--- title: Sydney Siege: Australians Tweet #IllRideWithYou for Local Muslims description: A bid to prevent an anti-Muslim backlash canonical: https://time.com/3633380/sydney-hostage-siege-illridewithyou-australia/ author: Laura Stampler article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-12-15T13:43:10.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T08:03:06.790Z og:title: Australians Use #IllRideWithYou Hashtag in Solidarity With Muslims During Sydney Siege og:description: A bid to prevent an anti-Muslim backlash. og:url: https://time.com/3633380/sydney-hostage-siege-illridewithyou-australia/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Australians Use #IllRideWithYou Hashtag in Solidarity With Muslims During Sydney Siege twitter:description: A bid to prevent an anti-Muslim backlash. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Australians Use #IllRideWithYou Hashtag in Solidarity With Muslims During Sydney Siege ## Video: Sydney Hostage Situation: Gunman Seen Inside Cafe, Hostages Escaping [Watch (HLS stream): Sydney Hostage Situation: Gunman Seen Inside Cafe, Hostages Escaping](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/CALWWBKN.m3u8) (1:02)  _Published 2014-12-15. A gunman can be seen seen inside the Sydney chocolate shop where several hostages are holed up._ by [Laura Stampler](https://time.com/author/laura-stampler/) ## Laura Stampler Dec 15, 2014 1:43 PM UTC by [Laura Stampler](https://time.com/author/laura-stampler/) ## Laura Stampler Dec 15, 2014 1:43 PM UTC Even as tensions remained high in the midst of [a hostage siege in Sydney on Monday](http://time.com/3633134/sydney-hostage-martin-place-lindt-cafe-terrorism/), some Australians were taking to social media to ensure local Muslims feel safe from potential backlash. It wasn’t immediately clear what the motive was of a gunman who took hostages in a local café, but a black-and-white Arabic flag could be seen, leading to speculation that an Islamist terrorist was the culprit. Users soon started tweeting the hashtag #IllRideWithYou. When Rachael Jacobs noticed the woman sitting next to her on the train silently removing her hijab, she told her to keep it on — “I’ll ride with you.” > [](https://twitter.com/MichaelJames%5FTV/status/544339713394368512) Others spread the hashtag in a sign of solidarity. > [](https://twitter.com/sirtessa/status/544363242655449088) > [](https://twitter.com/sirtessa/status/544363674505199616) According to social analytics tracker [Topsy](http://topsy.com/s?q=%23Illridewithyou&window=d&sort=-date), the hashtag had been tweeted more than 166,000 times in the eight hours following @sirtessa’s tweet. > [](https://twitter.com/msclaracollin/status/544415825080229888) > [](https://twitter.com/PeterDoyley/status/544424933485330432) > [](https://twitter.com/OzgeSevindik/status/544454256212717568) > [](https://twitter.com/anggerwitasari/status/544454734812176384) > [](https://twitter.com/lucethoughts/status/544419193865523200) > [](https://twitter.com/rachaeljacobs/status/544468703941623809) > [](https://twitter.com/rachaeljacobs/status/544468718911123456) > [](https://twitter.com/ahealy77/status/544445090110783489) _Read next:_ [_Central Sydney in Lockdown Amid a Developing Hostage Crisis_](http://time.com/3633134/sydney-hostage-martin-place-lindt-cafe-terrorism/?xid=time%5Freadnext) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3633380/sydney-hostage-siege-illridewithyou-australia/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3633380/sydney-hostage-siege-illridewithyou-australia/"},"headline":"Australians Use #IllRideWithYou Hashtag in Solidarity With Muslims During Sydney Siege","datePublished":"2014-12-15T13:43:10.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T08:03:06.790Z","description":"A bid to prevent an anti-Muslim backlash","url":"https://time.com/3633380/sydney-hostage-siege-illridewithyou-australia/","keywords":["Newsfeed","viral","activism","Muslim","Tech","sydney","hashtag"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Laura Stampler","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/laura-stampler/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3633380/sydney-hostage-siege-illridewithyou-australia/","name":"Australians Use #IllRideWithYou Hashtag in Solidarity With Muslims During Sydney Siege"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Sydney Hostage Situation: Gunman Seen Inside Cafe, Hostages Escaping","description":"A gunman can be seen seen inside the Sydney chocolate shop where several hostages are holed up.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/CALWWBKN/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2014-12-15T09:34:09.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/CALWWBKN.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/3633380/sydney-hostage-siege-illridewithyou-australia/","duration":"PT1M2S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/3633380/sydney-hostage-siege-illridewithyou-australia/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```