Why is the Sydney church stabbing an act of terrorism, but the Bondi tragedy isn’t?

The stabbing incident happened at an Assyrian Orthodox Church in Sydney. Bianca De Marchi/AAP

Tragically, at some point the dynamics of the fast-swelling crowd took a dark turn. Instead of letting the large police and ambulance presence continue to handle the situation, some emotional onlookers turned on the authorities. Multiple police officers and paramedics were injured and vehicles were heavily damaged.

It’s likely the fact the attack was captured on video, and therefore able to be shared and watched over and over again, added to the combustibility of an already volatile situation. It would appear the attack was deliberately planned to provoke an angry response. But what exactly happened in the crowd is the subject of one police investigation.

Why is it considered a terrorist act?

The other investigation is an anti-terrorism one. This is because while the teenager acted alone, it’s very likely they had received encouragement and backing from others. The Unabomber^[6] is one of the very few documented cases of someone committing violence for ideological reasons truly in isolation.

This lone actor attack in Sydney is reminiscent of the 2015 murder^[7] of police accountant Curtis Cheng. He was shot dead by a 15-year-old who had been radicalised by supporters of Islamic State. It later came out in court^[8] the attack had been planned by three other people, who also supplied him with the gun.

Read more: Why would Islamic State attack Russia and what does this mean for the terrorism threat globally?^[9]

Police were quick to pronounce the knife attack on Monday to be an act of terrorism. Having identified the attacker, they would have been studying his social connections and examining his digital footprint.

The police assessment would have also given attention to the particulars of the church targeted. Assyrians^[10] (people from northwest Iraq, northeast Syria and southeast Turkey) are almost exclusively Christian, belonging to one of the oldest churches in existence, living in precisely that part of the world in which the Islamic State established its brutal caliphate.

NSW Premier Chris Minns addressed the media early Tuesday morning. Bianca De Marchi/AAP

It’s telling that before the caliphate was established, Assyrians made up just 3% of the Iraqi population. But in the wake of Islamic State sweeping across northern Syria and Iraq, Assyrians soon made up 40%^[11] of Iraqi refugees. The trauma of those years is recent history^[12], fresh in the minds of many.

The recent Islamic State claim of responsibility for the recent deadly attacks in Moscow^[13], is a reminder the group remains a live and growing threat. For these reasons police will be looking for any evidence Islamic State might have played a role in inspiring this attack.

Terrorism or not terrorism?

Events at the church have been under a bigger spotlight given the events of the days preceding it.

Despite early misinformation^[14], police said they believe the Bondi killer, Joel Cauchi, was not motivated by a larger political cause – that is, a terrorist motivation. Instead, they say he lashed out violently because of anger control issues related to mental ill-health^[15].

But of the six people^[16] he killed, five were women. Women also make up the majority of those injured. The one man who lost his life, security guard Faraz Tahir, a Muslim refugee from Pakistan, was attacked because he bravely rushed towards^[17] danger in an attempt to try to stop Cauchi. NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb said Cauchi deliberately targeted women^[18].

So if someone is targeting a specific group of people, isn’t that terrorism? Why does it matter if they were killing based on gender or religion? Is misogyny not terrorism?

Put simply, the defining characteristic of terrorism is perpetuating violence in the name of a higher, broader cause. Terrorists have a belief in a collective goal, and see themselves as being backed by people who share that belief. Misogyny can be an element of their motivation and justification of hatred, but it’s part of a larger political project.

Read more: Terrorist content lurks all over the internet – regulating only 6 major platforms won't be nearly enough^[19]

Basically, it boils down to whether these violent actors think they’re part of a political or religious movement that’s going to change the system^[20], or whether they are simply angry men projecting loathing and driven by personal demons. The two, of course, are not mutually exclusive^[21].

This is not to undermine the damage angry men can, and do, inflict. Domestic violence is a bigger threat to Australians than terrorism. Calling something a terrorist act doesn’t make it more or less serious than anything else, rather the categorisation is to provide conceptual clarity for the sake of the ensuing investigation.

Events at Westfield Bondi Junction and the Assyrian Christ The Good Shepherd Church are both awful, but while they share some similarities, they are different sorts of crimes with different drivers and enablers. As police investigations continue, we’ll come to better understand the nature of both.

Authors: Greg Barton, Chair in Global Islamic Politics, Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation, Deakin University

Read more https://theconversation.com/why-is-the-sydney-church-stabbing-an-act-of-terrorism-but-the-bondi-tragedy-isnt-227997

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