Category Archives: Australia

Brisbane mosque vandalised with anti-Muslim graffiti

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Brisbane mosque graffiti

Vandals have spray-painted abusive messages across a mosque in southern Brisbane.

The words “die” and “Muslims are evil and have no respect for our ways” were spray-painted on the Indonesian community mosque at Rocklea. Muslim community leaders and police were alerted to the vandalism on Wednesday evening.

A police forensic team has begun an investigation.

It is the second Muslim prayer site in Queensland to be defaced in less than a week. A mosque at Mareeba in far north Queensland was vandalised last Friday.

Islamic Indonesian Community of Queensland president Hamid Mawardi praised police for their quick response to the attack on the Rocklea mosque. He said he had no idea who had vandalised the mosque but that it was “probably just kids”.

“I think this is a misperception about Islam – we are here, Australian,” he said. “I’ve been here for years and we live nice and peacefully and whoever did this – respect us as Australians.”

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Australia: Liberal MP backs call for ban on veil

Posted on by Bob Pitt

George Christensen and tweet

The federal MP for the Queensland seat of Dawson, George Christensen, echoed contentious statements by Palmer United Party senator Jacqui Lambie. “We shouldn’t tolerate sharia law in Aust and the burqa/niqab shouldn’t be worn in public,” Mr Christensen posted on Twitter this afternoon.

In an interview with ABC Online, Mr Christensen said people had a “right to be safe”.

“People get worried when someone walks in and they can’t see exactly who it is,” he said. “And just like you can’t wear a helmet into a bank or a post office and other public places well you shouldn’t be able to wear this thing that covers your face under the guise that it’s some requirement of your religion. Because quite clearly it’s not – there are many Muslim scholars and many Muslims in predominantly Muslim countries that do not wear this.”

He said his concerns were shared “across the nation”.

“Many people hold this view, not just me, my constituents regularly raise the issue with me and it’s a legitimate concern,” he said. “It’s not something that’s just to be sneered at as something that’s not politically correct and we shouldn’t be talking about it. The entire nation of France has a ban on the burka – I mean, is the entire nation of France a nation of racists?”

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Anti-Muslim protest: Hundreds rally at proposed Sunshine Coast mosque

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Maroochydore anti-mosque protestHundreds of people protesting against a mosque on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast have come to verbal blows with the building’s supporters, with about 20 police separating the emotionally charged groups.

More than 200 anti-Muslim demonstrators shook placards stating: “Islam is plotting our destruction” and “Australia we have a problem” at the site of the planned mosque, on Church Street in Maroochydore. The protesters said they were concerned the site could become a hub of radicalisation, threatening the local community.

“I’m not for it anywhere in Australia,” a man who called himself Aussie Ron told the ABC.

One Nation state president Jim Savage, who said he had two adopted Asian daughters, said he was not a religious bigot nor a racist.

“This is nothing to do with race,” he said. “What Muslim preaches violates the laws of my country. It is an ideological, political organisation wrapped up in a very thin skin of religion. I ask anybody to name any Western country in the world where there had been a large influx of Muslims where they have seen an improvement and have not seen social issues.”

Pakistani-born Justin Albert warned of experiences of oppression in his native country. “Chopping their heads, it is their Jihad,” he said. “I know their deeds. No more mosque in Australia. One day you will see they will kill you.”

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We are the ones being terrorised, Australian Muslims say

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Australia anti-Muslim backlash

A car has been damaged and daubed with offensive comments, threatening letters have been sent and women have been abused in the street.

A backlash of hate crimes against the Muslim community after the police raids last week has also sparked a rash of social media comments such as “this is how they should deal with them”, “behead them all”, “give them a taste of their own medicine for a change” and “we just need to blow up parramatta n bankstown”.

One of the founders of the Australian Arabic Council and human rights activist Joseph Wakim said “everyone should remember that no faith tells you to harm innocent people”.

