Day 4 Writing Practice

 The Sydney hostage incident 

Yesterday, a man entered the Lindt cafe located in Sydney's city center and held 17 people hostage. The local police force quickly siege the store after the incident. Unfortunately, after 16 hours of confrontation, a cross-fire went off which cause the death of 3 people, including 2 hostages and the gunman himself. This tragic event shocked all of us, because Australia was considered as one of the safest country in the world. Although laden with sorrow, I would like to discuss the security issues not only in Australia, but also around the world. 

The motivation of a terrorist attack is always complicated. In this Sydney siege incident, the 50 years old gunman Man Haron Monis forced his hostage to hold a black flag bearing “Shahada” over it. Which was used as the banner of jihadist for their holy war. Then shall we classify this as a conventional cultural/political conflict? As we informed by the media, Monis was a refugee from Iran since 1996, so it was Australia accept him when he suffered the hardship in his life. I assume he would appreciate Australia’s until-curtail policy at that time. However, what happened it the last 18 years, that drastically shift this man into a fervent anti-social terrorist? He was charged with writing anonymous threat letter to deceased solider family in Afghanistan, murder his ex-wife and convict sexual harassment. He believes Alah and a man with faith should not commit these crimes because it is basically against his doctrine. This perplexed me until I saw the words he left “I have nothing to lose.”. It is our indifferent society driven him into this madness. Even though Austrlia is an immigration country, it is hard for other culture background people to merge into the western society. Especially a Muslim like him who shows distinct religious difference with his dressing. Obviously, he was not happy in his life, therefore it emphasized the memories of his home country. Once Australia started to send soldiers to Arabic countries, he felt offend and succumbed to his anger. 

This tragedy might terrify us in Australia, but it is happening everyday in Iraq. It is the war that caused all of this, and our government are still sacrificing solider’s live to assist with so called “Global Security." Help ourselves before we help others! These are the most fundamental rules that we kept hearing on the airplane. We want a safe Australia, so please try to make friends, not enemies.