Sunday, December 21, 2014

Sydney Siege

Last Sunday, a gunman who has since been identified took 17 hostages. This happened at a Lindt Chocolate Factory in Sydney.



The hostages were held for 16 hours. During that time, many hostages were forced to stand in the shop windows and hold flags with messages reading “There is no God but Allah",



and "Mohammed is the prophet of God”.



Although, several news agencies reported that this was an ISIS flag and that ISIS was doing this.

During this time, at least 6 hostages escaped.



And on Monday (the next day), after 16 hours, police activated what they called an emergency action plan and stormed the café in the middle of the night.



There was a brief firefight which resulted in 3 deaths, which included the 50-year-old gunman, a 34-year-old man, and a 38-year-old woman.





2 women and 1 police officer were also hospitalized with non life-threatening injuries.



And after all this there are a few things I want to say:

1. To the man behind this, whose picture I will not show, I will say your name one time, Haron Monis, fuck you, I'm glad you're dead. He was a man who was charged with 50 counts of indecent exposure and sexual assault. And as an accessory to the murder of his ex-wife who was stabbed and lit on fire in Sydney last year.



He was also convicted of sending offensive letters to the family members of dead soldiers.

And I hate this man! I don't hate all Muslims or any group of people that just happen to also have something in sync with this man.

It made me sad that as soon as this situation happened, Muslim leaders had to brace for violence. It made me happy but also very sad that the hashtag #illridewithyou even had to be a thing.



A hashtag where Sydney commuters volunteered to ride by Muslim side to make sure they were safe. That makes about as much sense as hating all Christians, or people that believe in Christianity; because someone from that group bombed an abortion clinic.

These outliers are the worst. There are people that agree with them but know those few do not speak or act for the many. The many who want peace, not death. The many who promote the good of all people; who can look at the situation and feel for the hostages, those who went through this and were killed; who agree this is a travesty, it's terrible, it cannot stand. So many people are united by that anger, and this despair.

And it's on that note that I'm going to end this topic.

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