Islamic State Threat to Kill Australians ‘Genuine’: Julie Bishop

National intelligence agencies consider Islamic State's appeal to its followers to kill Australians as genuine, Foreign Minister Julie Bishop has confirmed.

The Islamic State apparently asked its followers over the internet to kill Australians. This is considered to be the first formal declaration by the militant group against Australia. Abu Muhammad al-Adnani ash-Shami, the spokesman of IS, released an audio message on the net only days after Australia had apparently been able to disrupt a probable terror plot. IS followers were apparently planning for beheading random people in Australia.

Abu Muhammad's audio message asks IS followers to kill people from Western nations like Australia, Canada and France. "If you can kill an American or European infidel -- especially the spiteful and cursed French -- or an Australian or a Canadian or any other disbeliever from the infidel fighters ... then rely upon God and kill them in any way possible," he says in the audio message. ABC News reported that Bishop, now in New York for the UN Security Council meeting, confirmed that the threat was genuine. She told AM that Australian agencies were treating Abu Muhammad's threat as "genuine." She also said that the Islamic State would be "prepared to take on anyone" who disagreed with its ideologies.

Federal Labor leader Bill Shorten, on the other hand, said that Australian security agencies were "more than a match" for the "crazies." Calling the Middle-Eastern extremist group as "dangerous idiots," Shorten said that Abu Muhammad's message did not represent the Muslim population in the country. He said that the Islamic State would want to bring its "particular brand of craziness" Down Under, SBS reported. The "bark" of the Islamic State is bigger than its "bite," Shorten said about IS' influence on Australia.

Bishop earlier said that Australians were a "threat" to the Islamic State. "We are a threat -- not because of what we're prepared to do to combat ISIL, but because of who we are," she said, "ISIL is killing Shia, Sunni, Kurds, Christians; they're killing aid workers, journalists. That's why we're so committed to containing and degrading and destroying ISIL as far as we can in cooperation with other countries."

Contact the writer: s.mukhopadhyay@ibtimes.com.au