Sydney Siege

[YelloMit]

For those who don't know, there is currently a terrorist/hostage situation inside a Café in Sydney, Australia. It's been going on about 14 hours now with no sign of being stopped any time soon.

Here's a link to all the info you need: http://www.theguardian.com/australia-ne ... -cafe-live

 

[WizofAus]

Unfortunately it didn't end so well.

3 dead, many injured, and the terrorist had a rap sheet that has to be seen to be believed.

My thoughts go out to all affected by this tragedy.

 

[YelloMit]

Unfortunately it didn't end so well.

3 dead, many injured, and the terrorist had a rap sheet that has to be seen to be believed.

My thoughts go out to all affected by this tragedy.

The only positive thing I can think of is that ONLY 2 hostages died, one of them died trying to be a hero. He sacrificed himself.

R.I.P.

 

[Jesse0328]

Granted, Australia is close to Indonesia which has a sizable Muslim population and whatnot, but I think that the whole #illridewithyou campaign on social media is awesome. The Australians aren't allowing the radicals to stigmatize and subsequently alienate their Muslim neighbors, a vast majority of whom are peaceful.

 

[SenaLuna]

Granted, Australia is close to Indonesia which has a sizable Muslim population and whatnot, but I think that the whole #illridewithyou campaign on social media is awesome. The Australians aren't allowing the radicals to stigmatize and subsequently alienate their Muslim neighbors, a vast majority of whom are peaceful.

Islam is a largely peaceful religion, and Muslims are required to donate to the needy every year as per their traditions. The disgustingly popular notion that Islam is a religion of violence is perpetuated by people thinking that the extremists represent the religion as a whole and not just a group of evil people using religion as a scapegoat. After what happened in the US post 9/11, I was worried it would spark another giant Muslim-hate campaign, especially with what also happened in Pakistan. I'm glad to see social media being used to show Muslims they're still respected as people.

 

[ACFFAN69]

Granted, Australia is close to Indonesia which has a sizable Muslim population and whatnot, but I think that the whole #illridewithyou campaign on social media is awesome. The Australians aren't allowing the radicals to stigmatize and subsequently alienate their Muslim neighbors, a vast majority of whom are peaceful.

Islam is a largely peaceful religion, and Muslims are required to donate to the needy every year as per their traditions. The disgustingly popular notion that Islam is a religion of violence is perpetuated by people thinking that the extremists represent the religion as a whole and not just a group of evil people using religion as a scapegoat. After what happened in the US post 9/11, I was worried it would spark another giant Muslim-hate campaign, especially with what also happened in Pakistan. I'm glad to see social media being used to show Muslims they're still respected as people.

Any ideology that was written over a millenium ago is likely going to have some very ugly elements too it (Buddhism and Taoism exempt due to awesomeness). Simply from the fact that it caught on as well as it did and touched as many people as it did and continues to do means it will also largely have a message that is uplifting and about love. Ignoring the fact that Islam is also an Ahbramic religion and it's roots lie in Christianity, where Ibrahim (Abraham), Nuh (Noah), Musa (Moses) and Isa (Jesus) are just as important figures as Mohammed.

Any group of people following any ideology will have disgusting, hateful, spiteful, angry people sadly, and these are the ones that sour the message. Being the largest religion in the World (23% of the Worlds population consider themselves Muslim), this flying rock would be an awful place to live if it was an ideology of hatred.

People are generally caring and loving individuals, even though when taking a step back and viewing our actions as a whole (where mob mentality can quickly form) it's often hard to tell. They wouldn't follow the religion if it wasn't mostly about love. :twocents-02cents:

 

[Sevrin]

(Buddhism and Taoism exempt due to awesomeness).

Oh, really?

 

[RandomGuppy]

(Buddhism and Taoism exempt due to awesomeness).

Oh, really?

Not just violence. Not only was the Buddha a bit of a misogynist, the beliefs of Buddhism can lead to messed up stuff, like implicitly believing someone being born with some kind of defect is the result of doing something bad in a past life, therefore they deserve it etc.

Back to the OT, this was pretty frightening at first, as I thought it was actually a group of ISIS members (I was called on the phone about it), that being said I was still distressed for a few hours while the place was surrounded by what looked like a SWAT team. It was just a few blocks from where I work and a lot our clients (I'm a massage therapist) are from Martin Place and nearly all of them cancelled due to building lockouts.

Was hoping for good news in the morning but...

Well... it's hard to put in words the feelings that stirred...

 

[Sevrin]

The thing is, that Islam, or any religion, has very little to do with losers like this. We had two similar cases in Canada in the past month or where these mentally unstable loner/loser types recently discovered or rediscovered Islam and then went and killed people.

In these cases, religion is just an excuse for killing people before putting an end to their pathetic existence and getting themselves a martyr badge and a ticket to heaven in the bargain.