Debate has continued in the wake of last week’s Bourke Street attack as to whether the attacker’s actions were motivated by religion or a broader mental illness.
SBS Italian spoke with a key figure of Melbourne’s Somali community, Imam Sheikh Isse Musse, who knew the attacker and his family well, and sought his perspective on the ongoing debate.
Imam Musse categorically denies that the attack was a manifestation of Islam, and places the blame of the attack on Hassan Khalif Shire Ali’s own mental state.
"No link,” Imam Musse, Chairman of the Werribee Islamic Center said. “Islam is a series of principles that teaches how to live with others in peace. Anyone who does such an act and kills has not understood Islam. The boy was not mentally healthy. Anyone can do this kind of act when he loses the light of reason. He could also kill his relatives. Islam is not the cause of this."
Prime Minister Scott Morrison this week dismissed claims that Ali was suffering from mental-health issues as an "excuse”. Morrison said that “the greatest threat of religious extremism in this country is the radical and dangerous ideology of extremist Islam.”
Hassan Khalif Shire Ali, the 30 year old man who carried out the attack that shocked and saddened Melbourne last Friday, was already known to Victorian police but not considered an immediate threat. In 2015 his passport had been cancelled for fear that he was ready to travel to the Middle East to join the Islamic State.
Thus it appears that Ali was already being influenced by extremist ideology. So, how can Imam Musse claim that Ali’s actions were not motivated by Islam?
"A ‘Radical Islam’ exists,” Imam Musse said. “But why does it exist? Because those who walk that path do not know Islam. Can anyone say if among the 40,000 foreign fighters who went to fight with the so-called Islamic State from all over the world, that there was one - only one among them - who has a diploma on Islamic studies? These young people hear some propaganda and they are radicalized. That is how it happens.”
The attack wounded Melbourne’s Italian and wider communities in the loss of popular café owner and Italian migrant, Sisto Malaspina who has been mourned since. Over the days following the attack hundreds of people paid tribute to the man leaving flowers and messages of condolence in front of the Pellegrini's Espresso Bar, of which Malaspina was co-owner, and a state funeral has been scheduled for Tuesday next week.
Shire Ali, killed by a gunshot fired by the police during the clash on Bourke Street, was born in Somalia but had grown up in Australia, where he had arrived when was still a child. The Somali community has broadly and strongly condemned his actions, declaring that "there is no place for terrorism and extremism in our society."
Imam Musse was at Shire Ali’s family home when he spoke to SBS Italian, and told the program that he aimed to help them in the wake of their loss.
"I came here to give them spiritual support because they need moral support, too. They have lost their son and are going through a very critical situation."
The Imam describes Shire Ali's family a good one and says that he had known Shire Ali since he was young, describing him as having been a normal child.
"Then he was lively. He used to go to school like and he was always playing with everyone ... but then while he was growing something happened. He changed. He became a rebel."
Ali began to manifest mental health problems, turning away from his family and rejecting any help or support from them, Musse told SBS Italian.
The parents of the attacker are deeply distressed by what happened, Musse says, and have offered their condolences to Sisto Malaspina’s family through the Imam.
"Their boy has made a mess and has dishonored the name of his family".
At the same time the Somali community is also questioning itself about how to help and guide young people on the right path, explained Imam Musse.
"There are many young Somalis today that are going through a crisis, because they feel discriminated against. When they go looking for a job and say their name, making clear their Muslim origins, the doors close."
L'identificazione della vittima è avvenuta sabato
Un noto ristoratore italiano è la vittima dell'attentato di Melbourne