“It is not open season on Muslims,” Mr Wakim said. “It is not OK to go Muslim-bashing. The raids were about stopping people feared to be terrorists, yet it is the Muslim people who are being terrorised.” Mr Wakim, a former Victorian multicultural affairs commissioner, has reminded Australians to learn from history and not to make the same mistakes, in particular by treating one group as “collectively guilty”.

Anti-Muslim sentiment has been felt around the country and people are reporting graffiti on mosques and attacks on homes. Threatening letters have been sent to businesses, bookshops and religious leaders with handwritten messages such as “we will fight you … terror for terror … blood for blood and … bomb for bomb”.

NSW Police Superintendent Mark Walton said officers would not “stand guard” outside mosques that received bomb threats, purportedly from the Australian Defence League. He said that, other than the letter from the league, there were no credible threats to security being investigated during Operation Hammerhead, a NSW operation to increase police visibility that was launched after terrorism raids on Thursday.

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Queensland’s Muslim women targeted amid terrorism hysteria

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Despite pleas for calm from the Queensland Premier and senior police, Muslims – particularly women – have been targeted in a series of hate attacks.

The Sunday Mail can reveal Muslim women are being singled out, including one victim who had coffee thrown in her face while she was stopped at traffic lights south of Brisbane. The woman said a man in a car pulled up beside her and callously doused her in coffee before driving off along Beenleigh Rd. “I was terrified,” she said. “I feel unsafe. I feel like a stranger in my own country.”

Other Muslim women have been abused and threatened, with one told to take off her headscarf – or hijab – at West End by a man who wanted to burn it. The women did not want to be identified, and all believe they are “collateral damage” from recent police anti-terrorism raids which have fuelled fear and suspicion across the nation.

Sarah, 30, said she’d been waiting outside a shop in Logan Rd at Underwood with a 12-year-old girl when insults were hurled at her by a man riding past on a pushbike. “He yelled f— jihad, f— off, go back home you c— and continued to verbally abuse us,” she said. In the next 20 minutes she was abused twice by other men. “It’s quite frightening to hear such vile language and hatred. I was fearful,” she said.

Stacey, 27, said she had copped offensive insults online. “I’m a seventh generation Australian,” she said. “My family are as Australian as you can get and I’m scared.”

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Photographer ‘horrified’ over claims Britain First used picture of first Afghan policewoman killed by Taliban for ‘ban the burka’ campaign

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Britain First misappropriates Lana Slezic's photoA photographer has described her horror after being alerted to a picture she said she took of Afghanistan’s first female police officer being used to promote banning the burka by Britain First.

Canadian Lana Slezic alleges that a picture she took of Lieutenant Colonel Malalai Kakar, who was shot dead by the Taliban in 2008, has been posted to Facebook without permission by Britain First.

She said she was alerted by various media outlets that the photo was being used in such a manner on Friday.

She claims that the image of Lt.Col Kakar in a burka and holding a gun has been edited with a caption that reads: “Terror attack level: severe – an attack is highly likely. For security reasons it’s now time to ban the burqa.”

Lt. Col. Kakar was a high profile policewoman who fought for women’s rights and against extremism and terrorism until she was assassinated on her way to work at a Kandahar police station.

Ms Slezic says her memory has been “desecrated” by Britain First and the Australian Palmer United senator Jacqui Lambie, who shared Britain First’s post on her Facebook wall.

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PUP senator Jacqui Lambie says sharia law involves terrorism

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Palmer United Party Senator Jacqui Lambie has struggled to explain her understanding of sharia law, as she reiterated her controversial calls for believers in the Islamic framework to leave Australia.

The Tasmanian Senator told ABC TV’s Insiders program she stood by her statement earlier this week that supporters of sharia law should “pack their bags and get out of here”. However, asked by host Barrie Cassidy to explain what she understood the concept to mean, Senator Lambie paused and appeared to stumble over her words.

