British woman, 21, killed in Australian backpackers' hostel attack by knifeman 'shouting Allahu Akbar'

Poor woman

Edit:
Meant to put Australia not Sydney in the title

Just watching it on the news now

(And I edited the title)

Another 'I'm stuffed in the head and want to kill someone, so I'll use the old allahu akbar thing to make that ok' piece of shite.

That poor young woman.

I don't think it's terrorism.. just someone with severe mental health problems. Very sad for the poor girl and her family plus other involved.

They're reporting this morning that he was obsessed with the woman and that it was unlikely to be a 'terror event'.

I wish people weren't so quick to claim things as terrorist whenever someone is Muslim - it's just like the 70s-90s in the UK where anything that happened that involved someone with an Irish name was definitely IRA. Even when it wasn't.

Totally agree on all counts Dreamy.

Completely agree, Dreamy.

I think we should also withhold speculation about mental health problems until there is some confirmation because most homicides where a man kills a woman have nothing to do with mental health. Maybe he had mental health problems but maybe he didn't. If he did, he may still be culpable for his actions. Time will tell. For example, look at the case of Mire (of the infamous "you ain't no Muslim, bruv). Experts disagreed whether his actions were symptoms of his illness or not but the judge sentenced him to a prison term that could include time in a standard prison if his symptoms are found to diminish sufficiently while in Broadmoor.

"The court heard Mire started viewing Isis videos online three years before the attack."

From: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/...tenced-to-xxxx

Really hard to separate out madness from badness and determine extent of culpability but we definitely play right into the hands of terrorists if we allow isolated events to become part of a larger narrative of fear. I think the title of this thread should be changed to, "Another woman dies at the hands of a man she knew: drugs, alcohol, and/or mental health problems may have played a role" cos it is closer to the truth.

Isn't all murder a result of mental health? Anything that's not self defence of accidental is surely a mental health issue.

No. That is a common but fundamental misunderstanding. People murder for lust, rage, power, jealousy, money, revenge, etc., etc. It is tempting to think someone must be mentally ill to commit barbaric crimes but sadly, no.

I think that's a bit dismissive. People get jealous, angry etc but I think murder wouldn't naturally follow from that.

WTF, what nonsense: I never said all people who get angry, jealous, etc. murder! Imagine if every time someone got angry they murdered someone. I would have murdered my husband about ten thousand times

My point was that most murders ARE NOT perpetrated by people who are mentally unwell. That's not something I made up; it's factual.

What is mental health? Would a sane person commit murder? Does a well balanced person happy in their life kill people? I think I'd like to see your research.

I have to agree. Just because you have a 'reason' for murdering someone whether that be lust, rage, power, jealousy, money, etc etc doesn't mean you're rational. If you decide to murder someone you are not firing on all cylinders whether your mental illness is defined or not.

Is irrationality synonymous with mental illness?

If you are arguing that all murderers are mentally unwell then shouldn't all murderers receive psychiatric treatment instead of punishment?

No as a complete layman I think that if something makes you take a life, then you've had a short happen in the electrics.