The Siege in Sydney

As I write this, Australia police have stormed the Lindt cafe that Iranian cleric, political refugee and violent offender Man Haron Monis seized yesterday. Early reports are that there have been two fatalities, one hostage and the terrorist. One thing to watch for; the inevitable effort to distance the terrorist from Islam.

First, what is terrorism? It is an attempt to use violence to obtain some sort of political end by non-state actors, usually targeting civilian targets using means and methods designed to maximize casualties and spread fear in the target population.

Does this attack qualify as terrorism? Yes, it does. It doesn't matter if Monis is a "lone wolf" who was acting without the support or guidance of an organization. He chose a soft, civilian target. His attack had a definite political goal - he had the hostages display an Islamist flag and was demanding that the banner of ISIS be delivered to him. It remains to be seen what other demands he had; however, it is clear that he represented some brand of Islamist ideology. Finally, he chose a target that would maximize visibility and have the potential for generating mass civilian casualties.

We'll see how things fall out in the next few days. However, it is imperative that we do not let apologists for the Islamists distract us from the fact that this man was a) motivated by Islam and b) there are many Muslims who support these kinds of attacks. Certainly, the barbarians who make up ISIS will herald this as another attack on their behalf, demonstrating their global reach. Will the media and the governments of the West accurately describe this man as a jihadist, one motivated by Islamic thought? I doubt it. We've had attacks in this country (like the Oklahoma beheading) that have been buried. And many people have created an auto-hypnotic state for themselves, in which they mindlessly repeat "Islam is not the problem" when it clearly is clearly central to our ongoing struggle. Frankly, this is is equivalent to saying "National Socialism isn't a problem, only individual Nazis." Some belief systems are incompatible. This is the case with the centuries old war between Islam and the West. These two civilizations have gotten even less compatible as the West has slowly moved towards more liberal humanist societies and Islam has descended into a collection of totalitarian states.

The West cannot hope to win this conflict if it refuses to understand the nature of the enemy and the true scope of the threat.

Sources: Australian Broadcasting Corporation, BBC News, News.com.au, USA Today.