Monday, December 15, 2014

Sydney Siege, Muslim Immigrants and Male Privilege

As I write this the news is coming through that the Australian services have put an end to the hostage taking in a Sydney cafe. It seems, from press reports (caution), that the hostage-taker is dead as are at least two of the hostages. Seen from here, the Australian authorities played it right. When it became obvious the hostage-taker was not going to be talked out, they sent in the special units who handled the matter as Aussies generally do, i.e., with skill and courage.

A few thoughts come to mind.

Again, we must note that the hostage-taker was a Muslim, an Iranian Sunni refugee. He benefitted from the generosity of Australia, and proved himself--according to the press--a perennial and serious trouble-maker during his 15 or so years in Australia. He finally paid back his adopted country with violence and murder. He undertook his actions in Sydney in response to the political dictates of his totalitarian and intolerant creed.

I thought it odd to hear journalists wondering about the gunman's motivations when he was forcing hostages to hold up a banner that read, "There is no God but Allah and Mohammed is his prophet," and demanding that the cops deliver to him a proper ISIS flag. Wonder what was his inspiration? Only a journalist or some other member of the progressive clan could and would pretend not to know.

It gets worse. The situation had not yet been resolved, we did not know if any hostages would get out alive, and the progressives began their mau-mauing with stories about how this situation made Muslims in Australia feel uneasy: they worried about how they would be treated--you know the always present "blacklash." I guess they feel "uneasy" because, well, you know there was that famous anti-Muslim pogrom that took place in Australia back in, uh, well, uh . . . what utter nonsense.

Some more thoughts, and any reader, especially Australian, who thinks I am off my meds, please chime in and let me know.

A general observation. As I noted before, a couple of months back, the Australians announced that their intel and law enforcement agencies had broken up a plot to attack Parliament in Canberra. The usual experts chimed in, pooh-poohing the whole thing, doubting that ISIS or AQ could carry out such operations around the world. As we saw, however, a few days after the break-up of the Australian-based plot, there was one with eerie similarities that took place in Canada, where a Muslim gunman did attack the Canadian Parliament. I have noted before that groups such as ISIS or AQ or whatever they call themselves on any given day, do not need a vast logistical network slipping supplies and instructions to agents. They have something much better. They have the globalized media--both traditional and "social"--that transmit messages and images, and a bunch of Western countries with insane immigration policies that allow these murdering terrorists to live and thrive in the midst of tolerance. How does Australia--or Canada, or the UK, or the USA--benefit from taking in thousands and thousands of Muslim immigrants? Would we have knowingly taken in thousands and thousands of Nazis into our countries in the midst of WWII, or Communists during the Cold War? Is the war against the jihadis less lethal?

Speculation. I have never been--alas!--to Sydney. Judging, however, from the photos and video of the hostage situation, it seems that the Lindt cafe sits in a pretty nice part of town as would befit a Swiss chocalatier. The cleintele appear to be upper-middle class, primarily female, many non-white, and apparently all very professional. I am pretty sure that these are folk of a progressive bent, who probably find much of the popular culture of Australia or America embarrassing, are, nevertheless, remarkably tolerant of other cultures, are strong supporters of immigration, and are probably not the kind who voted for Tony Abbott. If the Lindt cafe is anything like Starbucks or some of the other upscale cafes we have in the USA near universities or other centers of progressive "thought," I am sure you could overhear conversations about "white male privilege," or the "patriarchy," etc.

Just want to note that the folks who had to risk their lives by breaking into the cafe and killing the gunman were white working class males exercising the privilege to protect their fellow citizens.


30 comments:

  1. As I grapple with having my dog sit still to have a picture taken with Santa, these young men and women put their lives on the line... I am so grateful for them.

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  2. Note that Australians have pretty well been disarmed by their government over the years, so there was no chance that a concealed carrier in the chocolate shoppe crowd would stop the Islamic jihadist in his tracks. Another progressive policy nightmare.

