‘Are you Muslim?’: attack points to rising hate
The images of a family with three children being attacked in front of a mosque were shared on social media, sparking a lot of comments.
But instead of well-wishes or expressions of concern, the bewildered man was bombarded with anti-Muslim abuse, including questions about why the criminals “didn’t kill him”.
“When I see these comments, it’s very dangerous and unbelievable,” the man, who asked not to be identified due to security concerns, told AAP.
“I don’t want to admit it.”
The 43-year-old man had finished his prayers on June 24 and was going to pick up his children in the car park outside the Hampton Park mosque in Melbourne’s south-east when two men violently ambushed him.
“Are you a Muslim? Are you a Muslim?” the father said one of the men asked.
CCTV recorded three people talking before a man suddenly threw a hook punch to the head.
As a barrage of punches and kicks rained down, one of the attackers brandished what his father described as an “ice pick”, leaving two holes in his jacket.
The father said, “I was wrestling to get the knife from him and the other person squeezed my neck and shouted ‘kill, kill’.” he said.
“I started to feel my body go numb and for a moment I felt my lungs stop.”
The duo ran away after a passerby heard the noise and shouted.
Victoria Police said the victim suffered non-life-threatening injuries and the attackers, who fled by car, were eluded.
“The exact circumstances surrounding the incident are being investigated,” a spokesman said.
The Federation of Islamic Councils of Australia said the incident represented a wider escalation of Islamophobia and anti-Muslim rhetoric.
“This starts with words, with suspicion, with politicians and commentators portraying Muslims as a threat,” President Rateb Jneid said.
Language permeates daily lives, shapes attitudes and encourages people, he said.
“This leads to people being exploited in public.”
The Counter-Hate Lab’s research examining anti-Muslim hatred in Australia between 2023 and 2026 identifies the start of the Gaza war on 7 October 2023 and the 14 December Bondi terrorist attack as key points.
Examining more than a million online posts and hundreds of real-world anti-Muslim incidents, the report found that online anti-Muslim hate averaged 18.2 posts per day before October 7.
Between 7 October and 22 March 2025 this number rose to 121.3 posts per day, rising to around 1918 posts per day in the month following the Bondi attack and reaching 7786 posts per day after the Sydney terror attack.
The father said he now feels like a lost child and avoids people because he is afraid they will hurt him if he goes out.
“I have never harmed anyone. I am a peace-loving person, that’s why I came to this country,” he said.
Australia’s ambassador to combat Islamophobia, Aftab Malik, has launched a campaign encouraging people to recognize, report and respond to incidents to help create a clearer picture of the prevalence of Islamophobia across the country.
