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February 28, 2026 — 5:24pm
WA Police were on Saturday canvassing for CCTV footage that may help lead them to the person responsible for vandalising a Perth mosque, a day after a planned “mass casualty” terror attack targeting public buildings and Muslim places of worship was foiled.
The incident in Northbridge occurred hours after police revealed that through intelligence, specifically in relation to the use of encrypted messaging app Telegram, they were able to track down and arrest 20-year-old Jayson Joseph Michaels from the Wheatbelt town of Bindoon on Friday and charge him with acting in preparation for a terrorist act.
They allege that Michaels, motivated by a white supremacist ideology, had written a manifesto-style document outlining plans for an ideologically motivated attack of violent extremism.
The allegations include that he was planning to target the Muslim community through attacks on mosques – as well as attacks on the WA Police and parliament.
On Saturday, WA Police Commissioner Col Blanch said he believed Michaels was part of a terrorist cell that was identified through Telegram and involved international members, as well as other Australians that were still being identified.
“That’s the work that’s being undertaken now, as part of the joint counterterrorism team investigation – to contain all of those messages and go through them one by one,” he said.
“So if you know that you have been on that message group, if you are someone that has participated in those conversations, you can expect your door to be … well, it won’t be quite knocked, put it that way.”
He said that so far the members of the group did not seem to have any links to any far-right groups.
“All we can see is a group of like-minded, meaning white supremacist groups, talking about their hate for other people in our community,” he said.
“Our focus at the moment is to understand who is on that message group, but early indications are there’s no hierarchy, there’s no structure, there’s no organisation.”
He said Michaels had no criminal record and was not previously known to police.
Blanch’s comments came as he stood with WA Premier Roger Cook, acting Attorney General Paul Papalia, minister John Carey and senior Islamic leaders who met at Perth Mosque in Northbridge and spoke for almost an hour “to reassure them that we condemn these potential activities”.
“We will continue to do everything that we can to make sure that they feel that they can fully express their religion, their faith, their culture, in a community which is tolerant and welcoming and safe,” Cook said.
“We do enjoy an incredible amount of social cohesion, peace and safety, and we are going to defend that at all costs.”
Cook said he alleged that Friday’s acts did meet the threshold of a terrorist attack.
“Terrorism is an act of hatred, of division, of trying to undermine our sense of security, making us afraid to pray, to be who we are, and that’s why my government and I will do everything that we can to reassure that we stamp it out in Western Australia, that we continue to celebrate who we are,” he said.
Imam Mohammed Shakeeb said he had an “honest conversation” with the premier about language and the divisive rhetoric in parliament, calling out Pauline Hanson’s Sky News interview where she said: “How can you tell me there are good Muslims?”
“I voiced my concerns to the premier that, had any one of us said something similar, that I don’t think there are any good Christians, for example, no one of any sound mind would say that,” Shakeeb said.
“Likewise, [if someone said] I don’t think there are any good First Nations people; I don’t think there are any good Jewish people. Imagine the legal repercussions, imagine the outrage. But yet, you know, Islamophobia has become so normalised, it’s become mainstream.”
The leaders walked through the doors of Perth Mosque, which was vandalised with graffiti in a white substance that police said was “non-suspicious”.
Shakeeb said officers had attended the mosque after a disturbance was reported there about 1am on Saturday morning. The matter has been referred to the State Security Investigation Group.
