Experts Say Sydney Hostage Taker Man Haron Monis Wasn’t A Terrorist, Just A Man With Mental Problems
Man Haron Monis, the Muslim cleric who was killed after taking hostages in the Lindt Cafe on Sydney’s Martin Place, had a long history of “mental instability,” according to Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott. A previous report from the Inquisitr revealed that Man Haron Monis became notorious for his radical, outspoken views on Islam. Haron Monis even went so far as to send hate mail to the families of dead Australian soldiers, calling them “child killers.”
But the disturbing truth about Man Haron Monis goes even deeper than that. According to ABC News, Man Haron Monis had become extremely well-known among authorities for his obsessive extremism and dangerous mental problems.
“[Man Haron Monis] had a long history of violent crime, infatuation with extremism and mental instability,” said Tony Abbott. “As the siege unfolded yesterday, he sought to cloak his actions with the symbolism of the ISIL [ISIS] death cult.”
Haron Monis’ violent activism came to a bloody end at 2 a.m. on Monday morning when police ended a 16-hour standoff, shooting Monis dead — but not before two hostages were killed. Not only had Man Haron Monis’ reputation as a self-proclaimed “spiritual healer” included sexual assault against women, Haron Monis dubbed himself a Muslim Sheik, despite the fact that Muslim leaders largely shunned him. While very outspoken, Monis had no allegiance to any terrorist organization, according to Time. In fact, it is believed that the hostage plot was completely planned and executed by Man Haron Monis himself.
ABC correspondent and former counter-terrorism adviser to the White House Richard Clarke weighed in on Man Haron Monis’ alleged mental instability, claiming the hostage situation was not a carefully orchestrated terrorist plot, but a random act of insanity from a deranged person.
“I don’t think this was a lone wolf terrorist, I don’t think this was a terrorist at all,” Clarke said about Monis. “I think this was someone who was committing suicide by police as a lot of people with mental problems do, and now, if they say they’re a terrorist, if they say they’re somehow associated with ISIS or Al Qaeda, it becomes a major event that shuts down the city and gets international attention. This was a person with a mental problem who tried to gain attention and succeeded, tried to shut down the city and succeeded, merely by putting up a flag that was something like the flag of ISIS.”
The assertion that Man Horan Monis was a mentally unstable loner is supported by the words of Monis’ own lawyer, Manny Conditsis, who represented the man last year. Conditsis described Monis as a “damaged goods individual,” and went on to say “His ideology is just so strong and so powerful that it clouds his vision for common sense and objectiveness.”
Would you consider Man Horan Monis a terrorist? Or is Monis just a mentally unstable person like Clarke and Abbott claim?
