UPDATE 3: And a friend of the attacker has now come forward stating that he recently converted to Islam:

A close friend told said Gargasoulas’ rantings were driven by heavy use of the drug ice, and that he had recently converted to Islam.

‘He was a great guy but ice destroyed him. Then he converted to Muslim and changed very quickly. For over a month he’s been on edge,’ he told Daily Mail Australia.

‘He stabbed his brother in the face and beat up his poor mother I knew this bloke really well… I’m not sticking up for him whatsoever and he deserves to be punished for what he’s done, but that evil drug ice was the cause of this.

Notice a few things:

1. See how far down you have to scroll in the above article to finally get to that tidbit of information. You’ve passed by dozens of photographs, and multiple mentions of ‘mental health’ and ‘drug abuse’ (both of which are no doubt significant in this case) before you finally get to the confession: He’s a recent Islamic convert, or at least see’s himself as such, and since his ‘conversion’ his friends have seen him change dramatically.
2. The Age and the Herald Sun made no mention of the conversion to Islam at all in their articles about the mother speaking out. This is not in-and-of-itself evil, after all it wasn’t the mother who made the statement, but rather an unnamed friend. But is anyone surprised that the Australian media won’t report it?
3. The Herald Sun does finally give us insight into the reasons for the fight with his brother:
   

   She said the fight, which saw Jimmy allegedly stab his brother in the face, was over Angelo’s sexuality.

   “Jimmy keeps saying to me, I’m going to kill all gays and poofters and lesbians,” she said.

4. This revelation speaks a great deal about his motivation, especially when combined with his other rants. He believed he was on a ‘holy mission’, as some kind of chosen one, to bring about the apocalypse and to kill gays (an Islamic State specialty).

People will continue to deny that this Islamic link is significant, they will continue to use tired and over-used arguments such as:

• “He wasn’t a true Muslim.” In this case, that’s actually true. He was an appalling Muslim who failed any objective measure of being a ‘good Muslim’, but his choice to identify with Islam, and his friends seeing huge changes in his behavior since his ‘conversion’ (whether that conversion was to ‘true’ Islam or not), is directly reminiscent of other attackers who haven’t been ‘true Muslims’ either, despite killing in the name of Allah. And his attempting to kill his brother for being Gay, and then wanting to bring about the apocalypse, all point to him having paid attention to IS propaganda, and him attempting in his own drug-addled way to be a ‘good Muslim’ as he understood it to be.
• “It was the drugs / mental health.” Well clearly. But how many times now have we seen people kill in the name of Allah who also had mental health issues? What is it about Islam that attracts the mentally vulnerable to identify with their brand (whether ‘true’ or otherwise) and then commit acts of violence in the name of Islam? It’s NOT a coincidence that this nutter went on a killing spree a few months after converting to Islam. YES he’s a nutter, YES he has a history of violence and drug abuse, and those things are not the fault of Islam, but it’s significant that he wasn’t a murderer till shortly after he began to identify himself with Islam.
• “He’s not representative of most Muslims.” Correct, and I never said he was. What I’m saying is that we need to be able to talk honestly about the ‘problem’ if we’ve any hope of finding a solution. And Islam, whether ‘true’ or ‘false’, whether as a deeply held faith or a label of convenience for nutters, whether as the catalyst for making a murderer or as a justification abused by murderers, is something we need to talk about as part of this ‘problem’. But as point 2 above reminds us for the umpteenth time, our media, our politicians, our leaders of all stripes, are in denial and are trying to keep the information that matters off us. As the subtitle to this blog post says:
  

  We cannot fix a problem we dare not name.

So lets sum up: Guy with a history of violence, drug abuse, and mental health issues converts to Islam (at least as far as he’s concerned), and only a month later he’s making ranting FB posts about being chosen and about the apocalypse. Then on the morning of the attack he tries to murder his brother for being Gay (Islamic State would be proud), kidnaps his girlfriend, burns a bible whilst stealing a car(Again, IS would be proud), drives into the city and does laps of the Flinders St and Swanston St intersection ranting about the end of the world and (according to one eyewitness) shouting ‘Alahu Akbar’, then once he has the Police in tow he drives to where he knows there’s going to be pedestrians and proceeds to kill as many as he can, in exactly the style of the ‘lone wolf’ car attacks called for by Islamic State.

But apparently I’m a bad person for wanting to talk about Islam in relation to this attack…

Now you can get angry at me for wanting to talk about the problem honestly and in its entirety, including the drug abuse, the history of violence, the fact that he was out on bail, the mental health issues AND the Islamic issue as well, you need to make a choice. You can join me in wanting to deal with the entire issue, or you can talk about everything except the one issue that seems to consistently crop up in most (almost all) attacks of this nature, and be ‘shocked and saddened’ all over again when it happens again, and again, and again…

And if not now, then when will you reach the point where we can have a very uncomfortable but honest conversation about the role of Islam in justifying murder in the mind of nutters? How many more people must die before you’re ready to stop worrying about some peoples feelings, and start caring about peoples lives?

