The firestorm surrounding Senator Pauline Hanson’s comments regarding ‘good Muslims’ continues to swirl, fuelled by the obviously false claim that she condemned an entire faith. Critics focused on a soundbite but ignored her crucial qualifier: ‘How can you tell me there are good Muslims if Jihad is ever called? People must understand this.’ This is not a hypothetical threat; it is a theological declaration of war that first spilt blood on Australian soil over a century ago.

Australia has a choice. Either we follow probably the greatest US President since at least Ronald Reagan, Donald Trump, and stand up to radical Islam, or we continue tolerating antisemitism.

We must look to our history to understand the danger Pauline identifies. In 1898, a chilling warning was delivered in the West Australian parliament by Mr Probyn-Smith that if jihad or ‘Holy War’ were proclaimed, there are those who will forget ‘the nationality to which he belongs’ and remember only the call of the Caliph to wage jihad.

In 1915, that warning became a bloody reality. As Dr Martin Hess, a policing and diplomacy expert affirms, the first Australian casualties in the first world war were not soldiers in a far-off land, but civilians on Australian soil. On New Year’s Day – just seven weeks after Turkey joined the Central Powers and following a call to jihad – two ‘Afghans’, British subjects from the Indian Empire North West Frontier, opened fire on 1,200 picnickers in open ore carriages travelling from Broken Hill to Silverton.

They fired 48 shots. The first casualty was 17-year-old Alma Cowie, murdered in cold blood. In total, four were killed and seven wounded. A train guard was able to telephone police, and a gun battle ensued that lasted until the mid-afternoon. One attacker, Mullah Abdullah, was killed; the other, Gool Mohamed, severely wounded, died soon after in hospital.

It is extraordinary to recall the lengths to which the German High Command went in their bid for world power. First, they treated the Treaty of London as a ‘scrap of paper’ and invaded neutral Belgium as the fastest path to Paris. Second, as Winston Churchill famously described, they ‘turned upon Russia the most grisly of all weapons’ – transporting Lenin into Russia to unleash communism.

Third, they conspired with the Ottoman Sultan to agitate for a global Islamic jihad. The intention was to destabilise the British Empire in Egypt, India, and the Sudan and thus divert their attention from the Western Front. The tragedy at Broken Hill was the local explosion of this German-engineered strategy. And it proves that declaring jihad can turn residents into combatants overnight.

But most Afghan cameleers were ‘good Muslims’, even refusing the burial of ‘murderers of women and children’ in the Muslim cemetery.

This history provides the ‘missing link’ to our current crisis. Dr Hess suggests that radical jihadists are today the ‘useful idiots’ for a resurgent authoritarianism led in the Axis of Evil by Russia and China, an axis being seriously weakened by President Trump’s liberation of Iran. By destabilising Western cohesion, they disintegrate our society from within. This validates Probyn-Smith’s warning: if  jihad were proclaimed, the ‘flag of the Prophet’ would for some supersede national allegiance.

It is not a matter of ‘opinion’ whether radical elements exist within our borders; the Australian government itself maintains a list of proscribed death cults, like Isis, specifically because their ideology demands the destruction of our democracy. Yet, the legal standards applied to these groups are increasingly contradictory.

Under the Criminal Code Act 1995, providing support or resources to Isis carries a penalty of  imprisonment. While an ordinary citizen faces criminal charges for merely possessing another person’s passport, we have seen obvious ‘assistance’ given by some informal delegate of the Albanese government to bring back yet another contingent of so-called ‘Isis brides’. The facilitation of Australian travel documents for those who relocated to the heart of a terrorist caliphate is a betrayal of the government’s duty to defend the nation and the people.

Furthermore, the government ignores the psychological reality of the children involved. These minors have been raised in an environment of total indoctrination, where the ‘duty’ to kill Jews and Christians is taught as a religious mandate. To bring these individuals back without the most stringent, transparent deradicalisation protocols is to plant the seeds of future Broken Hills.

This ‘lax approach’ reached a fever pitch with the granting of nearly 3,000 tourist visas to individuals departing Gaza. In a war zone where it is functionally impossible to conduct thorough background checks, the government did what no Arab government did. It is a mathematical certainty that among such a cohort, there are those deeply guided by Hamas-led indoctrination – an ideology that is inherently antisemitic and violent.

This standard – or lack thereof – is indicative of the Albanese government’s broader approach to immigration. They appear comfortable bringing in those disposed to conduct antisemitic campaigns or serious crimes. It is a reckless gamble with the lives of the Australian public.

The 1915 attack triggered immediate mob rule in Broken Hill. The German Club was burned to the ground. Order was only restored when police and armed soldiers were deployed with fixed bayonets to guard the Afghan camp and the mosque. While investigators concluded the two attackers acted in isolation, the headlines of the day reflected a nation at war: the Sydney Morning Herald blared, ‘The Fight with the Turks’ and the Melbourne Argus cried, ‘Turks Attack Train.’

One Nation is now a unique force attracting both disillusioned Labor supporters and Liberals who have chosen to follow Menzies’ example to vote DLP to return the Liberal politicians to the true path. By threatening ‘safe’ seats, Pauline Hanson is forcing the Coalition to actually have policies and perhaps even challenge the unproven theories about man-made climate change.

The choice for Australians is strategic. To prevent history from repeating itself, we must use our preferences. By giving a first preference to One Nation, we ensure a voice of national sanity that refuses to ignore the lessons of 1915. We must defeat what is now a fake Labor party and prefer the party that has the courage to ask what happens if jihad is called.