The second violent attack to rattle our city in as many days – the knifing and ensuing riot at a western Sydney church – has cast a blasphemous pall over something once thought inviolable and emphasised the need for community unity at this dangerous time.

Chris Minns speaks outside Surry Hills Police Centre on Tuesday.Credit: Louise Kennerley

As if the latest tragic incident were not enough, it was fanned into a conflagration when the knifing was live-streamed from the church. Not only did it traumatise parishioners watching in person or at home, but just as mobile phones summoned so-called patriots during the 2005 Cronulla riot, nearly two decades later, a crowd of several hundred descended on the church. Chaos resulted.

A 16-year-old was arrested over the stabbing of three people – including Sydney Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel, a priest and a parishioner – at the Assyrian Orthodox Church, Christ The Good Shepherd Church, in the suburb of Wakeley. Two officers were subsequently injured after the crowd hurled bricks and concrete at equipment and smashed 20 police cars. Paramedics tended to some 30 injured. Reprehensibly, six of them remained holed up inside the church for hours for fear of rioters.

Unthinkably, the rioters turned on police and paramedics just after Saturday’s Bondi Junction mass stabbings forcefully reminded the people of NSW of the debt owed to selfless emergency personnel. One moment, NSW Police Inspector Amy Scott heroically stopped a killer in his tracks in the mall. Barely 48 hours later, religious rivals cowardly attacked police, trying to keep calm at the church.

NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb has declared the church incident a terrorist incident, seemingly based on comments made by the attacker in the immediate aftermath about the prophet Muhammad. “We’ve assessed it based on intelligence received, based on the actions of the individual, based on what he said when he entered the church and the intimidation he caused to both the parishioners and those watching online,” she said.

NSW legislation defines terrorism as, among other things, an act committed intended to advance a political, religious or ideological cause and an act designed to intimidate the public or a section of the public. The declaration allows authorities greater power to investigate with the NSW joint counterterrorism team comprising the AFP, ASIO and NSW Police.

The attack was horrific. And it will indeed meet the threshold of being a terrorist incident. But the declaration is a serious matter and the Herald calls on state and federal agencies and political leaders to offer more information on the factors behind the decision and how it was so quickly made. Equally, the NSW government needs to answer questions about the attacker’s previous offending involving knives and how he came to be granted a good behaviour bond.

For his part, NSW Premier Chris Minns says the declaration was needed to give police more investigative powers. “The designation is not a performative gesture, it’s not designed to go on a media release, we’re not trying to judge one crime over another with a particular designation,” he said.