Innocent people were murdered over the weekend because of a terrorist attack targeting those who attended a public Hanukkah celebration. On Sunday, people at Bondi Beach were following a public Hanukkah celebration when gunmen, father and son, opened fire in a declared terrorist attack.
The shock cut across Australia and beyond, followed quickly by grief, as it should. Condemnation arrived just as fast from political leaders, law enforcement, and religious communities, including Muslim leaders who rejected the violence outright and without qualification; clarity mattered.
Then something else came.
Labour MP Lola McEvoy stepped forward and explained that attacks like Bondi happen because of a lack of understanding. She broke out the old chestnuts on familiar language regarding empathy, “detoxifying” thought, and reframing how society views people who are different, implying that if only everyone understood each other better, blood would stop spilling.
Her idea misses the mark, insulting people who have spent their lives studying religious doctrine, extremist ideology, and the mechanics of terrorism.
Nobody seriously believes that every person of the Islamic faith harbors violent intent. Most Muslims live peaceful lives guided by family, work, charity, and community. Any suggestion otherwise reduces human beings to caricatures, while handing propaganda victories to extremists who thrive on grievance.
Meanwhile, pretending that ideological violence springs from misunderstanding rather than a different belief system twists reality just as severely.
Terrorism doesn’t emerge because neighbors failed to share enough tea; it appears when ideas harden into mandates that sanctify murder. Scholars, intelligence officials, and reform-minded Muslims have said NO for decades, while studying texts, history, and recruitment patterns, funding networks, and indoctrination. They know empathy alone doesn’t disarm a knife.
McEvoy’s response fits neatly inside a worldview that treats evil as a communication error. Violence becomes a failure of tone, while murder becomes a teaching moment, as victims fade into the background while perpetrators receive emotional context. That framing comforts politicians but leaves communities exposed.
Bondi didn’t need soothing slogans; it just required moral clarity. Australian police labeled the attack terrorism. The prime minister called it shocking and distressing, statements that recognized intent without smearing entire communities.
The Aussie police acknowledged that an attack targeting people gathered for a religious celebration represents something more than social tension gone wrong.
It means hatred acting with purpose.
Related: Australia Discovers What It Means to ‘Globalize the Intifada’
Woke ideology struggles with that distinction, preferring ambiguity, even when facts demand precision. It talks endlessly about feelings while avoiding belief systems that explicitly justify violence, claiming compassion while refusing to name threats. It’s a refusal that doesn’t make society kinder: It makes it weaker.
People studying Islam seriously understand nuance and know the difference between faith and fanaticism. They know which interpretations coexist peacefully and which inspire bloodshed: Suggesting the problem lies with outsiders who fail to understand Islam better, dismisses that scholarship entirely. It also absolves extremists of responsibility for their actions.
Words that leaders speak after attacks shape policy. When leaders reduce terror to misunderstanding, they weaken the resolve required to stop it: Law enforcement hesitates, public debate softens, accountability blurs, and the innocent pay the price.
Empathy belongs with victims first, with families now planning funerals, with communities forced to add security to religious gatherings; it doesn’t belong with excuses.
History can be a harsh teacher; societies that refuse to confront violent ideology honestly invite repetition. They mistake restraint for virtue and silence for peace.
Meanwhile, those who commit violence face fewer consequences than those who warn about it.
Bondi deserved better than platitudes; it deserved leadership willing to say that some ideas are dangerous and that some acts represent evil choices.
Understanding matters, but truth matters more.
Serious analysis matters most after tragedy, when slogans compete with facts, and emotion tries to outrun clarity.
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