No ISIL structure in Australia

The perpetrator had a "long history of violent crime, infatuation with extremism and mental instability," said Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott, referring to 50-year-old Haron Monis. The Iranian-born gunman was killed on Tuesday, December 16, when heavily-armed police stormed a café in Sydney to rescue the 17 people he had held hostage, two of whom lost their lives.

Monis was a 'deeply disturbed' person who tried to associate himself with the "Islamic State" group, PM Abbott added. "He sought to cloak his actions with the symbolism of the ISIL death cult."

The hostage-taker arrived in Australia as a refugee from Iran in 1996. In 2012, Monis was found guilty of sending offensive and threatening letters to families of eight Australian soldiers killed in Afghanistan. He also faced charges of sexually assaulting a woman in 2002 as well as of being an accessory to the murder of his ex-wife. He was out on bail when he stormed the Sydney café. Iran condemned the deadly attack terming it an act 'foreign to Islam,' state media quoted a government official as saying."

In a DW interview, Rodger Shanahan, a Sydney-based expert on international security, talks about the threat Islamist propaganda poses to young Muslims in Australia and says the attack highlights how easy it is for an individual to do damage in a big city in a country with strict gun laws and with limited planning.

DW: Three hostages and the lone gunman were killed when Australian police stormed the cafe. Are there any indications that the gunman had any links to Islamist or terrorist groups?

Rodger Shanahan: There are no evident links. The individual in question had just lost his final appeal against a conviction for sending offensive letters to the families of soldiers killed in Afghanistan, and had been charged and released on bail for sexual assault charges that occurred ten years earlier and as an accessory to the murder of his first wife.

He was originally from Iran, had been a self-appointed 'spiritual healer', then a self-appointed Shi'a cleric and then announced a few months ago that he was Sunni. He was most likely a very dangerous fantasist who used Islam to play out his latest fantasy. He had no known links to any terrorist group at this stage.

Is there any information about the gunman's motivation?

The event may have been triggered by his lost appeal that occurred late last week, and the site of the café is in the middle of the city and opposite one of the commercial TV stations in Australia. He claimed that he had converted to Sunni Islam in recent months and posted a pro-ISIL rant in Arabic prior to carrying out the siege.

What impact do you think this latest event will have on Australian society and fears of terrorism?

People are trying to define what the incident was - a terrorist attack, a deranged gunman, a criminal with a grudge trying to wrap himself in an Islamic cloak to hide his real motivation. What it does do is highlight how easy it is for an individual to do damage in a big city in a country with strict gun laws and with limited planning.

How has the government's involvement in the fight against ISIL impacted security in Australia?

Australia, along with most Western countries, has been an Islamist target for years now, so I don't think our involvement has shifted things in that regard. The terrorism alert had been raised in September based on intelligence that is more to do with people emboldened by events in Syria and Iraq, or in some cases at frustration because the government had stopped them from going by cancelling their passports.

What can you tell us about the number of Australians fighting for Islamist militant groups in the Middle East and the effect their supporters and sympathizers have on domestic security?

There are about 70 believed to be actively fighting with groups in the Middle East; 20 have been killed and about the same number have returned after being involved with groups in the region. There are dozens more who are considered to be active supporters. So while the numbers are not huge, per capita they are significant.

The security agencies have been quite diligent in tracking them and the government has given the agencies significant financial and legislative support to perform this function. It is fair to say that this is considered the government's first security priority.

There are also concerns about large-scale counter-terrorism raids being conducted in the country. Has ISIL gained a foothold in Australia?

There is no indication that ISIL has a structure in Australia, but its sophisticated use of social media has proven attractive to some Muslim youth in the country in the same way that it has in Europe.

The numbers indicate that it has some attraction but normally only to those Muslims who are very young and easily influenced by people they know in Australia, or those who are on the periphery of society and as a result tend to radicalize in small, extended groups rather than as individuals.

What has the Australian government so far done to allay fears of terrorism in the country?

They have done generally well in this regard and while they could have engaged with sections of the Muslim community to a greater degree at a much earlier stage in the legislative amendment process, it generally has popular and bipartisan political support.

Dr. Rodger Shanahan is an international security expert and a non-resident fellow at the Lowy Institute for International Policy.