Gulhan Eryegit Yoldas –
Muslims in Melbourne held their breath as the identity of the Melbourne’s Bourke Street car attack ‘terrorist’ was released.
The massacre, that took place on Friday, January 20, 2017, claimed the lives of five people including a three-month-old Muslim baby Zachary Bryan and injured more than 15 people.
Thank God, the man who carried out the massacre, did not say he was a Muslim. Thank God, there won’t be another wave of racism and retaliation against the Muslim communities in Australia.
Thank God, this time we get to mourn the loss of lives along with our fellow Melbournians without being made to feel that we are personally responsible.
Desperate for arrest
Dimitri Gargasoulas tried very hard all that week to get arrested.
In fact, according to the media, court documents show that Gargasoulas had been trying to get locked up since April 2016 with a string of alleged offences ranging from dangerous driving, theft, breaking a taxi window, police pursuit and more.
On the day he terrorised Melbourne (yes, he did ‘terrorise’ in the core definition of the word), he stabbed a person, kidnapped another person and recklessly drove in the heart of the city before causing death, injury and trauma to many. He struck terror and fear in the hearts of Melbournians.
Some elements prematurely pointed the finger at Muslims. This was corrected to say that he was on drugs, has a history of violence, a history of mental health problems… but no, he is not a terrorist.
Pauline Hanson (Australian Politician) and ISIS were probably equally disappointed.
Common traits
Gargasoulas has many similarities in character to Sydney’s Martin Place attacker, Man Monis, and his pattern of behaviour is no different to all the other ‘regular’ terrorists that have been profiled and recruited by extremist groups.
Without flaw, every time there is a history of violence and mental illness.
It is interesting to watch mainstream media tiptoeing the term ‘terrorist’ on this occasion, even though the result is relatively comparable, especially to the terrorist attack recently in Berlin.
Is this a reflection of our lack of investment as a nation in mental health?
Are we doing enough to address the problem at grassroots level?
Whose political agenda is supported when we wait until these violent people with mental illnesses are actually recruited by extremists?
Divisive factor
Fear, and the racism that follows, is the first easy step towards causing division and friction in otherwise strong, cohesive communities that have lived peacefully for centuries.
The day after inauguration of Donald Trump as the President of the United States of America (January 20), an Asian woman in Sydney, with broken English, racially attacked a Muslim woman wearing a niqab, banging on her car window and calling her a terrorist.
Welcome to the post-Trump world where everyone is free to be racist without discrimination. All the fear-mongering and extremist propaganda appears to be successful in causing division even amongst minority groups.
History shows that multiculturalism is not a modern concept.
People have the innate ability to live in peace, abiding by the laws of the land in which they reside.
The Agenda
What political or religious agenda has any terrorist achieved other than discrediting Muslims and raising the platform for the likes of Donald Trump and Pauline Hanson?
If anything, the terrorists are assisting, it is their political agenda and not of actual Muslims.
Gulhan Eryegit Yoldas is an advocate for intercultural dialogue and her work has been published in Turkish News Weekly. Ms Yoldas, who lives in Melbourne, was nominated for Australia’s ‘Top 100 Brightest Young Minds’ in 2006. The above article, which appeared in the February 2017 issue of ‘Australian Muslim Times’ has been reproduced here with the permission of its Managing Editor Zia Ahmed.
