The Lone Wolf !

The scenes from cctv cameras that flashed across television screens were shocking.  When Curtis Cheng, a 58 year old civilian accountant who worked in the Parramatta police headquarters finished his shift and headed home to his family he encountered a youth clad in a strange black gown as he reached the street.

Without warning, this youth produced a pistol and shot him in the back of the head, killing him instantly.  The youth then went on to do some sort of victory dance, yelling praise in Arabic to Allah and fired randomly at police headquarters, until special officers raced onto the street - and shot him dead.

This is precisely the "Lone Wolf " style of random attacks that the leaders of Islamic State ( IS )  have been calling for and using social media to radicalize Muslims in world countries to join their war on the rest of the world.   It is a call to arms that bears fruit in the minds of some with deep religious convictions - and in particular it appeals to the spirit of adventure so prominent in the youth of today.

This lone wolf attack is something we have been expecting.  It seems inevitable that this will not be an isolated incident.  We - along with the rest of the world - are engaged in a war of ideology where a sect of Sunni Islam is determined to wage war and force the conversion of all they conquer to a severe form of life and outlook that suits Wahabinist thinking.   That was the mission of Osama bin Laden when he formed al Qaeda and is now the mission of IS.

IS has been very successful in attracting disillusioned western youth to become cannon fodder in Syria.  It has also so terrified the population of Syria and surrounding countries that we are seeing a human avalanche of refugees fleeing to Europe and destabilizing the countries that make up the European Union.  Now Russia is providing arms and soldiers to prop up the oppressive regime of Bassar Assad and the timidity of the west  in suppressing IS may lead to a wider conflict.

We can be thankful that the security services here in Australia have been very successful in tamping down acts of terrorism. A number of developing attacks have been nipped in the bud and taken down before they reached the action stage and so far the most damaging event to cause civilian deaths was the cafe siege in Martin Place.   So far - we have been very lucky !

No doubt we will learn a lot more about fifteen year old Farhad Khalil  Mohammad and why he chose to execute a total stranger on a public street.  How he came to be in possession of a pistol will be closely examined, and it is fortunate that this was an old style revolver containing five or six rounds.   Had he been able to gain a modern Glock automatic with a more extensive magazine capacity the death toll might have been greater.

We are actually assisting IS when we make unreasonable demands on our Australian Muslim communities.  The vast majority of both Sunni and Shi'ite branches of Islam simply want to earn a living and raise their families without getting involved in religious battles.  We accuse them of not integrating into the Australian way of life, but we would do well to remember the migrant flow after the second world war and the war in Vietnam.

We accused those migrants of forming ghettos and many Sydney suburbs claimed an affinity to certain race groups.  Clubs formed that spoke their language and old customs from another world clashed both legally and morally with the ways of European Australia.   Epithets such as "Wogs "and "Dagos " were common.

It took several generations for full integration and now a family name containing many z and y and r's or with an Asian tone is a normal part of the Australian life scene.  Ethnicity thinned out in those ghetto suburbs and now the children of those former refugees are scattered widely in this continent - and precisely the same will be the same with our Muslim community after the passage of time.

It doesn't help when we have racist crowds roaring and bellowing and trying to prevent the establishment of mosques.   It doesn't help when social media is used to denigrate Muslims because of their religion or the way they dress.  For most, it is confronting to make the change from a lifestyle arbitrarily imposed by dictatorial rulers in their former homeland to the free and easy life we enjoy in Australia.   We need to cut them a bit of slack !

There probably will be more Farhad Khalil  Mohammad incidents, but then there are usually several more mundane murders committed every day in this country.  The vast majority of our Muslims deplore this violence - just as we do !   The best we can offer is to be watchful for signs of radicalism - and help the security people stay ahead of the action !