Australians show solidarity and scorn for Muslims amid Sydney siege - The Globe and MailAustralians show solidarity and scorn for Muslims amid Sydney siege - The Globe and Mail










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This screengrab taken from the Australian Channel Seven broadcast shows presumed hostages holding up a flag with Arabic writing inside a cafe in the central business district of Sydney on December 15, 2014. (Channel Seven/AFP/Getty Images)







This screengrab taken from the Australian Channel Seven broadcast shows presumed hostages holding up a flag with Arabic writing inside a cafe in the central business district of Sydney on December 15, 2014.(Channel Seven/AFP/Getty Images)



Australians show solidarity and scorn for Muslims amid Sydney siege
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JANE WARDELL AND MATT SIEGEL


SYDNEY — Reuters

Published
Monday, Dec. 15 2014, 9:04 AM EST

Last updated
Monday, Dec. 15 2014, 9:04 AM EST









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Religious leaders and ordinary Australians sought to defuse communal tensions on Monday after a siege at a Sydney café raised fears of a backlash against the country’s Muslim minority.Many Australians took to social media to express their support for Muslims. The Twitter hashtag #illridewithyou, expressing support for Muslims who felt vulnerable on public transport in the wake of the siege, attracted tens of thousands of messages of supporters within a few hours.




UPDATE: There has now been more than 90,000 mentions of #illridewithyou tonight http://t.co/Yg80kag6qz #amazing pic.twitter.com/SEliFNmOfF— Twitter Australia (@TwitterAU) December 15, 2014

I don't take public transport to work. But #illwalkwithyou any day. Kensington to Surry Hills. #illridewithyou— Daniel Sankey (@Daniel_Sankey) December 15, 2014

Within hours of the attack on the Lindt café in the centre of the city, a Muslim group reported that women wearing the hijab had been spat on and the right-wing Australian Defence League called on followers to protest at two major mosques. The protests did not materialize and little is known about the true motives of the gunman.
But in the harbourside city, home to half of Australia’s 500,000 Muslims, police moved on a man shouting anti-Islamic abuse at the scene of the ongoing siege.
The man strode up to a police cordon and shouted: “Someone is going to die here because of Islam! There is no such thing as moderate Islam. Wake up and smell the coffee.”
He was confronted by another man who shouted back: “Muslims are welcome here.” Police urged the first man to leave, to a mix of catcalls and claps of support.
The siege coincides with growing concerns in Australia about the dangers posed by Islamist militants, with the country’s security agency raising its national terrorism public alert to “high” in September. The same month, anti-terrorism police said they had thwarted an imminent threat to behead a random member of the public and days later, a teenager in the city of Melbourne was shot dead after attacking two anti-terrorism officers with a knife.
New South Wales Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione said he was working closely with community groups and there would be an increased police presence in the city to “ensure that everyone is kept safe.”
The Australian National Imams Council, together with the Grand Mufti of Australia, issued a statement saying it “condemns this criminal act unequivocally.”
An umbrella organization encompassing all of the major Muslim groups in the country called for calm and expressed “utter shock and horror.”
The group stressed that the black and white flag, displayed by tense hostages in the window of the café and juxtaposed against the “Merry Christmas” sign stencilled beneath it, was a statement of faith, not politics.
Samier Dandan, a spokesman for the Imams Council, said the group had already received reports of women wearing the hijab, or Islamic head scarf, being spat on and harassed.
“We are sending out the message to our community to be vigilant about where they are going because we don’t want any incidents to fuel the fire,” Dandan said.
Those reports bore out concerns of locals like Mohamad Hasan, a computer engineer who emigrated to Australia from Jordan 20 years ago, who said he was deeply worried that Muslims like his wife could be attacked simply for wearing traditional clothing.
“I am worried because maybe I don’t look like a Muslim, but my wife like, [is] wearing a head scarf, so she might be affected by this,” Hasan said, speaking a few metres from the scene of the hostage crisis.
“Some stupid people … think ‘this is a Muslim, we should get revenge [on] everyone looking like a Muslim.’ ”

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Australia

Sydney, New South Wales




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