Sydney siege gunman Man Haron Monis has been glorified in the ISIS Sunni radical group’s official English language magazine, media reported. Monis has been featured prominently in newly released ISIS propaganda material which urges would-be terrorists to emulate his “daring raid” on the lindt Chocolat Cafe in Martin Place in Sydney’s central business distriot Dec 15.
Seventeen people were taken hostage by Monis in the cafe, that left three, including the gunman, dead. In the foreword of the magazine Dabiq, ISIS says Monis’s actions “brought terror to the entire nation” and erased his history of “shirk and transgression”, the Melbourne Age reported.“He did not do so by undertaking the journey to the lands of the Khilafah and fighting side-by-side with his brothers but rather, by acting alone and striking the kaffir (non-believers) where it would hurt them most -- in their own lands and on the very streets that they presumptively walk in safety.”
The magazine features a full-page colour photograph of Monis and contains quotes attributed to him on his conversion from Shia to Sunni Islam. Past editions of Dabiq, which is named after a town in Syria, urged would be jihadis to keep their plots small and their strategies simple, involving as few people as possible.