Hawzah News Agency-The Website of the Australian Security Intelligence organization (ASIO says that anti-Islam movements pose a threat to national security.

Reclaim Australia in Asio's sights, intelligence chief tells senators

Radical anti-Islamic groups are posing a growing threat to Australia’s security, according to the country’s head of intelligence.

The Australian Security Intelligence Organization’s director general, Duncan Lewis, said Reclaim Australia, in particular, was of interest to Asio.

Lewis said Reclaim Australia had “offered violence” in the past and he expected its members would continue to do so when they confronted pro-Islamic groups.

“It is a real problem and it is something that we’re very, very acutely aware of and I have people working that particular issue.”

Asked by the Greens senator Nick McKim whether the threat from such groups was growing, Lewis said it had – primarily over the past 18 months.

Lewis also revealed that up to 70 children of Australians have been exposed to extremist groups in the battlefields of Syria or Iraq.

He said these children had either travelled to the conflict zones with their Australian parents or been born there.

He said Asio was investigating about 190 people in Australia who were actively supporting groups such as Daesh through recruiting, fundraising or seeking to join themselves. That included about 40 Australians who had returned from Syria or Iraq.

Lewis confirmed that up to 68 Australians were believed to have been killed in the conflicts – 11 of them since May. About 110 people were still fighting or engaged with terrorist groups in Syria and Iraq.