Teenager Abu Bakar Alam slams The Age for ‘devastating’ mistake... wrongly branded a terrorist

THE teenager wrongly branded a terrorist by The Age has slammed the paper for the “devastating” mistake which put his family in “potential danger”.

Abu Bakar Alam, 19, even feared he would not be able to pursue his dream of becoming a police officer after his picture was printed on the front of Fairfax newspapers last September.

He was incorrectly identified as Numan Haider, the man who stabbed two police officers before he was shot and killed in Endeavour Hills.

Mr Alam reached an out-of-court settlement with Fairfax Media as he prepared to launch a defamation lawsuit.

“To have my face connected with an act of terrorism on the front pages of major Australian newspapers, and all over the internet, was devastating for me and my family,” Mr Alam said in a statement.

“This was a terrible mistake that damaged my reputation and my family’s good name. We were forced to defend ourselves against the worst kind of accusations while being placed in potential danger.”

I hope anyone who might feel drawn to make some sort of negative comment about this young man simply because of his background will not do so.

He has committed no crime. By everything I have seen about him, he seems to be a good Australian, completely integrated into and supportive of the Australian way of life. Yes, he is Muslim - as is his right in a nation that constitutionally guarantees his freedom of religion - but there is nothing at all to suggest that he has embraced any beliefs that threaten this country or community. If all Muslims were like him, we'd have nothing to worry about.

The Age, which made this appalling mistake - putting the face of the wrong person on the front page of their newspaper identifying him as a terrorist - is Melbourne's (and one of Australia's) largest left wing newspapers - normally they are the ones trying to convince us all that any threat of terrorism is overstated. It seems especially ironic that they made it.

Numan Haider - the actual terrorist in this case - agreed to meet two counter-terrorism police officers (one from the Australian Federal Police, one from the Victoria Police) in the car park of a suburban police station. He slashed the Victoria Police officer across the arm with a knife and then stabbed the Australian Federal Police officer in the head and chest before the wounded Victoria Police officer was able to shoot him dead. He was found to be carrying the black standard of the Islamic State, making his intentions clear. Both officers survived (the AFP officer was critically injured, the Victorian officer was described as seriously wounded) and have reportedly recovered from their injuries.

They went looking for a photo on somewhere like Facebook, and printed it on their front page.

If the terrorist had still been alive, they probably would have actually pixellated it.

The problem is that people don’t always read past the headlines. His face was on the front page of one of the biggest newspapers in the country and on their website as a terrorist. That’s not something I would want to happen to me.

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