Stabbing Incidents in Australia Reignite Low-Tech Terrorism Concerns SYNOPSIS

However, given that the second attack at the church took place only two days after the first and similarly involved the same low-tech tactic, i.e., stabbings with a knife, it is quite possible that the first (non-terrorism- related) attack inspired the second (terrorist) attack. [...] First Attack Deadly but not Terrorism-Related With one of the two aforementioned attacks officially labelled as terrorism-related, questions that arise are: why was the first attack not considered terrorist and why correct labelling matter? In the first attack, which was more violent and deadly than the second, there was no apparent ideology that the attacker had subscribed to. [...] The youthfulness of the attacker points to another worrying trend observed in recent years, both in Islamist extremism and the extreme right-wing that exist in mostly Western societies, as more and more young individuals get influenced and radicalised by extremist online materials. [...] In the church incident, the attacker’s religious motivation had, at least from the initial reporting, been due to him taking offence at the bishop’s anti-Islamic views. [...] Since the incidents, there has been an increase in the use of online spaces by extremist entities and individuals to propagate narratives related to the incidents.