SYDNEY (AFP): Australia’s prime minister said Thursday he will consider granting citizenship to a Pakistani security guard wounded in the deadly Sydney shopping centre knife attack.
The guard, Muhammad Taha, reportedly said he believed he “deserved recognition and consideration for citizenship” after being stabbed.
In a bedside interview with The Australian, Taha said he was attacked just after fellow Pakistani security guard Faraz Tahir, one of the six people killed at the Westfield shopping complex in Bondi Junction.
Taha has a graduate visa due to expire in less than a month, the paper said.
The guard reportedly noted that Frenchman Damien Guerot, since dubbed “bollard man”, had been offered permanent residency after video shared on social media showed him using a bollard to fend off the attacker, Joel Cauchi.
Asked in a radio interview if the Australian government would entertain Taha’s citizenship request, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said: “Yes, we certainly will.”
Albanese described the killing of Faraz Tahir as a “tragedy”. “This other person, Muhammad Taha, he confronted this guy, the perpetrator, Joel Cauchi, on Saturday. And it just shows extraordinary courage,” the prime minister said.
Both men put themselves in danger to protect Australians they did not know, Albanese said. “That’s the sort of courage that we want to say thank you to, frankly.”
Albanese said Guerot would receive permanent residency, which he had been seeking, on Thursday.
French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday hailed Guerot and his fellow Frenchman Silas Despreaux for trying to stop the mall attacker.
Stabbed bishop forgives attacker
A Sydney bishop brutally stabbed during a live-streamed sermon said Thursday he is recovering and forgives his attacker, declaring: “You are my son.”
Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel was slashed in the head and chest by a 16-year-old suspect on Monday, sparking a riot by followers of the Assyrian Christian church in western Sydney.
“I am doing fine, recovering very quickly,” said the bishop of Christ the Good Shepherd Church in Wakeley.
The area is a hub for Sydney’s small Christian Assyrian community, many of whom fled persecution and war in Iraq and Syria.
Emmanuel has an online following of almost 200,000, courting controversy with his criticism of Covid-19 vaccines, lockdowns and Islam.
“There is no need to be worried or concerned,” the bishop said in a YouTube video released Thursday, with audio of his voice accompanied by a photo of him in vestments.
“I forgive whoever has done this act and I say to him: You are my son, I love you and I will always pray for you. And whoever sent you to do this, I forgive them as well.”
The teenage suspect was taken to a Sydney hospital after the attack.
Senior police said mid-week his treatment was expected to last for several days.
– Family in ‘shock’ –
The bishop called for calm after the stabbing sparked angry scenes outside the church.
Hundreds of congregants and members of the community rushed to the site on the night of the attack.
Some hurled rocks and other projectiles that allegedly wounded about 50 police officers, including one who broke their jaw, and damaged several police cars.
“I want you to always be calm,” the bishop said.
“We need to be always law-abiding citizens as well. We need to cooperate with the police directives whether it be at a state level or a federal level,” he said.
“We should never forget that we are very blessed to be Aussies, but above all we are Christians and we need to act like it.”
A western Sydney doctor who is in contact with the teenager’s family told AFP they were in “shock” and “disbelief about the horrible action their son has done”.
Jamal Rifi said the family had also been unnerved at how quickly the event had been labelled a “terrorist” act, without speaking to the boy or his family first.
The boy’s mother told Rifi her son had anger and mental health issues.
– ‘Terrible’ untruths –
Rifi said Australia was a diverse community and despite the differences in culture and faith, he had been reassured that so many had called for calm and denounced any retaliation attempts.
“Reciprocal respect is the core that preserves social cohesion,” he said.
New South Wales police commissioner Karen Webb said Thursday the teenager remained in hospital and authorities were yet to question him.
New South Wales Premier Chris Minns meanwhile railed at misinformation and graphic content of online posts relating to the attack still circulating.
“It proves to be very difficult to foster community cohesion and harmony, to calm down the community, to send messages of unity in a difficult period, when social media firms continue to disseminate terrible pieces of information, untruths, rumours that circulate like wildfire through a febrile and anxious community,” he said Thursday.
Police charged a 19-year-old man Wednesday in connection with the violence outside the church and have warned more will be more arrests in the coming days.
