Your task is to extract the thesis of an opinionated news article by selecting some of its text segments. The thesis is a summarization of what the author wants to persuade the reader of. Your answer should consist of segments of the given text. Note that you are not allowed to combine different sentences.
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Question: Iran: A not so unlikely ally. Following the reports of Iranian aircraft attacking ISIL targets last week, Iranian and US officials issued statements to emphasise that they are not coordinating their air strikes . Despite these denials, there is an ironic element to this strike that both sides cannot deny . The Islamic Republic of Iran used US-produced, Vietnam-era F-4 Phantom aircraft against a common foe, ISIL . Contextualising these Iranian air strikes within the greater history of how these planes ended up in the Iranian air force in the first place demonstrates a geostrategic reality for US foreign policy : Iran's geographical depth means the US has needed Iran during both the Cold War and post-Cold War era, regardless of the government in Tehran . The Islamic Republic's fleet of F-4s and F-14s were inherited from the Royal Iranian Air Force of Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi . Iran under the shah was one of the few US allies that could purchase the advanced F-14 Tomcat interceptor of "Top Gun" fame, with one of the most sophisticated radars at the time . The shah's shopping list of US-supplied aircraft boosted the economy of the US defence industry, as well as served US geopolitical interests during the Cold War . Iran's advanced military allowed it to emerge as a regional hegemon . Since it shared a long border with the Soviet Union , the shah's armed forces served as a bulwark against Communist penetration in the Middle East and the oil-rich Gulf region, and a deterrent against an anti-western Baathist Iraq . Iran's geostrategic location has not diminished as a result of the collapse of the Soviet Union . No US or NATO ally, including Israel, Turkey or Saudi Arabia can cover Iran's geographical depth . Iran's location means it can influence events from Iraq to the Gulf, from the Caucasus and adjoining Caspian and Black Seas to Central Asia, and from Afghanistan to South Asia . Video footage . The video footage released by Al Jazeera of Iranian F-4s attacking ISIL forces in Iraq's Diyala province is reminiscent of another attack when two of the same US-supplied Iranian aircraft bombed Iraq's nuclear facility in Tuwaitha in 1980, during the first year of the Iran-Iraq War . In this first air strike, the US and the Islamic Republic shared the same interests, albeit for different purposes . The Islamic Republic feared Iraq could develop a nuclear option as it fought a two-front war for its survival, including a domestic Iranian Kurdish uprising, and a potential pro-shah counterrevolution launched from within the Iranian air force - the same unit that was needed to target Iraq . The US, despite its tensions with Iran during the hostage crisis, did not want to see Iraq develop a nuclear capability that could threaten its ally Israel during the 1980s . Israel successfully followed up the attack against Iraq's nuclear facility in 1981 , and the US-led air strikes during the 1991 Gulf war were designed to destroy this nuclear infrastructure again , which had been rebuilt despite the Israeli air raid . Thus the air raid Iran conducted against ISIL was not the first time both Washington and the Islamic Republic might have both wished for a successful sortie of Iranian F-4 pilots . Despite this common interest during the Iran-Iraq War, the US titled towards Iraq and directly engaged Iranian naval forces in the Gulf to protect Kuwaiti oil vessels, downing an Iranian civilian aircraft in the process . Iran fought a proxy war against US forces in Iraq following the 2003 Iraq war by supporting Iraqi militias during the insurgency . Both the US and Iran will continue to clash over their respective relationships with Israel . Yet despite these differences both the US and Iran cooperated with each other to remove the Taliban in Afghanistan in 2001 . The joint cause against the Taliban in 2001, or ISIL in 2014, demonstrates that despite the decades-long mistrust and proxy conflicts between the two sides, geographical realpolitik can force both states to engage in alliances of convenience . In an AP interview, the new US ambassador in Baghdad, Stuart Jones said,"Let's face it. Iran is an important neighbour to Iraq. There has to be cooperation between Iran and Iraq." Such a statement is significant . The Iranian government has been trying to force the US to concede this geographic fact since 2003 . Indirect evidence . This statement serves as indirect evidence that the US and Iran appear to have worked out a modus vivendi in dealing with ISIL in Iraq . Yet when Al Jazeera released the video of the air strike, the Iranian government initially denied the report, only to confirm it days later, adding the caveat that it was launched at the behest of the central government in Iraq . The initial denial raises the question as to whether Iran did not want to upset this alliance of convenience with US by launching its own air strikes . In this case, rather than upsetting the US, both the Iranian and Iraqi governments probably wanted to keep this air strike quiet for domestic Iraqi politics . The close cooperation between the post-2003 Iraqi government and Iran has been criticised by critics within Iraq over the last decade as a surrender of Baghdad to "Safavis", a reference to the 16th century Shia dynasty in Iran that tried to secure what is today Iraq from the Ottomans . This footage, along with pictures of Qassim Soleimani, the head of the Iranian Quds Force, training Iraqi forces on Iranian equipment used by both the Iraqi military and Shia militias, have only alienated Iraq's disenfranchised communities with whom Baghdad needs to ultimately reconcile . This modus vivendi over Iraq will hinge on the future of the ongoing nuclear negotiations and the Syrian civil war . But in both cases, there could be an endgame that resolves the mutual antagonisms between Iran and the US . Media coverage acknowledges that despite Iranian-US cooperation in Iraq, they still support rival sides in the Syrian civil war . However ,  even in that conflict, they do share a mutual desire for that conflict to end with a political solution . Such a solution will save Iran from the huge financial costs of subsidising the Syrian military and end a conflict that the US has been hesitant to engage in since its onset in the summer of 2011 . Al Jazeera's correspondent in Iraq, Imran Khan, in an article in November raised the question: Are the US and Iran on the same side in Iraq? The answer to this question is not only a "yes" in Iraq, but could also be a "yes" in terms of the long-term stability of Syria and Afghanistan . It is domestic politics in both the US and Iran that prevent any official from saying this publicly .

