Perceptions of the Sydney gunman

Man Harron Monis, a.k.a. Mohammad Hassan Manthegi and Sheik Haron, was not a terrorist, not an affiliate of ISIS or Al Quaeda or any other organisation intent on fighting a war with Australia. He was a deluded Iranian immigrant whose mental state was crying out for help, a help he never received. He was a recidivist criminal, charged with being an accessory to the murder of his former wife, charged with repeated sexual assaults, yet he was given bail, set free, allowed to wander around with his head filled with delusions of self importance and hatred. He was neither a spiritual leader, nor a Muslim cleric, even if he dressed like one. He was a loony who should have been in a loony bin, but justice systems, Australian or New Zealand, can't handle the demented. The perception was that he was a terrorist, although he was a generation older than typical terrorists. It was easier to assume that Sydney faced a terrorist attack that government propaganda implanted in the minds of people. Offices, schools went into lock-down. Jewish schools in particular, were terrified of a possible attack. It was easier to imagine that Australia, or for that matter, the whole of the Western world was threatened by a comparatively small group of Middle Eastern fighters, who gained rapid military success because the states charged with protecting their citizens were so corrupt that people sided with the bloodthirsty insurgents rather than with the troops of their own government. It was more conceivable that a shadowy group of Islamic fundamentalists would attack people in a café in central Sydney than that a seriously demented person, out on bail, would get hold of weapons and explosives, walk into the café and hold staff and customers there hostage for 18 hours, while heavily armed police surrounded the premises and apart from talking ineffectually with the mad hostage taker, did nothing to terminate the siege. In the meantime, people tasked with providing security, including the security team at the Wellington Jewish Community Centre, had a field day basking in their importance.