Jake Bilardi - who do we blame for him?

[i-need-a-martini]

Another event that highlights the nonsense that sometimes surrounds the young men who stupidly go off to fight with IS.

We often hear on here that the parents are to blame for bringinging their hatred of the ''infidels'' to australia and instilling it into their children. Ignoring the grief these parents are clearly suffering.

And yet here is another case that defies that logic.

A young catholic boy from a seemingly good home who gets sucked into the whole propaganda.

As Bob would say, discuss.

[cherry*135]

Bilardi unknown at Melbourne mosque

Youth leaders including a police officer never saw Australian suicide bomber Jake Bilardi at a Melbourne mosque he supposedly frequented.

Bilardi was reportedly a regular the Meadow Heights mosque and Hume Islamic Youth Centre at Roxburgh Park before joining Islamic State in Iraq last year.

Victoria Police multicultural youth officer, Senior Constable Shane Sahinkaya has a close working relationship with local mosques and is a youth mentor, but says he never once came across Bilardi.

Others at the mosque have told him they never knew the radical teen either.

'I've never seen him. No-one really knows him,' he told AAP on Friday.

'Even some of the youth leadership groups at some of the mosques have never come across him.'

The local Muslim community is concerned about assumptions Bilardi became radicalised through his involvement in the local mosque and youth centres, according to Sen Const Sahinkaya who met with mosque leaders on Thursday.

He said the community's reaction to those claims, the shock and disbelief, are a clear indication they don't support Bilardi's actions.

'They're pretty keen to ... stop misconceptions that he has come here and been radicalised,' he said.

'There's a perception about the Muslim community that has been all wrong and it does concern the community and locals.'

- See more at: http://www.skynews.com.au/news/top-stories/2015/03/13/bilardi-unknown-at-melbourne-mosque.html#sthas...

[cherry*135]

Interview BBC UK

Last year, he talked online to BBC Newsnight's Secunder Kermani.

...On a far darker note, he told me that he planned to carry out a suicide attack - and on Wednesday, IS said he had carried a suicide car bombing in Iraq's Anbar province. The Australian government says it is investigating the report.

Bilardi and I spoke over a period of a couple of days in December. He said he was in Ramadi, Iraq, and at that time had spent about four months with IS.

Many of the messages he sent me were typical of the Western IS members I have spoken to - at times sounding like lines from IS propaganda films. He expressed his ideological hatred of the Shias he was fighting in Iraq and justified attacks against his home country.

He told me he didn't want to be drawn into discussing how he had ended up converting to Islam, or about his life in Australia.

He did say that his family "hated Islam", and that he believed all non-Muslims had a deep hatred of the religion. He said that he had always had an interest in politics, and a distrust of international organisations such as the United Nations.

I asked him why, if he thought there were injustices in the world, he didn't seek to resolve them through democratic means. He replied: "Let's be honest you can stand on a street and scream about wanting change and wait maybe 100 years for things to happen or you can grab a gun and fight and change things quickly.

...I found out more about his journey to radicalisation through his account on Yahoo Questions, where users post questions that are answered by member of the public

...In one post, he writes that at times he feels that members of his family might be "plotting to kill him" and that "hidden cameras" are watching him. He welcomes a suggestion to see a psychologist.

His final questions were about a one-way ticket to Turkey, and seeking help with his passport application. Shortly after, he flew out of Australia. I asked him if he had been questioned at all - he said he had not.

"I'm a young white guy with no criminal record, doesn't scream terrorist does it? Hahaha," he wrote.

He joined IS, and says he was fast-tracked through military training as he told the group he wanted to be a suicide car-bomber. "I came here chasing death, I might as well kill as many kuffar as I can," he told me.

I asked him whether, if nothing else, he had considered the impact his death would have on his family in Australia. He wrote casually: "I've got a job to do. I didn't come here to hand out roses and boxes of chocolates."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-australia-31845428

 Reference to being an atheist

Around that time, he says he converted to Islam, having previously been an atheist. According to some Australian media reports, his conversion took place shortly after the death of his mother.

Doesnt mean his family were atheists.

[Anonymous]

Doesnt mean his family were atheists.

he said they were - according to the interview

with sbs.

[Anonymous]

It said that two months after his disappearance, he contacted his family to tell them he was in Iraq training for a "martyrdom mission" with a suicide vest.

He later called his family again to say he was having second thoughts about a suicide mission, and was "too scared to do it and he prefers being a soldier" - and was planning to travel to Syria.

On Wednesday it appeared he had changed his mind - or had it changed for him.

[***super_nova***]

He was/is a confused kid.  I would not take anything what he said seriously; it seems he was changing his mind about things from day to day, and in the interviews he might have said whatever sounded interesting to him.  He seems to take teenage rebellion to limits.  For catholic family to have a child claiming to be atheists would be embarrassing, to become Muslim in would be a scandal.

[gleee58]

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@***super_nova*** wrote:

He was/is a confused kid.  I would not take anything what he said seriously; it seems he was changing his mind about things from day to day, and in the interviews he might have said whatever sounded interesting to him.  He seems to take teenage rebellion to limits.  For catholic family to have a child claiming to be atheists would be embarrassing, to become Muslim in would be a scandal.

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The ultimate punishment to bestow upon his family.

I imagine the harsh reality of what these kids find is vastly different from what they envisaged but by the time the work that out it's too late to change their minds.

[lionrose.7]

Young men like this boy at one time used to go and join Gangs for a since of belonging, now the baddest Gang seems to be Isis.

[curmu-curmu]

Who's to blame?

Sadly, Jake himself.

No one coercecd him into doing what he wanted to do, no one held a gun at his head to force him to commit any atrocities.

Yes, others may well have been instrumental in determining which way he ultimately decided to end his life, but the ultimate choice was Jake's.

It IS sad that a young man could be so pschologically weak that he needed to end his life, but as one who was (possibly) so weak, then external influencers were sure to come into play. If not actual, then at least defined and justified internally by him.

But teen suicides are far more common than we'd like to admit or acknowledge - it's just that Jake's was far more high profile than many others.

Who's to blame? We could that say we all are, for promoting and condoning a society which drives young people to take this form of escape - but if we were to address EVERY psychological issue, in every member of society, we'd ALL need to be psychologists!

Just look at the statistics of mental illness in society at large, on a website such as Beyond Blue - the figures are pretty surprising!

Unfortunately, mentally ill or otherwise, the ultimate choice was Jake's - he was, after all, by all admissions, an intelligent young man, more than capable of making his own conscious decisions. Any mental illness issues aside, Jake was rational enough to determine how he wanted to end his life, and to devise a means to achieve what he wanted.

Sadly, if he indeed did commit the atrocity, we'll never know what the answer was in his case.

[bright.ton42]

Who's to blame? We could that say we all are, for promoting and condoning a society which drives young people to take this form of escape

How do you come to this conclusion?  Who promotes and condones such behaviour.?  I'm part of society and I certainly don't, neither does anyone else I know.

[curmu-curmu]

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@bright.ton42 wrote:

Who's to blame? We could that say we all are, for promoting and condoning a society which drives young people to take this form of escape

How do you come to this conclusion?  Who promotes and condones such behaviour.?  I'm part of society and I certainly don't, neither does anyone else I know.

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I was generalising about suicide - not IS atrocities. As if you didn't know.

Society has  to accept some of the blame for the suicide deaths of many teens and adults as well - stemming from pressures to conform, pressures to achieve affluence, pressures to be accepted, etc, etc...

Many who can't achieve the percieved desired goals, take the next best option - as they see it, and suicide.