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    1. Yes & No Jon. Aussies have never been carriers of handguns on any scale, which probably stems from our British colonial background. Sure we carry rifles and are damn good with them too as heaps of dead Turks, Germans, Italians and Japanese could tell you (quite a considerable number of Vichy French too) but the rifles were for food collection and feral culling. To be sure we've had a few Ned Kelly types over the years but the standard Australian method of settling disputes is a punch in the mouth, not a .45 between the eyes so the cult of the gun has never really caught on. Even our most vicious gangs in the 20s fought with razors rather than guns.
      The gun amnesty/buyback after the Port Arthur Massacre was for my mind a good idea. I handed in several weapons I had accumulated during 30 years Army service including a Type 56 (Chicom AK47), a Garand, a S&W 12" barrelled pump gun (HIGHLY illegal now) and several revolvers and autos. A cop acquaintance attached to the collection and disposal unit described to me how many WW2-era handguns came in: Lugers, Walthers, Nambus, Berettas plus Webleys and Colts naturally, you name it. Mostly these had lain in sideboard drawers since the end of the WW2 when they were brought back as souvenirs.
      Yes it would have been good for one of the cafe patrons to have pulled his or her Colt Python .357 (lovely gun btw) out and ventilated Mr Jihadis forehead but on the whole the scarcity of handguns in the general public makes Australia a safer place IMHO. Yes the crims have guns but so do our cops - all of them - and we are quite supportive of them when some lowlife gets blown away.

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    2. We do NOT "settle our differences with hand guns" Dueling has been illegal in Texas, for example, since 1837. When the "difference" is over my wife or daughter living or dying at some scum bucket's hand, he will get to lose that debate, whether it's the .357 or the shotgun. Have I mentioned how rare home invasion robberies are in Texas?

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    3. I said WE (Australians) don't settle our differences with handguns and made no reference to anyone else, nor will I. A little antsy about gun culture are you?

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    4. I wonder if the two hostages killed had time to reflect on "what if I had a handgun" and if they or their dependents would agree that "on the whole the scarcity of handguns had made Australia a safer place"....

      I notice how little attention is given to armed citizens who stop an attacker, for example in the little known Kelly Elementary School shooting, in Carlsbad, CA, just the same sort of affluent, safe area around the metro San Diego, that includes a 'diverse' population of al sorts.

      IIRC it was armed citizens, one of two construction workers who tackled him as he fumbled a reload, while the other drove a truck at him, and a homeowner nearby, who heard the gunshots and came running armed with a handgun, who was right behind them).

      despite the police and fire being only a mile away...

      "that when seconds count, the police are only minutes away..."

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    5. I'm an Aussie and generally on the conservative side of most debates. However, I'll happily take our negligible gun related deaths over the "right" to protect ourselves against the terrorist nutters who've managed to kill, maybe 6 people in the last 40 years. We don't have a problem with guns and I'm afraid the US example isn't one that most sane Aussies would choose to follow IMHO.

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    6. PF and Nony

      As a fellow Aussie I support your argument. Our culture regarding firearms is very different from our American cousins and I speak from the point of wearing HM's uniform and carrying a very lethal firearm in the course of my service for 34 years.

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    7. I believe you need to do some research into reporting methods and demographics. Accounting for how 'murders' are defined and tabulated along with controlling for the demographic differences between Australia and the US yields comparable numbers. Note also that violent crime of all types has been dropping continuously in the US for a long time, even during times when firearms sales have peaked historically. I would suggest this presents a compelling case that guns are not the root problem but instead a red herring distracting us from seeking better answers.

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    8. "I'm afraid the US example isn't one that most sane Aussies would choose to follow IMHO."

      I take it you are not eager to accept a transplant of America's inner city black culture that generates the vast majority of gun deaths. Eliminate that segment of the population and America has a crime and gun death rate about equal to Europe's.

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  3. Coming soon to a Starbucks here in the good ol' USA! You asked for it, you got it.

    America Bless God and see what happens. . . .

    LibertyGrace'sGrandma

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  4. Dear Diplomad,

    I work 2 blocks down from the cafe, our building was locked down rather than evacuated, I went out for lunch for the others in the office and the streets were very quite but people we still going about their business.

    The seige ended when a Police sniper saw the terrorist shot a women, he gave the signal for the storming of the shop and unfortunately another innocent hostage was killed in the melee with 5 more injured, non serious.

    The feeling here is quiet anger and a resolve to not let the evil of islam keep infecting our country. The usual suspects in the lefty press have been trotting out tame Imams to say these actions are against islam blah blah, but our PM, Tony Abbot and the preimer of NSW are calling it like it is. You are pretty spot on with your observations, I am hoping this will see a severe reduction in refugees from muslim countries. The cafe was full of lawyers when it was attacked so you are right on that count too.

