If you are a violent, mentally disturbed individual, then there really is only one spiritual path that will validate your tendency to violence and that is the ideology of Islam. Unlike any other major monotheistic faith, Islam tends to attract the mad and the bad to itself to an extent that is unmatched by other religious paths.

A good example of the sort of violent thug who is attracted to Islam comes from New Zealand where a man who had attended Muslim prayer sessions on the South Island, and quite shortly afterwards, commits an act of random violence whilst shouting ‘Allah hu Akbar’. Truly this case, which is outlined below, shows that you don’t have to be mad to be attracted to Islam but it really helps if you are.

According to a report in the New Zealand Herald (h/t ROP), a twenty four year old man who had attended prayer sessions at the Mataura Masjid Islamic Centre in the town of Gore, rammed a police car whilst playing Islamic religious. He then chased the police officer down the road whilst brandishing an axe at the officer. During the attack the assailant, Ruairi Kern Taylor, shouted Allah hu Akbar and also various verses from the Koran. When the police officer had made his mistake Taylor returned to the now empty police car and used the axe to do approximately 31,000 New Zealand dollars (15,000 Pound Sterling) worth of damage to the car.

Taylor, who had been said to have been acting strangely had earlier in September quit his job and purchased an axe from a hardware shop. After the attack Taylor was later apprehended by police who found him sitting in the empty police car wearing a police cap and police jacket that he had stolen from the car. None of Taylor’s actions, both the attack and the sitting around in the abandoned police car just waiting to be arrested, look to me to be the actions of a sane man. After all a sane man, even a criminal one, would not engage in such a risky and pointless attack and then just give up and let themselves be arrested. This looks to me very much like yet another violent nutter who has become enamoured of the violent ideology of Islam.

When questioned by police, Taylor, claimed to not be a practising Muslim and denied a religious motivation for the attack. However, the Imam of the Islamic Centre of Gore said that Taylor had attended prayer sessions there on several occasions and that he believed that Taylor had originally come to Gore from North Island.

Personally I don’t really buy Taylor’s claim that he is not a practising Muslim as he seems to have been welcomed at the Gore mosque and may therefore have given some indication to the mosque management that he was a Muslim. If the Imam’s statement is correct and that Taylor did indeed come from North Island then who radicalised him there? Someone somewhere has pushed this man towards a violent ideology and New Zealanders should worry that there may be mosques in the country that are pushing Islam on to those who have a propensity for violence.

According to the NZ Herald report, when brought before the courts, Taylor, who has an otherwise clean criminal record, pleaded guilty to assault and intentional damage charges and was remanded in custody. It is entirely likely that this case will result in a lengthy custodial sentence for Taylor. This is probably the best outcome for all, as a man whose internal demons lead him to attempt a ‘suicide by cop’, whilst shouting the Islamic war cry during an attack and who is involved in an ideology that praises martyrdom and murder, is liable to be an ongoing security problem.

If there are two things that this case should teach us all then it is, firstly that mad violent people are attracted to the violent ideology of Islam and secondly no amount of vacuous virtue signalling by the likes of Jacinda Ardern engaged in after the Christchurch mosque massacre, will stop this sort of ‘sudden jihad syndrome’ incident. I fear that New Zealand will be plagued with many more of these sorts of attacks until the country’s politicians realise that Islam attracts violent and potentially violent individuals like a moth is attracted to a flame.