“Ahmed was driven by his sentiment, conscience, and humanity.” This is how the father of a “hero” who responded to the Hanukkah massacre in Australia explained his son’s actions.
Ahmed al Ahmed’s father told the BBC that his son “saw the victims, the blood, women and children lying on the street, and then acted.” Video shows Ahmed running at the gunman, seizing his weapon, turning the gun around on him, and forcing his retreat. Ahmed was then shot multiple times and has undergone surgery for his wounds.
New South Wales Premiere Chris Minns said of Ahmed, “His incredible bravery no doubt saved countless lives when he disarmed a terrorist at enormous personal risk.” He added, “There is no doubt that more lives would have been lost if not for Ahmed’s selfless courage.” President Trump agreed, calling Ahmed “a very, very brave person” who “saved a lot of lives.”
Ironically, the people saved by Ahmed’s courage will likely go the rest of their lives without knowing it. Unless they could somehow know what the shooter would have done apart from Ahmed’s intervention, they cannot know that they would have been injured or killed if he had not acted with such selfless courage.
By contrast, Larisa Kleytman will go the rest of her life knowing that she was spared by the selfless courage of her husband. Alex Kleytman was a Holocaust survivor. He and his wife of five decades were visiting Sydney’s Bondi Beach to celebrate Hanukkah when the shooting erupted, and he was shot to death as he shielded his wife. “I think he was shot because he raised himself up to protect me,” Larisa said.
A threat that threatens us all
If you’re not Jewish, you may be thinking that such heroism, while obviously commendable, is less than relevant to you personally. The rise of antisemitism in Australia, while horrific and tragic, can feel remote to non-Jews in America.
But know this: to an Islamist, every person who lives in a nation perceived to support Israel is a potential victim of Islamist terrorism.
As I explained in my book Radical Islam: What You Need to Know and on our website, jihadists believe that the West has been attacking Islam since the Crusades and especially by supporting Israel, a nation seen as “stealing” its land from its rightful Palestinian owners. They also believe that because the West is comprised of democracies where the people elect their leaders and support their military, we are all complicit in this “attack” on Islam.
Since the Qur’an requires Muslims to defend Islam (cf. Surah 2:190), jihadists believe they are required to attack those in the West in order to defend the Muslim faith and people. As a result, what happened in Israel on October 7 and in Australia on December 14 could happen where you and I live today.
The year began with jihadist terrorism when an attacker displaying an Islamic State flag rammed his vehicle into a crowd in New Orleans last New Year’s Day, killing at least fifteen people. It is ending on the same tragic theme:
- Three Moroccans, an Egyptian, and a Syrian were detained last Friday over a plan to drive a vehicle into people at a Christmas market in Germany. Authorities suspect an “Islamist motive” behind the plot.
- The shooter who ambushed US and Syrian troops last Saturday, killing two American soldiers and one civilian working as an interpreter, is believed to have been an Islamic State infiltrator working as part of a local security force.
- Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said this morning that the gunmen who perpetrated the Hanukkah massacre were “motivated by “Islamic State ideology.”
This is a threat that threatens us all.
What Christians can do that no one else can
Responding to this burgeoning danger will require courage.
You and I may not be required to attack an attacker to wrest their rifle from them or shield a loved one and die in their place. But we have platforms of influence we can use to condemn the scourge of antisemitism rising in our time. We can support our Jewish friends with our personal encouragement and engagement. We can befriend local Jewish leaders and congregations and encourage our churches and other networks to do the same.
These are all steps anyone can take who has the character and courage to do so.
In addition, however, Christians can respond to this threat as no one else can.
The Apostle Paul described his former life: “I persecuted the church of God violently and tried to destroy it” (Galatians 1:13; cf. 1 Corinthians 15:9). Specifically, he was “breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord” when he sought the authority to arrest Christians in Damascus and “bring them bound to Jerusalem” (Acts 9:1–2). In this way, being “exceedingly enraged against them” (Acts 26:11 NKJV), he said, “I persecuted this Way to the death” (Acts 22:4).
But you know what happened to him on the road to Damascus. Now we can pray for our Lord to do the same in the hearts of jihadists around the world. Such intercession is a response no one else can or will make.
The next time we hear about a jihadist attack
What Jesus did to transform Saul of Tarsus, he can do to transform any jihadist terrorist anywhere in the world.
He is already appearing to Muslims around the globe in visions and dreams, sparking a remarkable spiritual awakening in the Islamic world. As the noted author and Middle East expert Joel Rosenberg reports, more Muslims have come to faith in Christ in the last half-century than in the last fourteen centuries combined. My dear friends Tom and JoAnn Doyle have documented this movement and experience it regularly in their miraculous ministry.
So, the next time we hear about an Islamist attack, let’s intercede for the victims, of course. But let’s also stop to pray for the attacker to come to Christ. Let’s pray for Jesus to reveal himself to this person in dreams and through believers. Let’s pray for Christians in the Muslim world to use their influence to demonstrate the “fruit of the Spirit” and otherwise manifest the presence of Christ.
And let’s pray for God to redeem the global crisis of antisemitism and jihadist terrorism by bringing millions to faith in his Son.
If Jesus could come at Christmas, I believe he can come again into any heart and life.
Do you agree?
Quote for the day:
“To have courage for whatever comes in life, everything lies in that.” —St. Teresa of Avila
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