Retribution fears as Australian Muslims see surge in Islamophobic hate since Bondi terror attack | Bondi beach terror attack
Following the attack on Bondi beach, threats and hate speech against Muslim Australians increased; A mosque received dozens of aggressive phone calls and there were reports of people being targeted on the street.
As Australia’s Jewish community deals with the trauma of a Hanukkah attack that killed 15 people, religious leaders say social and political divisions are leading to other groups being targeted by hate.
Islamophobia Record Australia experienced 126 hate incidents in the week after the 14 December shooting; that number is 10 times higher than seen in each of the previous two weeks.
A similar increase in incidents was also recorded by the Australian National Imams Council. Deputy president Ahmed Abdo said Muslim women were subjected to verbal abuse and hand gestures that simulated weapons.
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“There is a high level of fear,” Abdo said. “A woman does not want to leave her home because she wears a headscarf as a Muslim woman and is afraid that she may be targeted. [there is] “It’s probably hate violence against Muslims.”
Police claimed the Bondi attack was inspired by the Islamic State and allegedly found two copies of the Quran at the Airbnb used by Naveed Akram and his father.
Muslim leaders and organizations condemned the attack, while representatives attend commemorations to mourn those killed.
But the day after the attack, severed pig heads and other animal parts were left at the entrance of a Muslim cemetery in south-west Sydney.
A. Queensland Mosque and a Islamic school in Victoria It was also vandalized with graffiti in the week after the attack.
Separately, calls circulated on social media for a “Middle East” attack on Cronulla beach for which a man has been accused.
Abdo said some congregations in Sydney were shortening the time they spent in mosques and leaving mosques immediately after prayers ended.
Others, such as the Lakemba mosque in Sydney’s southwest, have increased their security presence.
Islamic Council of Victoria (ICV) President Mohamed Mohideen said the organization’s prayer center was experiencing a rapidly increasing influx of hate emails and received at least 30 threatening phone calls.
“Hate occurs online, which is safe but safe, or it manifests in the form of abuse, and it can also lead to physical harm and assault,” Mohideen said.
Mohideen added that ICV had received reports of verbal abuse of young people wearing headscarves and worshipers outside mosques since December 14, resulting in increased police patrols.
“We are afraid that someone might do something at any moment… but the Muslim community is very resilient. We will not claim to be victims, we will not hide.”
Mohideen said political debate and discourse about “radical Islam” since the Bondi attack had intensified hostility towards the Muslim community.
“The Jewish community did not come out and attack the Muslim community…it was the politicians,” Mohideen said.
On Tuesday, New South Wales premier Chris Minns visited Sydney’s Masjid al-Hidayah mosque in Rockdale with David Ossip, chairman of the NSW Jewish Board of Representatives. The mosque honored Sunday’s vigil for the 15 dead by lighting a menorah, a Jewish candelabra symbolizing Hanukkah.
Minns denied that his language encouraged division and said that if someone was “ready to attack, marginalize or denigrate a Muslim family, a Muslim cleric or a Muslim woman” police “show that they will combat extremism or racism regardless of who is responsible”.
Jashim Uddin, the mosque’s secretary, said “we want to minimize tension in society” by lighting the menorah.
“We want to show that we are all together, not separate,” Uddin said. “Not Muslim, Jew or Christian… we shouldn’t point fingers [at] any.”
