Sydney stabbing murders: murderer identified and other observations.

The man who murdered 6 people in the Bondi shopping mall yesterday has been identified as Joel Cauchi, a man known to the police for his various mental health difficulties.  His parents are conducting themselves with great dignity saying:

‘Joel’s actions were truly horrific, and we are still trying to comprehend what has happened. He has battled with mental health issues since he was a teenager.

‘We are in contact with both the New South Wales Police Force and Queensland Police Service and have no issues with the Police Officer who shot our son as she was only doing her job to protect others and we hope she is coping alright.’

There are positive things to say. The baby, orphaned of her mother who died protecting her is in a stable condition and expected to do well. The man seen battling the killer on the escalator using a queuing bollard showed great bravery to deflect Cauchi and allow shoppers time to evacuate. Likewise the man who was caught on video standing between Cauchi and his family who faced up to him such that the murderer swerved left rather than continue on to stab. Finally the one male victim, another man who tackled him, the security guard, Faraz Tahir described as a refugee from Pakistan.  He was an Ahmadiyya  Muslim, a decent demomination persecuted by Sunni and Shia alike.  Their courage must be an inspiration to us. And pray that if tried we would also do what we could.

Whatever hatred or delusion motivated Cauchi his MO, a shopping centre, roaming apparently at will randomly knifing women and children and anyone who opposed him was very reminiscent of the tactics promoted by Al Qaeda, ISIS and the rest over the last 10 years. Other than that there were no reports of the war-cry ‘Allahu Akbar’ I was sure it would turn out to be a jihad attack and I wasn’t alone in this. Being an ultra cautious former Civil Servant I didn’t make that claim in writing until I had proof, but I will admit, it was my opinion. We were wrong.

Equally wrong were the commentators who immediately decided it was a Zionist/Israeli/Jewish plot. I don’t think Cauchi had even been stopped in his tracks before I was seeing this on X. Quickly followed by a name, and a face, (half his age as it turns out) of a real young Jewish Australian who also has a beard, brown hair and brown eyes. And who was very much alive when the body of the dead killer was all over the news, but what did that little detail matter. Since Joel Cauchi was named early this morning a lot (but not all)  of these posts and allegations have been taken down.

This news clip of David Adler President of the Australian Jewish Association speaking on Sky News Australia last night sets out how serious the anti-semitism of which this is an example now is.

Mark Rowley on X: “Syrian Girl and Aussie Cossack get outed on live TV, and it’s LONG overdue. Well done to David Adler, who does a sterling job of fighting for his community and dealing with the pointy end of the propaganda war. I really wish we could have politicians like him, standing up for… https://t.co/H60qnM0rax” / X (twitter.com)

The clip is still there and I have reposted the link above; it opens in one of my browsers but not another. All I can say is try it and see in yours.

I seriously believe that jihadi violence has inspired the MO of copycat murders and is a factor in the increase of violent crime, even when not in the cause of Islamic jihad.