A most unwelcome development has taken place in Sydney's Martin Place this Monday: a lone armed person with questionable motivation(s) has taken over a cafe holding ordinary people like you and me hostage.

The blurred images beamed at us show this man walking, ducking, and moving in a strange pattern. They add to the questions about the sanity of this man in this irrational situation.

All day, the media, the general public and ordinary members of the Australian community including Australian Muslims wanted answers.  We all want to understand what is taking place.

We all want to know what this means to our day-to-day lives, what this means to the upcoming festive season, to the tourists who will flock to the city of Sydney for summer, what will this mean to our own plans to go out and about with our families in this city?

A few commentators flagged the 2005 Cronulla riots, yet there is little talk of how they brought life in the Sutherland Shire to a standstill.

Little talk of all the work that took place in the ensuing weeks to restore business and tourist confidence; to show that the riots and the backlash were an isolated blot on our collective history.

We moved on – to our great credit as Australians. Friendships were created; even Muslim men and women became beach lifeguards.

With this incident in Martin Place though, some have come out threatening. We don't need this sort of emotion; it only exacerbates further threats.

This is a time that requires us to band together and defeat evil inclinations.

This is a time that requires the strong to show their mettle, a time to show solidarity, a time to pray together as one country for a peaceful end to this and then to find the "why?".

I want to know why ... but before that, I want the whole world to know that no crazed gunman asking for an ISIL flag and to talk to Prime Minister Tony Abbott is going to threaten my friendships, I will not allow anyone to threaten the social fabric of my nation. Is that fair enough?

To get into that peaceful space, I need to take time out from my prayers and remind my fellow Australians that we are still the same friends we were before the Martin Place incident. This will not be allowed to create any wedge between us. The challenges we all face require us to respond as one united country. We should not fragment at the first sign of evil.

We are all concerned about the influence of groups like Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL). Such groups would love to see Australian turn against Australian. If we do, then they would have won without even firing a shot.

 Keysar Trad heads the Islamic Friendship Association of Australia.