The Australian Defence Force is investigating whether serving military personnel are linked to offensive Facebook pages that included grossly sexist and anti-Muslim posts.
Facebook pages emerged in recent days that appear connected to serving and former soldiers based in Townsville and refer to local women as “sluts”. One of the Facebook groups is titled “Big Tits Don’t Count If Ya Fat”.
One page includes posters stating “Death to all illegal immo’s” and “We have seen enough of Islam. Nuke Mecca”, with a picture of a stealth bomber flying over the annual Muslim Haj pilgrimage. Another states, “Thanks for burning this evil Quran”, above a pile of ashes.
A spokeswoman said the ADF recently became aware of two pages that made derogatory references to women. The pages had been removed, she said.
“Preliminary inquiries suggest that a small number of serving Australian Defence Force members have associated themselves with the two Facebook pages,” she said.
“Defence has initiated an investigation to determine if any ADF members are associated with the offensive comments posted to the pages. This investigation is ongoing.”