Journalist Peter Greste says he is worried about the government's growing inclination to shoot the messenger. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen "I think we need to have vigorous debates, and I don't think that debate [on Monday night] crossed that line." Greste said the government's habit was increasingly to "shoot the messenger," comparing the treatment of Mallah and the ABC with its ongoing verbal war against Human Rights Commission chief Gillian Triggs. "Whatever you think of Gillian Triggs' politics, what [the government reaction to her report] didn't do was trigger a debate about the concerns [she] has raised," Mr Greste said. "The government aimed its guns at the messenger rather than the message. It's an old, old trick ... but I think what we're seeing is a closing down of the debate, and that worries me enormously."

Zaky Mallah's controversial appearance on Q&A. He said the ABC might have been "a bit insensitive" in the way it managed the Mallah issue, but the government's response was "very concerning". Prime Minister Tony Abbott has said millions of Australians would have felt "betrayed" by the ABC, and called on it "to answer a question which I have posed before: whose side are you on?" Peter Greste (right) appears in court along with other defendents during their trial on terror charges in Cairo, Egypt. Greste said journalists and media organisations should never be on a "side".

"As journalists we're supposed to be the awkward squad, and the implication that we should be friends of anybody, that we should be on one side or the other is, by definition, anathema to what we do." If Mr Abbott was suggesting that the ABC should be "friends of Australia", Mr Greste said, it "suggests if you challenge some of these issues, if you raise questions about government policy, particularly on national security, that you somehow become unpatriotic. "I simply can't accept that view. I think that the patriotic thing is to take a really good, hard critical look at the kinds of policies that have been implemented." One Muslim community leader, Kuranda Seyit from the Islamic Council of Victoria, said the ABC had made a mistake to invite Mallah on air. "You could only be inviting trouble by giving him air time," Mr Seyit said.

"It's in the back of some people's minds to go over [to Syria to fight], so it's dangerous to talk about it in public ... [Zaky] is getting that message out to young people and inflaming the situation. He's getting people emotional and putting thoughts in people's minds." But Curtin University academic and deradicalisation expert Ann Azza Aly said the comment on Q&A by parliamentary secretary Steve Ciobo that prompted Mallah's outburst, was just as inflammatory. Mr Ciobo, the parliamentary secretary to the Minister for Foreign Affairs, told Mallah that he should be kicked out of the country. "I'm happy to look you straight in the eye and say that I would be pleased to be part of a government that would say that you're out of the country as far as I'm concerned," Mr Ciobo said. "I'm telling you I would sleep very soundly at night with that point of view."

Dr Aly said the comment was "bound to lead to an explosive reaction". "Who the hell is he to say Zaky Mallah should be out of the country?" She said Mallah's point of view, which he had articulated badly, was a reasonable one – that government policy which demonises and alienates Muslims was a push-factor to young Muslim men considering going to fight for Islamic State. She said by withdrawing people's citizenship, "you're doing exactly what Daesh [another name for Islamic State] want". "Their version of terror tourism is that, 'You come over here, because you're not wanted in those kuffar [infidel] lands, you're not welcome there ... this is where you'll find your space'.

"Let's just hand them to IS on a plate." Dr Aly said the impact of the reaction to Mallah's comments was "the Liberal government pitting themselves against another Muslim, which they do quite a bit, as if we're all radicals and extremists. Loading "They politicise everything, but address nothing." Follow us on Twitter