Sydney siege highlights need for united fight against terrorism

SYDNEY - The appalling Sydney siege on Monday has highlighted the need for nations of the world to stand united to fight the cancer of terrorism that is quickly spreading across the globe.

For the first time, terrorism has reached the heart of faraway Australia, showing that no place on earth is absolutely safe.

An armed man, unfurling Islamic flags, held up to 30 people hostage in a downtown Sydney cafe, triggering widespread panic across the country.

Terrorism continues to cause grief 13 years after it dealt the most lethal blow to the United States.

Since Sept 11, 2001, when the Twin Towers in New York collapsed after being smashed into by two hijacked passenger planes, killing some 3,000 people, the world has been under an increased threat from extremists.

Now the world's gaze has been leveled at Sydney.

The gunman taking the hostages claims to have planted bombs in the cafe and at other locations in the city. This is what terrorists do. They want to terrify people by inflicting fear into hearts and minds.

Australia's distance from the rest of the world gave its people a sense of security, but the hostage-taking has given Australians a wake-up call.

In September, police conducted a series of major anti-terror raids across Sydney after alleged Islamic extremists were reportedly planning to behead a person in Martin Place, where the Lindt Chocolate Cafe is located.

But at that time few Australians really believed it could actually happen. Then the specter of terror came knocking on the nation's door with a shocking hostage crisis.

It's only a matter of time before more countries and their citizens will suffer from the evil works of terrorists if they were not collectively and effectively checked.

In November, Chinese President Xi Jinping and his US counterpart Barack Obama reaffirmed their resolute stance against terrorism. All nations must be on guard against this grave threat and pool their resources and information for added protection.

The disturbing siege has highlighted the need for closer cooperation and mutual trust between all countries in a global fight against terror.

Nations from all corners of the world need to work together no matter where they are from or what their political structures are. They need to trust one another and go beyond the Cold War mentality and double standards to take the fight against terrorism.

Terrorists are not a nation nor are they a government. They are a perilous tumor, which threatens the very existence of human civilization.

Only through a united effort, can the world stand fast to remove the root causes for terrorism, which needs to be stopped from taking a toll on more innocent people.