“Well I think, um, when it comes to sharia law, um, you know, to me, it’s um, it’s uh, it obviously involves terrorism, it involves a power um that’s not a healthy power,” she said. “I just think sharia law you get it mixed up … if you’re going to be a supporter of sharia law, and you’re not going to support our constitution and an allegiance to our constitution and Australian law, then um …”

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‘Evil’ painted on Queensland mosque

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Mareeba mosque graffiti

Vandals have spray painted the word “Evil” across a far north Queensland mosque – an act the local mayor describes as deeply saddening. Worshippers arrived at the mosque in Mareeba, inland from Cairns, on Friday morning to find their place of worship defaced with the yellow paint.

Mayor Tom Gilmore told AAP the mosque had been part of the community since the 1950s.

“This is entirely unacceptable behaviour by anybody in this community,” he said soon after visiting the site on Friday. The thing that is deeply saddening is that it has been in this community since the mid-fifties. I don’t think it’s ever been defaced before in that time.”

Mr Gilmore said a large group of “highly respected” Muslims had lived in the community since the 1920s.

He said the graffiti was visible from the street.

Mr Gilmore said he understood a series of anti-terrorism raids in Queensland and NSW had left people frightened, but targeting innocent people was not the answer. He said Mareeba’s Muslim community was highly respected, honest and hard-working and didn’t deserve to be connected to extremist groups.

“I won’t tolerate that connection, it’s just unfair,” he said. “The events of the last six weeks internationally have been horrifying, it’s horrifying stuff, and I’m quite sure the Muslims in our community are equally as horrified.”

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Australian senator shares Britain First propaganda linking veil to violence

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Jacqui Lambie shares Britain First photoPUP senator Jacqui Lambie has posted online a provocative photo of a person wearing a burqua about to fire a gun, as Muslim leaders have warned “inflammatory” comments from her and Liberal senator Cory Bernardi are assisting Islamic State recruit potential terrorists.

The caption on the picture, created by far-right political group Britain First, states that “For security reasons it’s now time to ban the burqa”. Britain First’s mission statement describes it as a “street defence organisation” that wants “our people to come first, before foreigners, asylum seekers or migrants”.

Senator Lambie’s post had hundreds of likes and comments on Friday, 14 hours after it was first shared on her Facebook page, and represents a step up of her controversial campaign to ban the burqa.

Senator Bernardi on Thursday renewed his call to ban the burqa under the cover of the anti-terror raids, while Senator Lambie’s has, in addition to a burqa ban, called for adherents of sharia to “pack their bags “and get out of Australia. The Tasmanian Senator has also proposed stripping Muslims of welfare entitlements if they continue to support Sharia law.

Muslim elders have rebuked senators Lambie and Bernardi, claiming the pair had “hurt” both Muslim and non-Muslim communities.

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Australia: senator’s burqa ban call condemned as ‘stupid and ignorant’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Cory Bernardi ban burqa tweet

Comments by a Liberal senator linking terror raids with a campaign to ban the burqa have been described as “stupid and ignorant” and designed to “feed prejudice”.

As news broke of the mass counter-terrorism operation across Sydney and Brisbane, in which 15 people were arrested and one charged, Liberal Senator Cory Bernardi took to Twitter to rail against the burqa as a “shroud of oppression”.

Senator Bernardi has been a long-time critic of the burqa, arguing that it is a “symbol of female oppression and Islamic culture”, carries security and identification risks and is “un-Australian”.

Labor leader Bill Shorten on Thursday criticised Senator Bernardi’s remarks, telling Fairfax Media that the last thing the country needed was “stupid” and “ignorant” comments from government MPs.

“Why on earth is this out-of-touch, out-of-line senator on a rampage with his ignorant and stupid comments?” asked Mr Shorten. “This senator’s comments should have no part to play in public life, fuelling fear and suspicion.”

Mr Abbott stopped short of rebuking his backbencher on Thursday when asked about Senator Bernardi’s comments at a media conference in the Northern Territory, saying there was no need to “fret about people’s faith” or “fret about what people wear”.

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