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  5. trouble-maler

    That could be right, given his history.

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  6. gday Bob - some more background info you and your readers. The Sydney siege perp was 'known to police' as we say here in Australia. He was on bail on murder charges of his ex-wife who was axed to death and set alight, the judge that allowed bail is taking heavy flak as we speak. He was also facing multiple charges (@40) of rape and sexual assault over some bullshit 'spiritual healing' centre he was running.
    As per usual he's just your garden variety arab (or in his case Iranian, and Persians have been known throughout recorded history as being sneaky, duplitious and cruel) who has self-styled himself as 'shiek' and 'imam' and 'cleric' but don't they all?
    Two of the hostages were killed, a mother-of-three lawyer and the cafe's manager who tried to wrestle the sawn-off from the raghead when he dozed off and several were wounded, some quite seriously.
    He was armed with a sawn-off shotgun though it is as yet unclear whether it was a pumper or a hammer gun.
    He was blown away in a hail of bullets by 6 heavily armed commandos from the regiment based just across the harbour and not 15 minutes away.
    The location of the siege, Martin Place is quite central to Sydney. State parliament is just around the corner on MacQuarrie St and it is also pretty central to the financial hub. It is a nice place for an open-air lunch and is very popular with city workers. I used to work just a short distance away in Barracks St and would often eat my sushi in Martin Place; I'm glad I don't live in Sydney anymore.
    The chickenshit leftist media resisted the urge to actually report his motivations and behaviour but enough info came out from hostages and response teams about his IS banners and 'allahu akbar' bullshit chants that they couldn't ignore it and had to mention it. One idiot lady leftoid went so far as to tweet how much nicer the CBD was now that it was car-free (with the exception of law enforcement vehicles of course), needless to say she is being dumped on from a great height also.
    Naturally the lefty fellow travellers have mobilised to escort muslims on public transport and protect them nasty, reactionary redneck Aussies.
    Tim Blair has much more, you know where his site is of course. Anyone else interested follow the 'Tim Blair' link of Bob's.

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    1. Unfortunately it wasn't heavily armed commandos - who would have taken the head shot earlier in the day. It was just tactical response police. There's a bit of rivalry there

      Reader129

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  7. Absolutely right on all counts.
    There are two great disappointments::
    2 hostages lost their life and
    during the siege the luvvies were already kneedeep apology,appeasement and misdirection.

    The #illridewithyou hashtag amassed almost 120,000 tweets on Monday evening, as Australians took a stand against anti-Muslim sentiment in the wake of the Martin Place siege.

    Not a #illreplaceyou from the Muslim apologists or #Illgetyouhomesafe from the sentimental heart bleeders on behalf of the hostages to be seen.

    I think you need a University education to be this stupid. Shows the benefits of free education.

    We do live in a strange world when we cannot even recognise the threat while it is taking place.

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  8. ... the progressives began their mau-mauing with stories about how this situation made Muslims in Australia feel uneasy: they worried about how they would be treated--you know the always present "blacklash."

    Reminds me of the old headline from The Onion:

    Muslim Community Fears Backlash from Tomorrow's Terror Bombing

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  9. "I thought it odd to hear journalists wondering about the gunman's motivations when he was forcing hostages to hold up a banner that read, 'There is no God but Allah and Mohammed is his prophet,' and demanding that the cops deliver to him a proper ISIS flag."

    The only time the press is certain of someone's motivation is when someone has a Gadsden flag.

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  10. "upscale cafes we have here in the USA near universities or other centers of progressive thought" <== I think you meant "centers of progressive privilege", there.

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  11. Your last couple of paragraphs - that's a good point, well made.

    You could rephrase it - they sometimes describe it as a patriarchy - well it seems to me the role of dad is very often to clean up his kids' mess; and that is exactly what has happened here.

    These progessive useful idiots should be damn glad there's someone around who can do that.

    I do though take issue with you impying that all muslims are islamists. They aren't. I'd be happier still if they made more effort to integrate themselves (it's not our job to integrate them), and above all, if there was a deafening clamour from the islamic community (wtf that is) deploring this islamist shite. That we have yet to hear.

