Islamic State: the bogeyman haunting the Lindt Chocolate Café

Mr Abbott's "death cult" views were first expressed in September this year.

At pains to "de-islamize" the Martin Place siege – the Prime Minister stated at his joint press conference:

We are a very united society. Yes, we have amongst us a few deranged individuals who may choose to try to wrap their psychoses in a political ideology. But the point I keep making is that the ISIL death cult has nothing to do with any religion, any real religion. It has nothing to do with any particular community. It is something to which sick individuals succumb and sick individuals exist in all communities and in all societies. This idea that ISIL is somehow spawned by any particular religion, frankly it's probably even less true than saying that Catholicism spawned the IRA. They're just completely separate things.

Islam was clearly visible at the Lindt Chocolat café when Monis forced hostages to hold up a black flag that declared in Arabic script:

There is no god but Allah and Muhammad is the messenger of Allah.

"Islamic State" was also certainly at the forefront of his thinking.

In a video - shot while the siege was ongoing and posted to Facebook - Westpac executive and fitness business owner Marcia Mikhael relayed three requests by Monis including:

One is for him to get an IS flag and he will release one hostage.

New York Deputy Commissioner of Intelligence and Counter Terrorism - John Miller – had no reticence in stating that the Martin Place siege had the hallmarks of Islamic State orders – telling the Daily Telegraph on December 16:

You have to go back to September when ISIS put out the call through its official spokesman for people to attack in their own countries with what they have at hand.

Viewing Islamic State as purely a death cult and not a well-armed and run State already occupying an area larger than England denies the reality of what this group poses.

The bogeyman in the Lindt Chocolat café won't go away because Australia's Prime Minister wants to put the term "Islamic State" out of sight and out of mind.