Despite the Sydney, Australia hostage-taker displaying a flag reading in Arabic, “There is no God but God and Mohammed is the prophet of God,” despite his being a self-proclaimed sheikh and despite his demand that police give him an ISIS flag, MSNBC “The Rundown” host José Diaz-Balart wondered if Iranian-born Man Haron Monis is motivated by Islam at all. (VIDEO: NBC Journo: Islamic Lone Wolf Terrorism ‘Not A Religious Issue’)
“Could very well be he’s hiding behind the flag of Islam to just deal with his own criminal past,” Diaz-Balart said. “It may have very little to do with it. It’s still too early to tell.”
“Absolutely,” agreed NBC reporter Ayman Mohyeldin, who is himself Muslim. “That’s not to rule anything out, but there are some things emerging that would make me as a journalist [say] ‘Well, this is interesting.'” (VIDEO: Donald Trump On Sydney Hostage Crisis: ‘It Will Happen In This Country’)
Mohyeldin pointed in particular to the lack of “online chatter” showing any sort of linkage to ISIS or support for radical Islam. “…In the initial 14 or 15 hours of this case, I haven’t seen a lot of online chatter to suggest this is linked to ISIS, or perhaps as we were saying earlier, it could be an individual trying to shroud it in that ISIS cloak.”