Sentiments On The Sydney Siege

At the time of writing, the Sydney siege is still in progress, and an Islamic flag can still be seen in the window of the Lindt Café where it is taking place, despite the fact that the lights have been turned off for the night. There is no information regarding the identity of the perpetrator (it would seem, from television reports, that he uses a human shield, seemingly female, when he passes windows, that he barked out his demands via two females hostages forced, at different times, to a Channel Nine reporter, and that he is acting alone).

[Update: culprit was Man Haron Monis, granted asylum to Australia in 2001 ... a vile antisemitic ndividual who was out on bail despite facing 40 charges of sexual assault! An accessory to the murder of his wife, he had sent poisonous letters to the families of dead Aussie servicemen - hand-delivered at the funerals! The two persons killed.   Wikipedia has wasted no time in writing him up. This is believed to be his Twitter page. See also my next post.]

But what his demands are have not been divulged by the station on instructions by police.  To date, five hostages have managed to escape.  How many remain is unclear. [Two hostages dead, along with the gunman; four injured.]

On social media, a number of leftists who also happen to be dedicated anti-Israel activists have posted conspiracy theories regarding the identity of the hostage-taker.  There's a marked reluctance to accept that he's a Muslim.  One leftist suggests that he is "a Christian fundamentalist" seeking to pin the blame on Muslims, some allege a political ploy by Tony Abbott to demonise Muslims and win popularity: that sort of thing.  I haven't seen any allegations that it is the work of Mossad, or the CIA, but given the intensity of Far Left antisemitism anti-Zionism on there, I wouldn't be at all surprised if such messages come, or have already been posted.

All that seems to be known for sure about the perpetrator is that he's a middle-aged man wearing a headband bearing Arabic writing (saying “We are your soldiers O Muhammad” according to some reports), that he is carrying a backpack, that he is armed, and that he forced two terrified female hostages to display the black Islamic flag in the window. A Muslim leader who is being interviewed as I write describes the use of the flag, with its legend that the only god is Allah and Mohammed is his prophet, as "blasphemous" in the circumstances.  He points out that it's not certain as this stage that the perpetrator is a Muslim.

Channel Nine and other television channels I've seen today appear to be bending over backwards to assert that Muslims in Australia generally are not involved in this incident and that they deplore it.  They are denouncing "Islamophobia" and talking up the "I will ride with you" hashtag.

And there's this.

On the other hand, the Sydney Daily Telegraph issued, this afternoon, this unsqueamish edition (pictured), and editor Piers Akerman wrote this no-holds-barred article.  No political correctness there, obviously.

Various Muslim institutions in New South Wales issued the following press release:

 

On Facebook, the Online Hate Prevention Institute, which is a Jewish initiative run by Dr Andre Oboler, has issued this statement:

 

 And this one:

All fine and dandy, eh?

But wouldn't it be great if the Online Hate Prevention Institute would (perhaps with the aid of the Muslims for whom it has gone into bat) exert itself in getting Facebook to remove some of the truly despicable antisemitic pages that still defile it.

Pages such as this and the page which produces outright racism: