Frankly, a series of events in Australia in the last few days have left me reeling in shock and surprise. The first was an incident in which an 18-year-old boy was shot dead by police. He’s technically a man, but I call him a boy. A boy who was dumb and very naive. A brainwashed jihadist. A supporter of ISIL, a Muslim extremist group, who wants to destroy us all for the sole reason of who we are and how we live. He drew the attention of the authorities for some of the things he said on social media, such as wanting to behead the police, covering their bodies with the ISIS flag, and posting the images online. He also made death threats against the Australian Prime Minister.

Surprisingly and quite ironically, the police decided to deal with this by taking a rather low key approach. Rather than raid him at dawn and arrest him at gunpoint, they invited him to come see them at the police station. They agreed on a time and he appeared to be greeted by two officers outside the station. What happened next will be the subject of an official investigation. But it appears that when one of the policemen tried to shake his hand in greeting, the 18-year-old pulled out a knife and began attacking the two policemen. One of the police officers is believed to have fired a fatal single shot at the 18-year-old. It was both tragic and pointless.

This young man was seen talking to older men before this incident occurred, which supports the idea that he was not acting alone. He first came to the attention of law enforcement and intelligence authorities three months ago because he was part of a small group of men who shared messages preaching violence and hate. The authorities were concerned that he might try to join ISIL in Syria and Iraq, so they canceled his passport.

The second disturbing report was an allegation of a second separate attack on a serving member of the Australian Army who was walking down the street minding his own business. The catalyst for the attack was the fact that he was wearing the uniform of the Australian Army. In a recent development, police now say the attack didn’t happen, but it was enough for Australian Defense Force chiefs to issue an order for defense force personnel not to wear their uniform in public. Reports of these two incidents are consistent with ISIL using social media to call on its supporters to attack indiscriminately. They were told that they did not need the authority of a high-ranking Muslim cleric, that they should go ahead and wage jihad, and that God was on their side. These people seem to be under the illusion that we are back in the Middle Ages fighting some kind of mythical crusade. Muslim versus Christian. The most disturbing thing is that a number of young Muslims, in various Western countries, believe in this nonsense. What worries me most about these developments is that this could be a double-edged sword. We have to worry about radicalized jihadists, but we should also be equally concerned about crackpots who want to attack Muslims for being Muslims. Incidents of vandalism and graffiti have been reported, but luckily there was no violence.

Here’s a little reality check.

The vast majority of Muslims in Australia, or anywhere else in the world, are not defined by what the Islamic State is doing in Iraq and Syria. They are peace-loving people who believe in tolerance, benevolence and humanity. As President Obama rightly pointed out, No God condones terror.

But there is no denying that these incidents scare people and when people are scared they lose perspective and forget to think and respond rationally.

And what usually follows is that other unfortunate byproduct: the rights and freedoms we’ve come to expect and accept are suddenly under threat.

The Australian Prime Minister said the same thing the other day. In a speech clearly meant to soften the country, he said some freedoms had to be sacrificed to protect the vast majority. He called on Australians to support this change in what he called the delicate balance between freedom and security. We are just beginning to find out what this really means. A bill was passed in the Federal Parliament last night giving Australia’s national spy agency, the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation, unprecedented and unrestricted power to monitor the entire Australian internet. All it takes is a court order. It passed with bipartisan support, so the opposition clearly agreed with the government. ASIO may copy, delete, or modify data stored on any computer that it is authorized to monitor. It also allows ASIO to disrupt target computers and use innocent third-party non-target computers as a way to access target computers. Many lawyers and academics say this bill goes too far. Australia’s Attorney General George Brandis says we all had better get used to living in this “new and dangerous age”. It is vital, he said, to equip those who protect Australia with the necessary powers and capabilities to do their jobs.

That’s all well and good, but what about checks and balances? Where are they? How can we be sure ASIO won’t abuse these massive new powers? And if you’re worried about these questions, and you should be, then what I’m about to tell you should worry you even more. The bill also allows journalists, whistleblowers and bloggers who “recklessly” disclose information related to a special intelligence operation to be jailed for ten years. Take this. Any operation can be declared as “special” by an ASIO agent. It also grants ASIO immunity from criminal and civil liability in certain circumstances. In other words, it makes them virtually untouchable.

Now don’t get me wrong. I’m all for giving law enforcement the powers they need to do their jobs, but that doesn’t mean they have an open checkbook. And persecuting whistleblowers and journalists giving the necessary balance, threatening them with a heavy prison sentence, is not good in a democratic country. It is very much the case of shooting the messenger. Of course, with the threat of a ten year prison sentence on them, the whistleblowers will die out. I am sure that is exactly what governments around the world want to see happen. I’m sorry but I don’t trust ASIO not to abuse its powers. Unless we have something or someone watching on behalf of all of us, there is a danger that the supposed cure will end up being much worse than the disease.