Muslim groups claim ‘double standard’ in police handling of Sydney stabbings

Ramia Abdo Sultan, lawyer and communications relations advisor of the Australian National Imams Council with Imams speaks during a press conference in Sydney (Dean Lewins/AP)

Muslim groups in Australia on Friday criticised the disparity in the police response to two stabbing attacks in Sydney this month, saying it had created a perception of a double standard and further alienated the country’s minority Muslim community.

The Australian National Imams Council said an attack at a Bondi Junction shopping centre was “quickly deemed a mental health issue” while the stabbing of a Christian bishop at a Sydney church two days later was “classified as a terrorist act almost immediately”.