(Transcript from SBS World News Radio)
The terror alert in France is now at its highest level and the federal government wants Australians in France, or those thinking about travelling there, to register their details.
Australia has updated its travel advisory saying people should take normal safety precautions but take extra care in Paris and its surrounding suburbs known as the Ile de France area.
Greg Dyett reports.
(Click on the audio tab above to hear the full report)
Prime Minister Tony Abbott has called the Paris murders a horiffic atrocity and has warned there will be more attacks of this sort.
"These are people who hate us, not because of anything we've done but because of who we are and how we live. They hate our freedom, they hate our pluralism, they hate the welcome that we extend to people of all faiths, all cultures, all sexualities, they hate that."
Foreign Minister Julie Bishop has urged Australians in France or thinking of going there to register with the Smartraveller website.
She says normal precautions should be exercised with extra care taken in Paris and the Ile de France area.
"We do advise Australians who are travelling to France or who are in France to take account of our travel advice but also the advice from the French authorities. There are an extra three thousand police that have now been deployed to tourist locations, to the Metro, to religious sites around Paris and in other cities so we do urge people to follow very carefully the advice of the French authorities at any time."
Tony Abbott urges Australians not to let the Paris atrocity deter them from doing what they want to do.
"My plea to Australians at home and abroad is do not let terror deter you from living your normal life because if you change the way you live because of the activities of terrorists, you have given them a victory and the last thing we should want is to give terrorist fanatics a victory."
Labor's Acting Opposition leader Tony Burke has joined other political leaders in describing the killings in Paris as an attack on freedom of speech.
"The actions there have been an attack on fundamental democratic rights of freedom of speech. The events that we've seen there have been appalling acts of terrorism. I, on behalf of the Labor Party spoke this morning to the French ambassador and conveyed on behalf of the Labor Party to the French ambassador both our condemnation of the actions and our complete solidarity with the people of France at this moment."
The French Ambassador to Australia, Christophe Lecourtier has told the ABC the world does seem to be becoming more dangerous.
"That must imply a strong coalition and a strong reaction between you know Western countries and all countries that share the same values. When the French president came to your country a few weeks ago that's what he discussed with the Prime Minister and the cabinet and there is a strong cooperation between my country and Australia, not only on the ground in Iraq but also between our intelligence agencies to fight against those crazy, foreign fighters and to avoid them (prevent them) from doing what they're currently doing, what they've been doing in Paris."
While many political leaders are characterising the Paris attack as an assault on freedom of expression globally, others see it as far more than that.
Mohammed Elleissy is a former youth worker with the Islamic Council of Victoria.
"They are even more so on the Muslim community as well because these radicals don't just oppose freedom of expression from the non-Muslim world and journalists but also freedom of expression and diversity of opinion in the Muslim world. So they kill far more Muslims than they do those in the West. They kill Muslims for going to secular education or women going to school and also other Muslims that have different opinions and a different strain of Islam from their own."
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