A man who risked his life to wrestle a gun from a shooter in the Bondi beach terror attack on Sunday has become a hero in his home town in Syria.
Video of Ahmed al-Ahmed’s selfless act quickly reached his birthplace of al-Nayrab, a small town in the countryside of Idlib, north-west Syria. Ahmed, a 44-year-old father of two children, left the village to emigrate to Australia in 2007. He initially worked in construction, but soon opened a fruit and vegetable shop in Sydney.
“His act is a source of pride for us and for Syria,” said farmer Mohammed, a 60-year-old uncle of Ahmed. Mohammed said he discovered his nephew’s bravery through social media, coming across the video on his feed.
On Sunday, two gunmen, alleged to be 50-year-old Sajid Akram and his 24-year-old son Naveed Akram, attacked a Hanukah celebration on the Sydney beach, killing 15 people. One of the alleged gunmen also died.
Ahmed was having lunch in the area when the shooting started, his brother Huthaifa told the Australian broadcaster ABC. Upon hearing the shots, Ahmed crept closer using cars for cover, before launching himself at one of two gunmen. Ahmed disarmed the attacker, pulling the rifle out of his hands and pointing it at the gunman, before laying the weapon against a tree.
Ahmed was shot in the shoulder at least twice during his attempt to wrest the gun out of the shooter’s grip.
The act of heroism has made him famous in Australia and in Syria, where Syrians have been widely sharing the video of him disarming the gunman with pride.
In Nayrab, Ahmed is the talk of the town. The small village was under the control of Syrian rebels during the country’s civil war and much of it is destroyed. Ahmed’s own home is ruined, with the roof still patchy from bombs and no windows or doors surviving.
“This incident caused a global sensation. He is from Syria and he is a Muslim, and he had no motivation for doing this other than heroism and bravery,” Mohammed said.
Another relative recalled Ahmed as a heroic man and praised him for saving “innocent lives.”
“We are proud of what Ahmed, the son of our village did … his act was heroic and no one else could have done it,” Abdul Rahman al-Mohammed, a 30-year-old resident of Nayrab, told AFP.
In a video recorded while he was being wheeled in a bed through hospital corridors, Ahmed greets his Syrian relatives in Arabic.
“What can I say? I have passed through a very difficult phase, but thank God for everything,” Ahmed says while wishing specific family members well.
Australia’s prime minister, Anthony Albanese, visited Ahmed in the hospital, shaking his hand and telling him that his “bravery is an inspiration for all Australians”. An online fundraiser to pay for his medical bills has received more than £1.2m in donations, with the GoFundMe being shared around the world.
The attack on Bondi beach, allegedly carried out by a father and son who reportedly underwent military training in an Islamist militant hotbed in the southern Philippines, seemed to be “motivated by Islamic State ideology,”, said Albanese.
The PM went on to say that Ahmed’s heroism proved that coexistence, not extremism, was the essence of Australian society.
“At the best of times, what we see is Australians coming together. And what I want is for Australians to come together, for this to be reinforcing the need for us to promote national unity, and that is critical. There is no place in Australia for anti-semitism. There is no place for hatred,” Albanese said.
