Islam is the root cause as Islamism is a product of Islam

Violence is therefore theologically constrained in Christianity and theologically normalised in Islam’s political tradition.That doesn’t mean I am ignoring the 30 years war or the Inquisition, or the Crusades, but you would be hard-pressed to find a modern Christian authority who would justify these on religious grounds. They are exceptions, not rules.

These differences mean that liberal democracy is actually inherently suitable to Christianity and unsuitable to Islam.

Democracy requires popular sovereignty, the right to legislate against religious norms, the legitimacy of religious as well as secular dissent, and the idea that law is provisional and revisable.

But Islam believes sovereignty belongs to God, the law is discovered not made, non-believers are subordinate, religious dissent is a grave offence and divine law is eternal.

That is a problem.

It is not insurmountable, but it can’t be solved by legislation, and it can’t be solved by non-Muslims. If it can be solved, it must be solved by Muslims themselves, and given the communal nature of Islam, it is appropriate for once to talk about the “Islamic community”.

Where democracy and Islam coexist they do so by believers privatizing their faith, reinterpreting scripture and suspending parts of the jurisprudence. This is a job not just for individual members of the community but for their religious and secular leaders.

They need to admit that Islamism is a product of Islam and that Islam is an ideology as well as a religion. Islamic institutions need to reconcile their doctrine with democratic norms, and Muslims need to integrate into the broader community.

There should be no more talk that religion cannot give rise to terrorism, as proposed by the government’s Islamophobia envoy Aftab Malik, or setting-up Sharia courts. They must support the removal of blasphemy laws from definitions of hate speech and discrimination. The community also needs to identify and close those mosques that are run by hate preachers.

Ideally, they would also agree to preach against concepts like “From the River to the Sea”, but that would be wishful thinking and unenforceable.

If these conditions create an insoluble crisis of conscience for individuals or leaders, then it is neither cruel nor illiberal to say that Australia may not be the right country for them. A plural society cannot survive if it indefinitely accommodates doctrines that reject its foundational norms.

I have media releases in my inbox from Islamic organisations decrying the Bondi massacre. These media releases mean nothing if these organisations don’t take concrete steps to deal with the evil that uniquely resides in their communities.

They need to join us in saying “Never again” and do something about it.