The hashtag #illridewithyou has gone viral after the Sydney siege in Martin Place, with Australians banding together to show their support for the Muslim population as well as religious tolerance. According to the Sydney Morning Herald, the hashtag amassed 120,000 tweets this past Monday evening.

Aljazeera reports that Australia's race discrimination commissioner Tim Soutphommasane said he was heartened by the campaign adding, "Let's not allow fear, hatred and division to triumph." In fact, many Muslim groups were also outraged by the siege - more than 40 groups condemned the siege, saying in a statement that they rejected "any attempt to take the innocent life of any human being or to instill fear and terror into their hearts."

Rachel Jacobs, a young woman from Brisbane, inspired the hashtag after posting a Facebook status about her encounter with a Muslim woman on the day of the siege. She wrote, "...and the (presumably) Muslim woman sitting next to me on the train silently removes her hijab...I ran after her at the train station. I said 'put it back on. I'll walk with u'. She started to cry and hugged me for about a minute - then walked off alone."

After seeing Jacobs' post, Sydney content TV editor Tessa Kum decided to post the following message: "If you [regularly] take the #373 bus b/w Coogee/MartinPl, wear religious attire & don't feel safe alone: I'll ride with you." Afterwards, the hashtag trended globally.

Jacobs recently wrote on her Facebook page that she was overwhelmed with the response to her post. She stated, "Mine was a very brief encounter - a small gesture to a stranger in response to the sadness that I felt that someone would ever feel unsafe or unwelcome because of their beliefs...

I'm not the story and I'm not a hero. Those who started the #illridewithyou movement are incredibly inspiring and anyone who joins it is creating a path to peace for all of us."