Sydney Hostage Crisis

A gunman in the heart of central Sydney, Australia, who held more than a dozen people captive in a chocolate shop, is now dead after police stormed the building. Some of the captives are apparently casualties as well. It was not a radical Christian who set off the tragic series of events. It was not an angry Jew making demands. It was not a follower of Wicca, a druid, pagan, or even a deranged atheist putting lives at risk. It was (of course) a Muslim acting in the name of jihad that caused the bloodshed. In this instance, Muslim clerics in Australia denounced the crime, but one wonders if the terrorist had received different religious conditioning in his native Iran, if the hostage-taking ever would have been attempted.