are now required to take a safety course, according to Reuters.

Since then, total gun homicides in the country have halved while the overall number of homicides has flatlined, according to Australian Institute of Criminology data, even as the population has increased 50%. Australia now has less than one-third the number of annual homicides per capita in the United States. 

But the proportion of homicides caused by a knife or other sharp implement has risen to 43% in the five years to 2021, the latest year data is available, from 34% in the five years before the 1996 laws, according to institute data shared with Reuters.

This story was reported by The Associated Press. Material from Reuters was used in this report.