December 14, 2025, was a black day for the Jews of Australia. The Jewish community had organised a Hanukkah celebration at Bondi Beach in Sydney. Suddenly, a father and son duo, Sajid Akram (50) and NavedAkram (24) started firing indiscriminately at the large gathering on the beach. Fifteen people lost their lives, and many more were injured. Some of those are in critical condition and battling to survive.
The Australian government immediately sprang into action. It designated the shooting as an anti-Semitic terrorist attack. The federal and New South Wales governments announced a AUD2 million support package for Jewish community organisations. Large funds were allocated for improving security at Jewish events, schools, and cultural programmes. It was announced that the government would tighten gun laws and crack down on hate speech and extremist incitement. Cutting across party lines, national and state leaders framed the attack as an assault on both Jewish Australians and Australian values. They called for a “moment of national unity” and urged Australians to stand with their Jewish neighbours.
The steps that the Australian government and authorities have taken to support and protect its Jewish community are indeed laudable. The Government of India should take a cue from Australia and also initiate concrete steps to protect its vulnerable communities, like the Kashmiri Pandits, the Kukis of Manipur, and most importantly, the Muslim community in India, wherever they are in a minority. Some steps that are urgently required include: (i) framing a national law on reparations and relief after communal and targeted violence, (ii) developing SOPs for the protection of vulnerable sites (places of worship, minority schools, cultural centres) after threats or attacks, (iii) Starting a fast‑track mechanism to investigate hate crimes and communal violence that protects victims, witnesses, journalists, and human rights defenders who document abuses against minorities. Most importantly, the top political leadership must communicate through their speeches, statements, and tweets that minorities are an integral part of our nation and that attacks on them will be deemed “anti-national”.
Ahmed al‑Ahmed is a Syrian‑born fruit shop owner in Sydney who tackled and disarmed one of the gunmen during the Bondi Beach Hanukkah attack, and was shot and seriously injured in the process. Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese visited Ahmed al‑Ahmed at St George Hospital in Sydney, met his Syrian parents, and publicly described him as “the best of our country” and “a true Australian hero”. Many bigoted talking points are doing the rounds on social media, such as “All Muslims are not terrorists, but every terrorist is a Muslim” and “Terror has a religion, and it is Islam”. With his one brave act in Bondi Beach, Ahmed al-Ahmed demolished the entire manufactured narrative of linking Islam and Muslims with terrorism. Sometimes, heroes are born in the crucible of tragedy, as Ahmed al-Ahmed so fearlessly proved.