Ahmed al Ahmed, the man who tackled and disarmed one of the Bondi beach attackers, recovers at St George Hospital in Sydney.Supplied/AFP/Getty Images

Sheema Khan is the author of Of Hockey and Hijab: Reflections of a Canadian Muslim Woman.

Ahmed al Ahmed was meeting a friend for coffee by Sydney’s Bondi Beach when a scene of mass murder unfolded before him. Unbeknownst to him, two gunmen had already murdered a Jewish couple, Boris and Sofia Gurman, who had come out to celebrate their 35th wedding anniversary, and who had courageously tried to stop the attackers as they first emerged from their car with firearms to unleash carnage upon a Hanukkah celebration nearby. In the end, 15 people were murdered, including a 10-year-old girl, an 87-year-old Holocaust survivor and two beloved rabbis who each left behind young families; at least nine children lost a parent that day.

In a now-iconic video, an unarmed Mr. al Ahmed confronts one of the gunmen. After wrestling away the weapon, Mr. al Ahmed points the gun at him as the man retreats, and then even has the presence of mind to lay it down. Mr. al Ahmed would later require extensive surgery after being shot by the second gunman. Tributes have poured in for Mr. al Ahmed – a father of two young girls – as have donations.

Video captured the moment a man rushed one of two........

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