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"There is no such thing as a moderate Muslim, there is no such thing as a moderate Neo-Nazi"
Other | Monday 15th December 2014 | Izaradz
A black “Islamist” flag has been put up in the window of a Lindt café in Sydney. The flag bears the ‘shahada’, which is the most used statement by Jihadist groups declaring the Islamic faith all over the world. The gunman has not yet been identified, but the Australian police have been in communication with him over the past few hours.
Seven hours into the hostage situation, five people were seen running from the café. However, the gunman is still believed to be holding 30 members of staff and customers in the building. According to the BBC, “an enormous police operation is in place, on a scale few Sydney residents will have seen”, but the forces are determined to resolve the situation as peacefully as possible, regardless of how long it will take.
Anne Aly, the head of the counter terrorism research programme at Australia’s Curtin University has stated that the gunman is likely to be a “lone actor”. She deems the demands that he is making “odd for a hostage taking incident”, not connected to a group or cause and not very strategic. This seems to be the latest in a number of incidents around the world with lone Islamist extremists. The story in Sydney has received little attention from online Jihadis, who have not claimed any responsibility for the siege.
As the police cornered off the area surrounding the cafe, Uber prices surged up to four times the normal fare as dozens of alarmed citizens evacuated the area. Uber was criticised heavily for this opportunist charge, and have since refunded some customers and offered some free trips out of the city's central business district.
What has been remarkable, is the force behind the emergence of the #illridewithyou hashtag. The hashtag shows solidarity with Muslims in Australia who may fear an islamophobic backlash as a result of today’s incident, promising to ‘ride with them’ on their journeys. According to Twitter Australia, in two hours there were over 400,000 tweets that made use of the hashtag, contributing to over 100,000 overall. There are, of course, some individuals who have taken this opportunity to draw attention to their own spotlight. One of the onlookers standing behind the lines of the cornered off area made sweeping comparisons between Muslims and Neo-Nazis, before being asked to leave by the police.
The story of the hostage situation continues to unfold. For live updates on its progress, click here.