Answer: Iran's geographical depth means the US has needed Iran during both the Cold War and post-Cold War era, regardless of the government in Tehran Both the US and Iran will continue to clash over their respective relationships with Israel


Question: Why #illridewithyou is an ill ride. The Sydney siege saw a slew of Muslim organisations issue statements condemning Islamic extremism . Such chastisement had meant something in the wake of 9/11 and the Bali bombings . Today, this has degraded into an automated knee-jerk response . It has been said so many times that its gravitas is greatly diminished . More subtly, this expectation for Muslims to keep speaking out is nothing short of Islamophobic . It assumes that Islam is, at its core, evil . It also upholds the view that Muslims can be essentialised as a monolithic whole . The chastisement thus becomes the yardstick from which the wider world is to differentiate between a good Muslim and a bad Muslim . Surely today, fourteen years after 9/11, we have wisened up to the fact that such atrocious acts are committed out of political, even criminal, intent more than theology . Surely, it is not a stretch to think that no one individual can represent an entire faith community . Surely, it is time, as Max Fisher of Vox argues, to stop asking Muslims to condemn terrorism . In the same manner, this good Muslim, bad Muslim binary undergirds the #illridewithyou campaign . Yes, the hashtag was borne out of goodwill ; an Asian Australian woman started it , as the Twitter universe reacted to the story of a woman pledging to walk in solidarity with another woman who took her hijab off following news of the Sydney siege . We will protect the good Muslims, so gestures the campaign . Unfortunately, it also reproduces an age-old trope that has been highlighted by scholars of postcolonial studies . As western colonisers encounter non-European natives, they began to think of their "other" in one of two antithetical ways - either as a barbaric savage or a noble savage . To the colonisers, the hostile savage is inherently dangerous in a sub-human way and always an enemy to the civilised individual . Meanwhile, the noble savage is romanticised as innately benign . Untouched by modernisation, the noble savage should be admired and protected . Transposed to modern times, the hostile savage translates as the bad Muslim and the noble savage - the good Muslim . Yet ,  barbaric or noble, a savage is still a savage . The hashtag #illridewithyou is just as patronising . Another factor that cast doubt to #illridewithyou relates to this question: Was the perpetrator Man Haron Monis the quintessential Islamic extremist? If the slate of profile pieces that are now just flooding our newsfeed can be taken as a gauge , the jury is still out on this . At first glance, one may indeed be tempted to fit him into the mould of what some security experts have called"bedroom jihadists", a fashionable term to describe self-radicalised individuals who have been recruited online to plan and execute terror attacks that would advance the cause of clandestine Islamist organisations . Yet Monis was a man of many masks . Closer inspection would reveal that he does not nestle comfortably into this category . His demands may have included an ISIL flag , but he made no strategic overtures that would advance the cause of any oppressed Muslim groups . At this juncture, it is doubtful if he had even made contact with ISIL . Let us also not forget that Monis was not a nobody who was secretly being turned to the ways of ISIL or any other Islamist agenda . In fact ,  he was a well-known criminal . Not only had Monis been charged with being an accessory to the brutal murder of his wife last year, he had also been slapped with 22 counts of aggravated sexual assault and 14 counts of aggravated indecent assault . In addition ,  information has surfaced that he had been charged with fraud in Iran , which requested his extradition from Australia some 14 years ago . As a friend rightly pointed out on social media, Monis' criminal records qualify him as a "sexual predator and misogynist" . Yet ,  this more dominant aspect of his identity has not stopped the rest of the world from linking the Sydney siege to the threat of Islamic fundamentalism . Yet consider this . During the Sydney siege, a shooting spree incidence unfolded in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania that left 6 dead . International media agencies described the perpetrator, the now-deceased Bradley William Stone, simply as "a suspect", "a gunman on the loose" and even "a Montgomery man" . No hashtag campaign was necessary to assure white people that the rest of the world will ride with them to keep them safe . The same can be observed of the reaction to the mass killings committed by the Norwegian Anders Breivik in 2011 . While Breivik had claimed himself a baptised Christian in his 1,500-page manifesto , the world did not expect Christians to condemn terrorism in the same way Muslims had . This discrepancy is telling of the power imbalance of our contemporary world . To white Australia, #illridewithyou may be its golden moment . To the rest of the coloured world, nothing has changed .

