Tuesday 16 2014.
There is only one story in Australia today.
A criminal took hostages yesterday and overnight his actions caused the death of two Australians.
The criminal had a past history of repeated violence, particularly against women.
Most criminals find some way to justify their inhumanity and this one was no different. In the past this criminal had repeatedly justified his violence and hatred as being based in religion.
As a general rule we all recognise that murders try to explain away their behaviour, they try to blame something or someone else for their violent actions.
We generally would not believe any excuse a murder gives for their crime, we recognise that murders are generally also liars – wanting to avoid responsibility for their own actions.
Murders who blame their religion for their violence are no different from murders who blame alcohol for their violence or who blame gang affiliations for their violence.
Only one person is responsible for this man’s violence – him.
Two families have unnecessarily lost loved ones today. That is a tragedy of infinite scale. The deaths were public but the grieving of the families will be mostly private and I hope we (Australians) respect that privacy.
This murder used the religion of Islam as his excuse, just as most white racists use Christianity as their excuse for their violence and hatred. In both cases it is a convenient lie. Hatred does not come out of a religion, hatred comes out of individual human hearts.
Because of this murder’s lie there have been many Australian Muslims who have felt insecure in the last 24 hours, particularly the most visible on the streets – women wearing the hiijab.
The Aussie response to this concern? – a twitter tag ‘Illridewithyou’ – 90 000 people have offered to accompany women wearing the hiijab to help them feel safer during this immediate post crisis period.
There are other hatred motivated racists in Australia who might use this situation as an excuse to be violent towards Muslim women on the streets. Most Australians consider this possible behaviour disgusting and cowardly – ninety thousand of us are willing to stand with our Muslim sisters to ensure they continue to enjoy the same safety that every person has a right to experience on the streets of their hometown.
I feel sad today.
A huge amount of pain and sorrow has been poured out into human lives from the violently selfish actions of one malignant man.
I simply feel sad.
it's A Small Word 