    The truth is that not all muslims are islamists, but no no-muslims are.

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    1. The truth is that not all muslims are islamists, but no no-muslims are.

      All Muslims ARE Islamists.

      If you are a Muslim, then you MUST accept that the Koran is the received word of God, as revealed to Muhammed. You cannot question or disagree with the Koran or you are an apostate and will be killed.

      The Koran is quite explicit and states that here are three stages in living in a non muslim society with the expected behaviours.

      The first stage states that if Muslims are a tiny majority then they should not rock the boat, live quietly and peacefully and conserve their strength, religion and not mix with the dhimmis as far as possible. Show a friendly, if duplicitous face to the dhimmis and put out the mantra “Islam is a rligion of peace”. Wise advice as you don't want the delicate, poisonous weed of Islam to be crushed befre it can propagate. “Invite the dhimmis to become Muslims”.

      The second stage occurs when the Muslim population becomes large enough to form its own communities and power centres. Then the population should press for “rights” and concessions from the dhimmis. Things like Muslim schools (Hey! The catholics have their own faith schools. Why not Muslims?) Islamic style banking, Sharia divorce settlements (those wicked Jews have their own divorce arbitrators, don't they? So why not similar Muslim style systems?). The trick is to condition the host society to make concessions and recognise the political and social power developing. If they can get parliamentary or other positions as elected representatives, then all the better (and since they are ina more or less monolithic community in an area of a city, it is likely that this will occur). They will become spokesmen for Islam and plausible deniability statements made through the media from these “respectable” representatives of the Muslim “community” will be used to lie to and lull the host population into believing that the behaviour that they object to is an abberation only, not the real face of islam etc.

      The second stage also results in forcing their attitudes and customs on the host population such as no alcohol in the streets, assaulting and intimidating women to cover up and dress modestly in Muslim controlled areas, picking greivances with the authorities and demanding that the police etc. take Muslim sensibilities into account (e.g. not using dogs when searching Muslim homes for explosives etc.). Crime such as credit card fraud to finance Muslim activities worldwide (e.g. the Finsbury Park Mosque in London with thousands of stolen credit cards and Millions in cash) is specifically required. Note that the Koran specifically requires Muslims to engage in war to further Islam OR if they are unable to fight themselves, to provide support (cash, materiel or other resources) to the fighters.

      Lying to the dhimmis is specifically demanded (Al-Taqiyya) to cover up the scale and pattern of the activities. You can read the quotes from the Koran here:

      http://www.usc.edu/org/cmje/religious-texts/quran/verses/003-qmt.php#003.028

      http://www.usc.edu/org/cmje/religious-texts/hadith/bukhari/071-sbt.php#007.071.662

      http://www.usc.edu/org/cmje/religious-texts/hadith/bukhari/053-sbt.php#004.053.408


      The Rochdale child abuse scandal whre AT LEAST 1,400 white underage girls were sexually exploited and raped, being passed around Muslim men and trafficed to other cities as prostitutes is typical (c.f. Rape statistics in Norway, Sweden etc.).

      (continued)

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    2. (continued)

      The second stage will later see demands for Sharia law to be introduced and the host population convert to islam as the strength and influence of Muslims is seen and acknowledged.

      The third stage is implemented once the Muslim population is either in a majority or strong enough to work openly without fear of defeat or serious opposition. This results in the forceful conversion of dhimmis, killing of non believers, a dhimmi tax and Sharia law imposed and implemented. In short, the country is Muslim and no going back. Depending on the strength and commitment of the rulers, dhimmis will either be forced out or slaughtered.

      So unless our hypothetical mythical Muslim ignores the Koran and automatically becomes an apostate HE IS AN ISLAMIST. His behaviour and the attitude he presents to the world will depend on what stage the islamisation has reached and just how supinely the host population behaves. He cannot be any other as thete is only Islam, no mild to exteme variations. You cannot pick and choose what parts of the Koran you will obey.

      If you are going to read the Koran, I would strongly urge you to read a translation by a western translator. There are many, many websites that are maintained by Muslims and they have VERY CAREFULLY edited versions that present a totally false impressuon of the actual meanings of the text. Gutenberg press (www.gutenberg.org) has several translations of the Koran (http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/search/?query=Koran) and they are from times when political correctness did not influence the writer. The translators did not call a spade a hand held, foot operated excavating device but translated the material as faithfully as they could.

