Terms of terror
As ASIO's boss announced Australia's terror threat level was being raised, he appeared to abandon language his organisation was staunchly defending last week.
In 2021, ASIO announced it was shifting to two umbrella terms for classifying terrorism: “religiously” and “ideologically” motivated.
When Capital Brief approached the spy agency about the definitions last week, it defended them emphatically. While the academics who have panned the terms “are entitled to their opinions”, ASIO’s terminology had been “validated” by trends since, a spokesperson said.
So it was curious that as ASIO director-general Mike Burgess announced Australia’s terror threat level was rising on Monday, he reached for a third term: “politically motivated”. Viewers would be forgiven for thinking he had abandoned the previous terminology altogether.
It’s unlikely to spell the end of ASIO’s religious/ideological binary. But as Burgess detailed the increasingly complex and confused motivations for extremist violence, he certainly highlighted the framework's limitations.
