Extra vigilance needed
The perpetrator of the Sydney hostage drama was apparently a radicalised Iranian refugee with a history of sending hate mails to families of soldiers killed overseas and also faced several sexual assault charges. He was also charged with being an accessory in his ex-wife’s murder last year. Yet there was also much about him that has become familiar during the war against terrorism. His website showed graphic photographs of children killed by US and Australian airstrikes. And, apparently, he began describing himself as a spiritual leader, and called himself Sheikh, a trend more associated with Arabs fighting US/Nato forces on various battlefields.
However, even though Sydney seemed a lone-wolf attack, the Australian government will have to be extra careful now. It remains one of the countries contributing to the international anti-ISIS effort, and there are a number of Australians fighting alongside the caliphate in Iraq in Syria, which is why the black flag during the siege led to a frenzy of terrorism related speculation. Also, local Islamists have grown in number and potency over the last decade or so, and the chances of war-hardened extremists returning from Levant to practice some of their acquired skills at home cannot be ruled out. This is exactly the phenomenon that all of North America and Europe has been worrying about since the Syrian civil war started to worsen.
Significantly, while Sydney may have been an isolated incident, it will nonetheless embolden ISIS and affiliated groups calling for just such attacks. There has already been an incident of an ISIS inspired attacker stabbing two Australian soldiers in Melbourne recently. Therefore, extra vigilance will be required. Authorities will have to be mindful, though, that both public and official anti-terror reaction does not carry anti-Muslim connotations. In worst cases, such incidents have been known to direct collective anger towards communities instead of individuals. The focus should be on preventing a repeat performance instead of isolating a significant part of the population.