Oh, and one last thing. For everyone who was angered by my prediction only a few hours after the attack that this attack was carried out as an act of terror by some who considered themselves to be Muslim, let me say this: I take no pleasure in being right. I’d be far happier if this attack had never happened. But anyone with a brain has known for a very long time that this day was coming, and anyone who took an honest look at the attack could see the hallmarks of an Islamic State inspired attack, despite the desperate denials by the Police and political class.

I’m not happy that I was right, I’d be happier if there’d been nothing to talk about. But until we have that honest conversation, we’re going to keep having more attacks. So if not now, when will you be ready?

UPDATE 2: A screen shot claiming to be from the Melbourne attacker is circulating on Facebook, in which he says: “…I am actually greek islamic kurdish…”

Clearly (based not just on this, but a look at his Facebook presence as a whole, including the two different Facebook profiles he appears to have had) this is a man with serious mental issues. But is it a surprise to discover that he identifies with Islam? Of all the faiths in the world, he could have picked any one, or none! And being Greek he has a strong cultural connection with Greek Orthodoxy and to a lesser degree with Catholocism… yet he self-identifies as Islamic.

Co-incidence?

UPDATE:  The media narrative has already shifted, from ‘out of control hoon’, to ‘mentally disturbed man deliberately rams people’. That is a far more believable narrative than the original. There’s no question the act of running people down was deliberate. The question is why.

Whether it was Islamic terrorism, or an act of terror with another motivation remains to be seen. Some eyewitnesses claim he said ‘Alahu Akbar’, others that he was raving about the end of the world.

I’m pleased to see the media are now acknowledging the deliberate nature of the attack, that’s an improvement on the reporting in the first few hours. I don’t expect we’ll see an honest reporting of the motive for some time yet. I’m not sure that is was Islamism, I’m certain that the method fits Islamism, and this would be the first time we’ve seen an attack of this kind which wasn’t motivated by Islamism. Time will tell, but at least the media narrative has improved.

ORIGINAL POST:  I’ll be slammed for saying this so soon after the attacks, but the Police and media have wasted no time white-washing today’s attack, which means that I and others more interested in the truth than what’s ‘politically correct’ must also jump in, as inappropriate as it is so soon after such an event, to call it what it is: Terrorism.

The official narrative is that today’s attack in Melbourne’s CBD was not terror related, and the media have happily picked up that narrative.

Our prayers and deepest sympathy are with the victims & their families, of this vicious criminal attack in Bourke St Melbourne today. [emphasis added]

— Malcolm Turnbull (@TurnbullMalcolm) January 20, 2017

And:

It is believed police were in pursuit of a vehicle in the CBD when the vehicle deliberately struck a number of pedestrians in the vicinity of Bourke and Queens Streets at approximately 1.30pm.

Police shot the man who was the sole occupant of the vehicle and he received bullet wounds.

He was taken into custody where he is being treated for non-life threatening injuries.

The incident is not terrorism related. [emphasis original]

Police understand the incident is linked to a stabbing that took place in Windsor early this morning (20 January) involving parties known to one another.

Following this incident, it is alleged the same man took a woman, who is known to him, hostage in his car. She managed to escape from the car on the Bolte Bridge earlier today.

And according to Lord Mayor Robert Doyle it wasn’t terrorism, just a”Wanton act of destruction.”

The official narrative is that this person was a hoon driver, involved in a stabbing this morning (that part may well be true) and doing doughnuts at the intersection of Flinders and Swanston Streets, before racing off to escape the pursuing police, losing control, and hitting innocent pedestrians.

There’s just a few problems with that story, and the New Zealand alternative news site Newshub already have an excellent round-up of the issues. Click this link to open their page, then let me talk you through this step by step.

Firstly, I’ve never met a self-respecting hoon as lame as this. Watch the video at the top of that page, then tell me if you really think this guy has ever tried to ‘hoon’ before in his life. On the ‘hoon driving scale’ this guys pretty much my grandmother.

But if we can’t explain his behavior as ‘hooning’, then what’s he doing? And why?

Well if you watch that video you’ll notice that he keeps going around and around, quite slowly most of the time, looking around, sometimes shouting but mostly just looking. What’s he looking for? What’s he waiting for?

The answer is revealed by when he chooses to leave. Watch the police approaching on foot from the right hand side of the screen, then notice the police sirens… and how he just casually drives up Swanston St after that. He left when the Police came.

What was he waiting for? The Police. He wanted an audience.

Notice he didn’t try to ram the police [Something you would associate with Right Wing extremism or terrorism], he didn’t try to speed away and ‘get away’ [something you’d expect from a hoon], he just led them at a little more than running pace up Swanston st. He’s not leaving to run away, he’s got the attention he wanted and now he’s leading them to where he wants them.

At the bottom of the page linked above, you’ll see a video from a NewsHub reporter who reports on what he can see, and interviews an eyewitness to the ‘burnouts’ who claims that what the driver was shouting was ‘Alahu Akbar’. It’s impossible to be sure that that’s the truth based on the videos I’ve seen… you just can’t hear him clearly enough, but the behavior of the driver is consistent with terrorism, so I give some credibility to the claimed eyewitness story.

According to that same eye witness he even stopped on Swanston St to let the police catch up.

And in the middle of the page above you’ll see a video of people fleeing into a shop to avoid being hit by the fast moving car. That’s where this tragic story ended up, with that driver speeding down Bourke St Mall and killing 3 people and injuring 20.

So lets break this down.

1. The driver is believed to be involved with a stabbing earlier today, so it’s safe to say they’re likely a violent person to begin with, which supports the official police line that this is not terror related. I will note, however, that it’s yet to be confirmed that the stabber and driver are the same person, and I’ll further note that even if they are, that doesn’t rule out religious motivations for the driving attack, or even a religious motive for the stabbing attack earlier today.
2. The driver did a number of laps of the Flinders and Swanston St intersection. He was not ‘hooning’ in any meaningful sense of the word. Spend some time on Kings Rd in Sunshine or in the industrial estates around Dandenong if you want to see what real hooning looks like. This guy was a drop-kick in a crappy commodore, whose focus was not on having fun on the road, but on drawing people’s attention. Specifically, the Police.
3. After getting the Police attention he wanted, he headed to where he planned his attack. Specifically the place where he was guaranteed to find the greatest number of pedestrians: Bourke St Mall. If he’d done his ‘burnouts’ [sic] at Bourke St Mall he might have frightened people away, so picking Flinders St Station as the location to get everyone’s attention, then a short drive to Bourke St Mall to carry out the attack, was devious and effective.
4. Hoons don’t run people down deliberately, which he unquestionably did as you’ll see in the video at the top of this page. Terrorists do. If he was hooning and wanted to get away he would have headed for St Kilda Rd, Batman Ave and citylink, or for any one of a half-dozen other arterial roads leading away from where he was. But he headed deeper into the city instead, where he wasn’t going to get more than a few blocks without being stopped by other traffic… Why? Because he didn’t want to get away. That was never the plan. He wanted attention, then he wanted victims, and he found both.

I expect the narrative of ‘not terrorism’ to be repeated ad-nauseum for weeks and months. But somewhere, buried deep inside the third-last paragraph of the stories, will be the discovery of the drivers links to hardline Islamists, perhaps a history of watching radical clerics on youtube, some sort of confession from the media that he is, in fact, politically and religiously motivated, and that this was, in fact, terrorism.

Now I know some people will be mad at me for calling this terrorism ‘too soon’. ‘We don’t know yet’ and ‘It’s harmful to jump to conclusions’ are two refrains I expect to hear.

But I’m applying the same logic by which I was able to determine the Boston Marathon Bombings were terrorism long before it was officially admitted: Look at the method, look at the behavior, and look at the target. That approach led me to call the Boston Marathon Bombing terrorism within just a few hours of the events, I copped a lot of blowback, but surprise surprise, it was Islamic Terrorism.

Spend some time on NewsHub’s FB page: https://www.facebook.com/NewshubNZ/ watch the videos of today’s attack and ask yourself whether this is more consistent with the MO of a hoon, or the MO of a terrorist? I think the answer is clear.

This was an act of terrorism, committed by someone motivated by Islamism, using established methods that have been shown to be effective in France and Germany, against random innocents. He did not want to get away, he wasn’t out to have fun. He wanted an audience and a body count, and he got both.

Most Australian’s with a brain have expected that this day was coming. The Lindt Cafe siege was never going to be the only attack. It was a question of where, and when. Now we know.

Bourke St Mall, today.

The only question left is, will our leaders have the courage to call this what it is, and in so doing give everyone a chance that we might maybe be able to do something constructive to avoid the next attack?

On current evidence, no. This attack will be called anything other than what it is, no actions will be taken to reduce the chances of more attacks in future, and when those attacks come they’ll be relabeled and covered up just as quickly.

We cannot fix a problem that we dare not name.

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