Two words teenage boy yelled after allegedly stabbing Sydney bishop at Wakeley, Sydney church

The 16-year-old boy who allegedly stabbed a bishop in an act of terror justified his actions by telling witnesses that the Christian leader had “sworn oath” to one of his prophets and reportedly shouted “Allahu Akbar” after the attack.

Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel was attacked as he delivered a sermon at Christ the Good Shepherd Church in Wakeley, Sydney’s west, on Monday evening.

Shocked parishioners sprang into action, with some coming to the bishop’s aid and others helping to detain the teenager in the church.

In a video of the stabbing, the 16-year-old is heard telling churchgoers in Arabic: “If he had not sworn against my prophet, I would not be here.” If he didn’t interfere with my religion, I wouldn’t be here.’

One of the men involved in restraining the teenager after the attack told a police officer how he approached the teenager from behind and forcefully pushed him to the ground.

“He kept saying, ‘Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar,’” he tells the officer in a video posted to social media.

AFP Commissioner Reece Kershaw was asked to confirm the teenager’s religion amid speculation that he had recently converted to Islam.

“We have a lot of information to go through and confirm,” he said.

‘I can’t go through that. One of the things I want to say is that it is a disgraceful act by the community to attack the police at the scene.”

ASIO boss Mike Burgess was asked if he was aware of the comments and whether the bishop had said or done anything to provoke the attack.

“We are aware of these comments and anything else is an open line of inquiry to understand why the individual ended up at the location,” he said.

Mr Burgess was asked why the Wakeley incident was considered a terrorist attack while the Bondi Junction stabbing was not.

“The simple answer is to call it a terrorist attack, you need clues, information or evidence to suggest that the motivation was actually religiously motivated or ideologically motivated,” he said.

‘In the case of Saturday that was not the case. In this case [Wakeley] The information that we and the police have before us would strongly indicate that this is the case and that is why it was called an act of terrorism.’

Mr Burgess said ASIO would “be looking at individuals associated with the attacker to ensure there is no one else in the community with similar intentions”.

The spy boss added: ‘At this stage we have no evidence of that.

“But it is prudent that we do this to determine that there are no threats or immediate threats to security. At the moment we don’t see that.’

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, in condemning the violence, said the National Security Committee had held a meeting on Monday evening.

He said a joint counter-terrorism task force had been established with the AFP and the Australian Security Intelligence Organization.

NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb declared on Tuesday that the attack was a terrorist incident “centered around religion”.

Police confirmed that one of the alleged 16-year-old attacker’s fingers was severed after he was pulled away from Bishop.

There was speculation that a member of the angry mob was responsible, but it is now understood that he accidentally cut off the finger himself during the alleged attack.

Photos showing all four fingers of the left hand cut off are considered fake.

“People were throwing up from the pepper spray and running into people’s houses to get water,” he said.

He blamed the power of social media for how things escalated so badly.

“Without social media, the police would have arrived before the riots and this wouldn’t have happened,” he said.

‘They wanted blood. It was utter chaos.

“My only concern was the bishop’s well-being. He is recovering, but I don’t think he will be released from hospital anytime soon.”

The 16-year-old boy is being held under police guard at an unknown location.

He and the bishop had surgery Tuesday morning.