Australia, ISIS, hostages

[Theredandthewhite]

What the bloody hell is going on? Poor people

Fingers crossed they all leave unharmed

This is an utter tragedy.

The perpetrator, however, doesn't seem to have had any links to terrorist groups. He set himself up as a kind of 'faith healer' which role he allegedly used to rape and sexually assault a series of women. He was implicated in the brutal murder of his ex wife and he sent vile letters to families of dead Australian service persons.

He had also converted from Shia to Sunni Islam. As far as anyone can say, he was only a 'cleric' insofar as he ran the rape cult.

Much as certain sections of the press will want to make this about Islamic terrorism, the link is pretty shaky. He seems to have been more of a narcissist/sociopath who enjoyed violence against women.

The fact that Murdoch et al are trying to make the deaths of 2 people into a poster for US style gun laws in Australia is frankly repulsive.

Didn't he ask for an IS flag? That would be a strong enough link for me.

Terribly sad but very proud to be an Aussie with the story of #I'llRideWithYou.

I know a lot on here like to think Australia is a racist country but it's really not true.

RIP to those poor hostages and my thoughts are with their families.

#I'llridewithyou is fantastic. But there are still plenty of people who are racist, or #I'llridewithyou wouldn't even have been necessary. :(

Possum, given that the Australian security services didn't have him on a watch list, at a time when even people with really tenuous links to it are on them, and given his high profile with Australian law enforcement, with his various crimes against women, no, I would say that asking for an IS flag was a bit of a red herring.

#I'llridewithyou is amazing, but so sad to hear of the numbers of A&TSI people who have been spoken to politely by white people for the first time.

To me, it looks like a tawdry suicide by cop scenario with an ISIS style flag and headband thrown in for extra attention.

If this was terrorism, there would have been a minimum of three people with guns, no-one would have escaped and there would have been demands made, probably around having someone deemed 'important' released from jail somewhere.

Don't be stupid. you don't need a certain number of people to = terrorism. you can have one person terror attacks.

You're so busy trying to deny that it was yet another Islam inspired terror stack. OK he was a nutter but he called himslef a sheik and help up the Shahada flag.

If it walks like a duck let's be honest and call it a duck. Trying to pretend otherwise is not going to help us understand the problem and protect innocents like those who dies in the Lindt shop.

Will you fuck off with daft comments puffin about white people talking to aboriginal and torres strait islander's.

There always has to be one knob...

Monstrous - that has occurred to me as well. I'm assuming there was a pretty good chance that he was going to go to prison over his wife's murder, so it may be that he thought he'd go down in a blaze of "glory" rather than go to prison (after all, heroic suicide for "the cause" is meant to be direct entry to heaven, isn't it?)