Posted on 12/15/2025 3:56:03 PM PST by naturalman1975
In the aftermath of tragedies, societies reveal not only their wounds but also their underlying moral instincts.
One of the most striking stories to emerge from the mass shooting at Bondi Beach was that of Ahmed Fatih Al Ahmed, a 43-year-old man who intervened during the attack by disarming one of the gunmen. He was subsequently shot several times in the shoulder and has undergone surgery at St George Hospital.
According to accounts shared by his family, Ahmed acted instinctively. “When he did what he did, he wasn’t thinking about the background of the people he’s saving, the people dying in the street”, his father, Mohamed Fateh Al Ahmed, told the ABC. “He doesn’t discriminate between one nationality and another. Especially here in Australia, there’s no difference between one citizen and another.”
Later, Ahmed reportedly told a relative, “Allah Almighty gave me the courage.”
Yet rather than allowing this stunning act of bravery and these simple words to speak for themselves, a debate quickly erupted online about Ahmed’s religion. Some insisted he must be Christian. Others corrected the record, noting that he is a Syrian-born Arab Muslim from the city of Idlib. What should have been a moment of collective gratitude and reflection instead became a contest over who gets to claim him.
I've seen a lot of discussion here on FR about this, including quite a few people claiming he is a Lebanese Maronite Christian. I considered this unlikely based on what I was hearing here in Australia, because I didn't say anything on those discussion because I wasn't certain of the information I'd been hearing.
At this point, I believe we do have reliable information.
Ahmed al Ahmed is a Arab Muslim, originally born in Syria.
He is also an Australian hero. He came here in 2006 and thank God he did.
He's a good man who when his time came made the choice to risk his own life to save others.
There’s pics of the cops standing down. One has her hands up. Pathetic as Uvalde, TX school shootings.
Two police officers were critically wounded.
There is now video footage of another officer shooting one of the terrorists with a handgun from a considerable distance away. It’s a bloody good shot.
Yes, some of them don’t look like they responded well.
But others certainly did.
I saw video as an officer approached one of the terrorists from behind. I did not see him shoot, but he took cover behind a tree when the terrorist saw him and tried to aim at him.
The video stopped at that point.
In my opinion, he had a good shot, if he chose to take it.
Was the officer in the video you mentioned behind a tree?
Yes. It sounds like it could be the same person.
I am glad he took action. I was almost screaming at the screen: Shoot! Shoot!
To quote Tuco from the movie, The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly: “When it is time to shoot, shoot!”
It makes sense they stopped the video just before he shot the terrorist.
Any estimate of the distance? From my perspective (often distorted by cameras), the distance seemed 15-20 yards or meters.
This particular image foreshortens things considerably. From the other video I saw, I'd estimate the officer fired and hit from at least forty metres/130 feet away. A fairly clear shot, but the range is quite long for a handgun under pressure (as I'm sure you are aware).
As I say, some police do look to have not responded well. But others definitely look to have got the bloody job done when it came to it.
40 meters is a respectable shot. It is well within the capabilities of most police pistols and competent shooters.
As you say, shooting under intense pressure is different from shooting informally.
The great gunfighter and New York City Police stake out squad member Jim Cirillo listed several things which helped pick people who would be good in gun fights. A couple I remember were:
Has engaged in pistol competition.
Has hunted and killed big game animals.
He also listed:
Married and involved in the community.
Another thing I noticed from the video you linked:
The entire event too about 5 1/2 minutes.
Time sense gets distorted in life and death situations.
The author:
“Ali Kadri is the Chief Executive Officer of the Islamic College of Brisbane and a spokesperson for the Holland Park Mosque. He is a long-time advocate for social cohesion, education reform and civic engagement within Australia’s Muslim communities”
Piss off. The hero is a Christian and such makes fools and cowards of all you muslims and jihadists and your false religion that worships Satan. ALL of you.
I don’t have a great deal of respect for the accuracy of most police here. Even less, I’m afraid at the moment. I think we’re going to find hundreds of impacts on the bridge from police firearms from what I’m hearing and seeing. And maybe three or four shots at most that actually hit the two terrorists.
And a lot of them probably didn’t even hit the bridge.
I think we are definitely going to see real concerns about how well our police are trained with their firearms. And it is unusual for Australian police to have to shoot... but when they need to, I think they should be doing better than it looks like they did.
I’ve returned fire myself when I had to. I didn’t do as well as I think I could have either. But I did go back and train more after that.
ok
I’ve seen posts that say this guy is a Lebanese Maronite Christian. Is he?
All reliable evidence is this man is a Muslim.
Accept the truth or don’t.
But if you won’t accept the truth you just make yourself look like a bigot.
And I don’t care for Christian bigotry anymore than any other type.
There are good people and bad in all faiths.
Don’t make yourself one of the bad ones.
And for the record, I was raised in the Church of England and converted to Catholicism. I’ve never been a Muslim, and I’ve certainly never worshipped the Father of Lies.
That’s why I tell the truth and accept the truth, even if it doesn’t match the world as I’d like to be.
The definitive answer, now being brought forward, is he is a syrian Muslim.
Good news from X: “The Australian National Imans Council (ANIC), the council of Imams NSW and the Australian Muslim Community unequivocally condemn the horrific shootings in Bondi.”
https://x.com/ImamsCouncil/status/2000139243616960668
No.
That seems to have been based on misidentification of the shop he owns. Initial reports described him as owning a fruit shop in a particular suburb of Sydney and the owners of that shop are Maronite Christians. They came out quite quickly to say it wasn’t them.
In actual fact, he owns a nearby tobacconists and gift shop, not the fruit shop.
To correct, the time of shooting, beginning to end, is 5:52 minutes.
Thanks for clarity on this!
In college, early 90’s, one of my best friends was a Pakistani Muslim. He had been in their air force and was a bit older than I.
He was very (classical) liberal for a Muslim. I got him into Metallica :)
After he got his M.S. degree he found he couldn’t get a job, assuming, at the time, because of his name. He decided to move, with his wife and young daughter, back to Pakistan. He tried to explain to me how hard it would be. I didn’t understand at the time.
He may have been Muslim - but it was by culture more than anything. He was a good man. I can separate that from ISLAM. ISLAM = Sharia Law, that is the goal. Their book commands them to kill the non-believers...and that’s us. Pay the Jizya, convert, or die. Those are our “choices”.
These MUSLIMS in Australia were just doing what their “prophet” commands of them. I don’t distinguish between “Islam” and “Islamism”, imho, that is a politically correct term trying to make a distinction where there’s no difference.
Thanks. I no longer have to wait for the “Idiot Post of The Day.” to show up. You have kindly provided it.
There are disruptors out there some of them associated with governments others folks who are crazy and or misled.
I held back on saying anything on my blog other than the name of the man and what he did.
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