Australia’s domestic spy agency’s decision to drop sensitive labels such as “left-right” and “Islamic extremism” has received a mixed reaction, with one religious expert saying the shift to broader terminology could inadvertently mislead public perception of extremist behaviour. Last week, Mike Burgess, director-general of the Australian Security and Intelligence Organisation (ASIO), delivered the Annual Threat Assessment and outlined how the agency has been combatting the twin threats of espionage and extremist activity in Australia. He revealed that ideology-based extremism now accounted for 40 percent of the agency’s caseload, and due to the evolving nature of threats, ASIO would drop the classifications “left-right” and “Islamic” when describing extremist activity. Instead, the broader categories of “religiously motivated violent extremism” and “ideologically motivated violent extremism” would be used going forward. “Why are we making a change? Put simply, it’s because the current labels are no longer fit for purpose. They no longer adequately …