Sam Tiger right, and Abdulrahman El-Lawn perform prayers after a cafe siege in the central business district of Sydney, Australia, Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2014. This was their first prayer of the morning and they prayed for peace and to bring comfort upon those affected especially the hostages and their families. They both made a second prayer directed towards Muslims to make the aftermath a peaceful one.Glenn Nicholls/The Associated Press
While the siege at a Sydney café was still unfolding, Rupert Murdoch's Australian tabloid, The Daily Telegraph, released a special 2 p.m. edition with a headline highlighting the country's anxieties in an era increasingly defined by counterterrorism raids, debates about multiculturalism and concerns about extremism.
"Death cult in CBD attack," its front page read in bold, assuming someone allied to Islamic State militants had hostages in the central business district of Australia's financial capital, close to Sydney's opera house and various government buildings.
The headline, as it turned out, was technically wrong. The gunman apparently had no formal links to IS.
But the assumption that terrorists linked to IS were striking in one of the country's most recognizable areas was hardly unreasonable in Australia's tense new political and security climate.
Under Prime Minister Tony Abbott, who came to power in 2013 pledging to crack down on refugees from Southeast Asia, Australia has heightened the national security threat level to "high," pushed for new and updated anti-terror laws, joined the war against Islamic State militants and presided over massive counterterrorism efforts that many think are designed to send a strong message – but which some suggest risk alienating Australia's Muslim communities.
"Since the alert level went up to high, there's been a level of tenseness within the population that wasn't there before," said Clive Williams, a former director of security intelligence at Australia's domestic Defence Intelligence organization. "And what's happened in Sydney will certainly add to that."
Two months ago, more than 800 heavily armed police led raids in Sydney and Brisbane after the government received intelligence suggesting IS wanted to behead Australians in public to send a message. The September raids led to more than a dozen arrests, but were viewed by some as an excessive show of force – prompting hundreds to gather in protest in Lakemba, a Sydney suburb popular with Lebanese migrants.
The high-profile raids, which led to two being charged with terrorism-related offences, were seen by critics as an attempt by Mr. Abbott's government to muster public support for new counterterrorism measures and joining the Western coalition against Islamic State.
An earlier raid in Brisbane with about 180 officers netted two men who were allegedly planning on heading to fight in Syria.
Few dispute that threats are real: Australians have suffered through terrorism before – in the Bali bombings of 2002 and since. But the new security measures have inflamed anti-immigration tensions.
In October, as part of a proposed new security measure, Australian lawmakers sought to have women wearing the burqa stand behind protective glass screens while visiting Parliament – a move Mr. Abbott eventually opposed. Some in Mr. Abbott's party even called for an outright ban on the burqa. Although there is some consultation between security forces and the Islamic community it has come "a bit too late," according to Rodger Shanahan, a non-resident fellow at the Lowy Institute for International Policy in Sydney.
The cancelling of passports for those suspected of wanting to travel to the Middle East to support IS has also heightened tensions. In September, an 18-year-old boy had his passport cancelled after apparently waving an IS flag at a local mall. He was shot dead after he allegedly stabbed two counterterrorism officers at a police interview.
Mr. Shanahan said Muslim immigrants have so far tended to cluster in the suburbs of Sydney and Melbourne limiting their contact with non-immigrant communities. "It's the same with most Western countries, but particularly with Australia – which has always seen itself as rugged, outdoors, on-the-beach culture," he said. "The vast majority of Australians never get exposure to Muslims."
Mr. Shanahan suggested that the events in Sydney will simply convince the government it is on the right course with its security policies. "It just rams home to people in Australia that they're not as invulnerable as they think."