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#illridewithyou: Australians respond to Sydney incident as Canadians did to Ottawa attack

#illridewithyou: Australians respond to Sydney incident as Canadians did to Ottawa attack

When Australia was stunned this week by an armed gunman taking hostages in a downtown Sydney cafe, it was described as the country’s first terrorist attack.

Some 17 people were taken hostage in an incident that ended many hours later when police stormed the building. Three people have been confirmed dead, including the suspect who is said to be well-known to police. He has been identified as Man Haron Monis, an Iranian extremist who had a reputation for sending hate mail to Australian military families.

Several other people were reportedly injured in the incident, including several hostages and one police officer who was an active part of ending the standoff. Many questions still remain about what happened, how it happened and why.

For Australia, it is gut-check time. Like those countries that have been attacked before them, the country now must consider how they want to move forward.

Do they want to lock themselves down, and cast distrustful eyes at one another, and become obsessed with prejudices? Or do they, like Canada, want to underline inclusion, acceptance and a sense of community?

At a press conference following the conclusion of the incident, Sydney Police Commissioner Andrew Scipioni urged the latter.

“This will not change the things we hold dear in this country. Right now I ask for members of the community to come together,” Scipioni said at the press conference. “We’re Australians. We support mates, we help friends. That is exactly what we should be doing at this time. It is not about finding reasons to divide the community.”

It would seem his call is being answered. Australians are refusing to let the actions of one extremist cloud their impression of the Muslim community in their country, in much the same way Canadians acted in the wake of the Parliament Hill shooting.

In the wake of the hostage-taking incident, a powerful online movement is capturing these moments of camaraderie. The hashtag #Illridewithyou has been trending on social media all day, after it was launched by an Australian who saw a Muslim woman remove her headscarf while riding public transit.

According to the Associated Press, Rachel Jacobs wrote on Facebook that she watched the woman remove her scarf, presumably out of a fear of repercussion, before running up to her and offering to walk with her.

The show of solidarity prompted a Twitter campaign in which people volunteered to stand with those in traditional Islamic dress who felt insecure in public.

The hashtag took on a life of its own. By early Tuesday morning (in Australian time zones), It was used more than 90,000 times, with many people posting their transit routes in an offer to help out.

Kristen Boschma, a social media manager, printed a sticker out and pasted it to her bag to send a message of unity with the country’s Muslim community.

"We very much believe in looking out for our mates," she told AP. “And I think this situation has widened the definition of what is a mate.”

The sentiment echoes something much closer to Canada. In the wake of terror-linked attacks in Quebec and Ottawa, we responded similarly.

From coast to coast, Canadians rallied around their Muslim neighbours, and stood with them in the face of prejudice. A survey found that 58 per cent of us viewed Canada’s Muslim community was a positive force against radicalization.

The show of support was seen in Cold Lake, Alta., where locals helped rebuild a mosque vandalized by bigots. It was seen in Hamilton, Ont., where students tested the response of transit riders faced with prejudice.

In the recorded “social science experiment,” one participant pretended to hassle a Muslim friend who was waiting for the bus – telling him he couldn’t get on the bus “dressed like a terrorist.”

In four separate instances, other transit riders stood up against the behaviour, one man even punched the aggressor in the face. At another point, a stranger said the victim was a friend of his.

"You want to take responsibility for his actions?" asks the fake Islamophobe. The man responds, "Yes I do want to take responsibility for his actions."

It’s never a good idea to compare misery or pain. So weighing the Sydney hostage attack against the recent attacks on Canadian soil is a fool’s errand. But the response? The public rallying, that refusal to hate? It’s worth comparing, because it is powerful in its positivity.

And it’s exactly the response the extremists don’t want to see.