Joe Hildebrand: Terror takes many forms — it hits us hard and it keeps on hitting

The teen accused of a church terror attack is behind bars, with several suspected associates arrested before having carried out an alleged planned attack. That is the level of seriousness we expect, yet after horrific accusations those accused of domestic violence are walking free, writes Joe Hildebrand

The ancient Egyptians had a word for it: Maat.

As usual there’s no precise English translation, but it means something like order, balance and harmony, and things being the same tomorrow as they were yesterday.

The closest definition I have come across was when my friend Tim Blair looked at me from over the top of a glass of wine and said with pharaoh-like sagacity: “All change is bad.”

This belief was both central and sacrosanct to the Egyptians. It drove their entire way of life and defined their religious beliefs, their need to constantly appease and commune with the gods — one of whom was, naturally, called Maat.

A few millennia later I am not so sure that we are all that different from these ancient folks.

Most if not all of us crave that same kind of stability and certainty. We want to go to sleep knowing that when we wake up there will be a roof over our head, food on our table and our loved ones will still be there.

Members of the public leave floral tributes outside Westfield Bondi Junction following the murder of six people. Picture: David Swift

Humans also gravitate towards routine. Most of us work during the day – for thousands of years we had no choice – and sleep at night.

Around this we tend to do the same things – hang out with the same people and go to the same shops to buy the same stuff.

And all of this is perfectly obvious and mundane and needless to say. Until it isn’t.

This is the ultimate objective of terrorism. Not just the horrific outcomes for the people it directly targets, but the disruptionand destabilisation of society as a whole.

As the name suggests the purpose is not just to cause harm to those it physically attacks, but to sow the seeds of fear ineveryone that they could be next. That nobody is safe.

Traditionally this has been to serve an ideological cause and mentally intimidate a people or state out of or into a certaincourse of action.

The horrific Wakeley church attack, allegedly in response to the bishop’s criticism of Islam, would appear, if proven, tobe of that type.

And yet in shocking proximity we have had acts of terror that have been just as socially damaging even without any apparentideological motive behind them.

15/04/2024: A teenage attacker at the church in Wakeley, Sydney attacks Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel stabbing him multiple times

The first was the Bondi Junction mass stabbing, which initially bore all the hallmarks of a lone wolf terror attack untilit emerged it was the rampage of someone in the grips of severe mental illness.

There is probably a PhD thesis to be written about that similarity alone, but the impact even weeks later has also been eerilyuncanny.

The Westfield shopping centre, once the commercial epicentre of the eastern suburbs, has become a social ghost town, withdesperate shopkeepers – many traumatised by the attacks – now wondering if their businesses can survive.

People are, understandably, afraid. They fear that if they resume their normal habits – their normal social and shopping routines – that they too could fall victim to such an attack.

But while such a fear is understandable it is far from rational.

Molly Ticehurst was found dead at a home in Forbes on Monday morning. Picture: Supplied / Facebook

The odds of such a thing happening in the same place to the same people are infinitesimally small and yet because of thisirrational fear there are people suffering twice over.

And so if that knife-wielding madman had indeed been a terrorist he could not have done his job better – the seeds of terrorhave been sown.

Tragically, a more rational terror was laid bare this week after the killing of Forbes mother Molly Ticehurst, allegedly bya man on bail who had reportedly previously assaulted her.

As this newspaper powerfully demonstrated over the weekend, countless other women live with this much more acute and all-pervasivefear. Their lives are permanently disrupted and their terror is far more likely to manifest itself.

Yet this form of terrorism seems far more likely to be treated with kid gloves – another roundtable, another education campaign,another “conversation” – than the other.

Long before his motives were known the Bondi killer was shot dead on the scene by a cop.

The alleged Wakeley attacker has been arrested by police and is behind bars, and several suspected teenage associates havealso been arrested, allegedly before having even carried out any attack or having specific plans in mind.

That – rightly – is the level of seriousness with which that threat is taken.

And yet after a string of horrific – and horrifically specific – alleged crimes Ticehurst’s alleged murderer was walking freeon bail. He is yet to enter a plea and remains before the courts.

And so perhaps instead of yet another talkfest our priority should be to put these purveyors of terror where they belong.

Maybe if we dealt with the real perpetrators more seriously instead of seeing potential perpetrators everywhere then we asa society – and women especially – could finally have some peace and order restored to our lives.

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Originally published as Joe Hildebrand: Terror takes many forms — it hits us hard and it keeps on hitting