The siege in Sydney

Lindt cafe incident brought out some of the best in Australians and Sydneysiders as there was no anti-Muslim backlash

The armed siege at the Lindt chocolate cafe in Sydney, Australia, was not a terrorist incident in the sense of it being part of a coordinated campaign. Three people died at the end including the gunman, others were injured. The man responsible for the mayhem and deaths was Iranian by birth and went to Australia in 1999 as a refugee. He was well known to the police and security services and had a long and violent criminal record which included a string of sexual offences as well as a record of mental instability. He had never been linked to any known terrorist organisation but was known to be a man of extreme views — he sent hate mail to the families of Australian soldiers who were killed in battle. At the time of his death, Man Haron Monis was on bail accused of being an accessory in the murder of his ex-wife. He was not on any terrorist watch-list.

There will now be an inquiry and the facts will eventually be revealed, but the incident, whilst dreadful, brought out some of the best in Australians and Sydneysiders. The police and security forces were on the ball; the media acted responsibly and cooperated with the security forces and ordinary citizens shone. Of particular note was the #illridewithyou campaign that blossomed on Twitter, aimed at allaying fears, particularly the fears of Muslims, that they might become the subject of harassment as a result of events at the cafe. There was no anti-Muslim backlash, instead there was solidarity and sympathetic support. The next morning Muslims were seen laying flowers at the site of the incident.

Incidents such as this are extremely rare in Australia. The country is on high alert regarding possible terrorist attacks particularly by supporters of the Islamic State; but the Lindt cafe incident cannot be described as an act of terror. While it created fear in the same way that mass killings in schools in the US, the UK and elsewhere do, it was not part of a wider conspiracy. Lone, deranged individuals bent on mayhem will always be with us, but terrorists they are not.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 18^th,  2014.

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