Australia was lucky to avoid a terror attack after an apparent tip-off to authorities foiled an alleged plot in Sydney, a Muslim community representative says.
Sydney men Omar Al-Kutobi, 24, and Mohammad Kiad, 25, were arrested on Tuesday allegedly hours away from carrying out an attack in the name of the Islamic State terror group.
They have been charged with preparing to commit a terrorist act and a number of items have been seized, including a machete, a hunting knife, a homemade IS flag and a video recording of one suspect threatening to commit violent acts with the weapons.
A Muslim community representative, who has knowledge of the investigation into the two men, said early indications suggest information from the community led to the alleged plot being uncovered.
"Everyone got lucky here because they got dobbed in at the last minute," the source, who asked not to be named, told AAP.
"No one knows anything about these guys - completely under the radar."
He warned it would be difficult to avoid similar plots from being carried out by lone wolves who may not be on security watchlists.
"We have to face the reality that it's only a matter of time that something is going to happen here," he said.
"Each time we're getting lucky.
"So next time we might not get lucky."
He said more must be done to combat Islamic State's online propaganda campaign which is attracting the attention of disaffected members of the community.
He added the media is aiding IS by airing the group's stage-managed atrocities.
"IS is doing multi-million dollar promotions and the mass media is just picking it up and throwing it back out there and basically promoting it," he said.
"So it could be someone sitting there at home and disaffected who watches this crap and decides `hey, I'm just going to do something and say I'm part of IS'.
"How do you stop that? You can't stop it.
"Why are we allowing the stupid videos to be disseminated?
"We should be doing the opposite: we should be ignoring them and letting the authorities deal with them."
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