Answer: The Sydney siege saw a slew of Muslim organisations issue statements condemning Islamic extremism


Question: Who is a German? A spectre is haunting Germany and Europe and the spectre is called PEGIDA . Until recently only a few people had heard of PEGIDA, acronym for "Patriotic Europeans against the Islamisation of the Occident." It started as a small protest movement in the eastern city of Dresden against the influx of immigrants, foreign workers and asylum seekers and, above all, against the "Islamisation" of Germany . Adopting the slogan"We are the people" of the weekly anti-communist demonstrations in 1989 which ultimately led to the overthrow of the German Democratic Republic, PEGIDA's appeal seems to have grown week after week . The hundreds of demonstrators of the first few Monday evening "walks" in Dresden have swollen to tens of thousands . Besides Dresden, there are now similar weekly rallies in other big German cities . With its history of anti-Semitism and fascism many find it shocking that a considerable number of Germans, particularly in the east of the country, are flocking to a xenophobic, racist and Islamophobic movement . The surge of the anti-Islamisation movement has led to polarisation of the public opinion, many counter demonstrations and a fierce public debate, involving politicians, church leaders and academics . Chancellor Angela Merkel strongly criticised PEGIDA and called on Germans not to attend their rallies . "Do not follow the people who organise these, for their hearts are cold and often full of prejudice, and even hate," Merkel said in her New Year's Eve speech . Marginalised . Not everybody agrees . Development Minister Gerd Muller of the Bavarian Christian Social Union (CSU), warned not to exclude PEGIDA sympathisers . "The overwhelming majority of those demonstrators are not racists at all . Many of them are low income Germans and they feel they are being neglected, while refugees are offered help . The refugees, but also other migrants, are perceived by these people as competitors . In spite of our flourishing economy there are millions of poor families in Germany . The poor feel marginalised and not represented." The CSU, Merkel's CDU's sister party and longtime political ally, has been accused of showing a bit too much understanding for PEGIDA . In fact the CSU's positions on immigration, integration and tougher rules for asylum seekers are quite similar to PEGIDA's . It may well be that the CSU is distancing itself from Merkel because it is worried about right-wing competitors like the anti-establishment and eurosceptic AfD, Alternative fur Deutschland (Germany's Alternative) . The AfD may succeed in winning over many of the PEGIDA-sympathisers . AfD-chairman Bernd Lucke has gone out of his way to advocate a dialogue with this "new civil movement" and listen carefully to its arguments . At the same time Lucke tried carefully not to alienate the more "respectable" right-wing voters and to distance himself from a too xenophobic discourse . Other AfD leaders are less ambiguous and clearly show support of PEGIDA by participating in their marches and inviting PEGIDA organisers to Saxony's regional parliament . Some German observers don't doubt the existence of an alliance between AfD and PEGIDA . Analyst Volker Wagener sees the AfD as the "parliamentary voice of the street" . He notes that the AfD manages to score with a xenophobic discourse especially in the east of Germany . If the AfD succeeds in translating PEGIDA's objectives politically and electorally , it may take a role not unsimilar to Marine le Pen's National Front in France and especially Geert Wilders' Freedom Party in the Netherlands . In fact ,  there is a striking similarity between the anti- Islamisation positions of Geert Wilders and PEGIDA . Like Wilders' Freedom Party, PEGIDA does not only condemn jihadists and Islamist terrorists but Islam itself . Refugees, asylum seekers, migrants and the islamic religion are all lumped together in a vague, scary, threatening mix . Both the Freedom Party and PEGIDA claim to defend the "conservation of the Judeo-Christian heritage" . Both claim not to be radical , but PEGIDA and Wilders' party do in fact appeal to right wing radicals and extremists . Neo- Nazis and violent"hooligans against Salafists" openly support PEGIDA . Both forces represent a significant portion of the population in Germany and the Netherlands . If there would be parliamentary elections in the Netherlands now, Wilders' Freedom Party would be the first or second political force in the country (depending on which poll to believe) . In Germany, around 30 percent of the population thinks PEGIDA's concerns are legitimate . Some German experts say the debate shows the need for a redefinition of"who is a German" and recognition of Germany as an immigration country . According to a recent study, most Germans see somebody as "German" when he or she speaks German well and has a German passport . Some 38 percent of those polled said that women who wore headscarves could not be German . To define a new concept of "German-ness" and promote a welcoming culture of tolerance and openness will not be an easy task, and should probably not be left to the politicians .

Answer:
A spectre is haunting Germany and Europe To define a new concept of "German-ness" and promote a welcoming culture of tolerance and openness will not be an easy task, and should probably not be left to the politicians