      Note the Koran is tedious, contradictory (God is allowed to change his mind, you can't call God out for being a hypocrite) and apallingly written. PERSEVERE and remember that the later chapters supersede the earlier ones so if you give up after reading 1/10th of the material, you will only see the “invite people to become Muslim”, not the later “Kill the all, let Allah sort them out” message.

      There are plenty of blogs maintained by ex-Muslims and other such as http://www.jihadwatch.org/ or http://www.islam-watch.org/ that explain and specify exactly what islam is.

      I'm of the opinion that civilisations don't die. They commit suicide and western civilisation is doing just that …

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  12. We won't get a handle on all this crap till our rulers get the guts to say that the problem is Islam.

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    1. Yep, has been for 1400 years.

      Interestingly, it was said that the fall of the USSR signified the end of history,. Instead, history restarted; under the cold war, it was a question of "nobody move". All conflicts in the world were subordinated to the cold war balance to avoid MAD.

      Now that stopper has been removed, the genie is out of the bottle - literaly.

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  13. When I saw the photos of the perp behind the [big] window, I thought the same thing: Take the shot!

    http://freebeacon.com/blog/misplaced-priorities-in-sydney-terror-attack/

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    1. AFAIK it's not clear that the police knew that there was only one perp or that there were no actual bombs (with deadman switches) in the café.

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  14. It seems that this incident will be used as the justification to further restrict the private ownership of firearms in Australia. It was claimed yesterday that the Islamic terrorist was a licenced gun owner, although that appears to wrong; and it hardly matters anyway. If a convicted criminal (who are expressly excluded by the licencing regime) was given a licence then that is the fault of the government, and if he obtained it illegally then it is nothing to do with legal gun ownership, but that has not stopped the government partially framing the debate as about legal gun ownership and we now have a new enquiry into whether gun laws should be changed, a move that can only lead to further restrictions on law abiding gun owners. This tragedy is now a tool of the the anti-gun lobby who are leveraging off the appalling incident to further their aim of the complete abolition of the private gun ownership in Australia. If they are successful, once again, law abiding gun owners will be further restricted, which will do precisely nothing to prevent another and similar incident.

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  15. Lived in Oz for nearly 30 years, hailing from UK. Oz is following the worst decisions made by Europe re Muslim migrants and encountering the same problems though a few years later. The real problem is that the troublesome Muslims are simply not living in the progressive suburbs. Same with the Aborigines and others - the dysfunction simply isn't visible in the cold, hard light of day so people lose the ability to make those subjective judgements based on experience. Several days of work later you hear muted asides saying "good outcome, a dead terrorist but should've been shot earlier" but many more open conversations expressing sympathy for the perp and Muslims and how we drove him/them to it. Oz is a lost cause.

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  16. I think what we have been witnessing the last few decades after a few hundred years of relative dormancy IS the reformation of Islam. The return to founding principles. Whereas a return to the founding principles of Christianity, the teachings of Jesus Christ, fosters peaceful, productive society, the return to the violent bloody dogma of Mo produces *surprise!* bloodshed and violence. It won't end until the philosophy and anyone who won't abandon its poison is destroyed.

    Popular Front, I suspect the removal of all those old guns from the hands of people who have shown for decades no desire to misuse them has improved the safety of Australia by approximately zero. It does seem like a lesson forgotten when I think of the desperate measures to acquire weapons resorted to when a Japanese invasion seemed imminent. Likewise the UK who under similar threat from Germany requested and received anything that would shoot from American sportsmen. All dutifully dumped into the ocean once the immediate threat passed.

    People like to imagine what a peaceful world it would be if only there were no guns. We don't have to imagine. We have over 5000 years of bloody recorded history to tell us. The only thing that will produce peace is for good men to be ready time and time again stamp out the individuals, cultures and philosophies that engender violence. We have been negligent in our duties. Worse, too many have not only discarded the necessary tools but also created laws and mores to justify, even mandate the negligence. It is uncivilized to be unwilling to defend civilization.

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  17. I wish I could remember where I read it, but I read recently someone who pointed out that no one in Europe has used bows and arrows militarily since the fifteenth century, but an arrow can kill you just as dead now as it did then. All it takes is the willingness to use it.

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