This is my reflection on the fact that the hero of the horrible tragedy at Bondi Beach on Sunday, December 14, 2025, was a Muslim man who tackled one of two gunmen to the ground.
Before that fact was known, I had heard the rhetoric starting of getting Muslims out of Australia. It is a kneejerk reaction, borne of fear and loathing and a need to reduce everything down to black and white. It also gives such provocoteurs both notoriety and a sense of community with other angry people who are supposedly standing up for a simpler, more purer way of life.
The one dimensional story is a joke. Most, if not all, religions have enabled humans to wreak violent havoc in the world. Sometimes this was for “spiritial” reasons but many times it is simply the holy costume worn by greedy, bigoted warmongers who tap into the divine narrative to hoodwink followers into making great sacrifices for a noble, post-death reward. And, yes, Islamic violence and terrorism has taken root around the world and been used to undermine and destroy the human enterprise.
But, to brand all Muslims as terrorists is naive at best and lazy at worst.
That is why the inconvenient fact that it was a Muslim man who bravely and instantly intervened against one of the Islamic Jihad-inspired gunmen, loomed so large in my subconscious. Until that moment, the noisy bros were ready to drape their Chinese-made Aussie flags over their shoulders and their arms tattooed with Southern Crosses and other “icons”, and chant “I told you so” as they marched through the powderkeg streets of overcrowded, poverty-ridden Sydney. But they couldn’t. Not that fast. Not that cleanly, because if they genuinely gave a damn about Australia, they would have to take stock of the fact that “not all Muslims” were victim to the bloody ideology of ISIS and other evil groups.
This song was my attempt to think out loud through this point in history at which we find ourselves. Much of the religious-centred violence this earth has endured, can be traced back to the three Abrahamic religions; Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Mind you, playing this with a straight bat inspired by academic rigour, it is primarily the last two that have been the most proactive holy wars and some of the most gruesome violence humans can inflict upon each other.
And yet, despite some barbaric calls for violence in the scriptures of all three religions, adherents have also found inspiration for great self-sacrifice and humantirian works.
Add in to all of this, the economic layer in which many settled citizens in Western countries have relied on collective wealth to save them from menial jobs, and benefited from advances in medicine removing the need to have many children to absorb the losses of infant mortality in establishing one’s family, and we have affluent countries now needing hungry, grateful immigrants to do the jobs that are “below us” and ensure there are enough people needing products and services to keep existing companies afloat.
So, whether we have white neo-Nazis hopping across the Tasman to shoot up Muslims in a mosque, or Islamic terrorists here shooting at Jews or other Aussies, hate must always be clearly labelled as hate and stamped out. That will involve working from the outside in and inside out. There should be no tolerance for extremism (yes, that sounds like an extremist formula but I think we can all agree that extremism can be tolerated when it is on the side of love and earthly humanity). Period.
Finally, all of us need to run the gauntlet of the 5 Whys – ask ourselves, why do you believe that? Then ask why we believe that. Then ask why we believe that. Then ask why we believe that. And, finally, ask again, why we believe that. If we can truly and honestly apply ourselves to this, we will likely find we hit a dead end in which we have either fallen victim to, or lazily embraced heresay to get to a position that suits us. But we must push our brains past the too easy, too convenient neural network pathways that angry people have sown the seeds for and social network algorithms have watered. We are reaping the vicious, poisonous fruits of unthinking echo chambers that are deliberately feeding us more of what we seem to like, this create silos of brittle-minded humans who see the world as a Punch and Judy show, in which their “team” is right and the other team is wrong.
The truth will long remain the victim until other victims die and perhaps break through the silo walls and get us being grown ups again and brave enough to dig deep into our roots of humanity. Yes, pull out the weeds, but do not rip through the field blindly; only fools would be that bloody stupid.
Thank God It Was A Muslim Lyrics
[Verse 1]
It was a Sunday in December
On Australia’s Bondi beach
There would be nothing to remember
If there hadn’t been a breach
When a father and his wayward son
Decided to kill Jews
Who were celebrating peacefully
Before they made the news
[Verse 2]
There are a lot of simple stories
That always do the rounds
Claiming Ausies lost their glory
To the yellows, blacks, and browns
But it’s never quite that simple
It is never cut and dry
And the truth remains a victim
Until other victims die
[Chorus]
Thank god it was a Muslim
Who cut the gunman down
The actions of this hero
Helped defuse this angry town
Coz before the boys could march with flags
On Southern Crosses arms
They had to thank a Muslim
For preventing further harm
[Verse 3]
Do not leave alive in Canaan
Anything that breathes
Behold I came here with a sword
I did not come here to bring peace
When you fight unbelievers
Strike their necks ’til they repent
Should we still thank Abraham
For the religions his god sent?
[Verse 4]
Despite the violent histories
Despite the cruel decrees
Scriptures are full of mysteries
And even calls for peace
But while we still look skyward
Instead of to our hearts
Lazy tabloid cowards
Will keep tearing us apart
[Chorus]
Thank god it was a Muslim
Who cut the gunman down
The actions of this hero
Helped defuse this angry town
Coz before the boys could march with flags
On Southern Crosses arms
They had to thank a Muslim
For preventing further harm
[Bridge]
God can be a puppet
For the cruel to pull the strings
They play us all for fools
As they diminish everything
If we don’t stand together
And call out hate as hate
We’ll be slaves forever
To this prehistoric fate
[Verse 5]
We need our Sundays back again
We need our day of rest
We cope with violence now and then
But we’re failing at this test
‘Coz every time a life’s erased
By prophets and their scorn
We forget that mateship’s not a grace
It’s something we must earn
[Chorus]
Thank god it was a Muslim
Who cut the gunman down
The actions of this hero
Helped defuse this angry town
Coz before the boys could march with flags
On Southern Crosses arms
They had to thank a Muslim
For preventing further harm
Listen To Thank God It Was A Muslim
Thank God It Was A Muslim Raw Scratchings
