Category Archives: Australia

‘Burqa ban’ in Australian parliament

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Parliament House, CanberraAnyone wearing “facial coverings” who wants to enter the galleries of federal parliament will be made to sit in a separate shielded section, according to new rules announced on Thursday.

The new regulations, sent out to MPs, senators and parliamentary staff, do not specifically mention burqas but it follows days of heated debate about allowing women to wear the Islamic garment into public areas of parliament house.

A campaign to ban the burqa at parliament had been led by Liberal senator Cory Bernardi, who has been calling for a public ban on the garment for years. Speaker Bronwyn Bishop, who has previously called for a ban on the hijab in schools, has asked Asio and the federal police to assess the security risks of people wearing full facial coverings coming into the public area of parliament house.

The Department of Parliamentary Services emailed around the new rules in an “information circular” on Thursday, but the measures were approved by the presiding officers of the House of Representatives and the Senate, Bronwyn Bishop and Senate president Stephen Parry.

The email said the review was being undertaken, and advice sought from security agencies. In the meantime it announced three additional security measures, including the separating of people who wished to watch the House of Representatives or the Senate from the public galleries.

“Persons with facial coverings entering the galleries of the House of Representatives and Senate will be seated in the enclosed galleries,” read the email. “This will ensure that persons with facial coverings can continue to enter the Chamber galleries, without needing to be identifiable.”

Two other changes to the pass policy in the building were made, including a freeze on renewing or issuing sponsored passes, and the requirement of photo ID for all adult visitors. “Procedures are in place to ensure that DPS Security manage any cultural or religious issues relating to this in a sensitive and appropriate manner,” it said.

Comments by the prime minister on Wednesday that he did not support a ban but wished women did not wear them were slammed as divisive and harmful.

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Melbourne: Police accused of ignoring attack on Muslim women on a train… until witness started Twitter campaign to force them to act

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Dana Affleck and tweet

A young woman who witnessed three Muslim women being threatened on a Melbourne train claimed police were reluctant to investigate the incident and only took it seriously when she vented her anger on Twitter.

Law student Dana Affleck, 24, was on a train in Melbourne last Thursday just before 6pm when she witnessed a man screaming, threatening and banging on a window when he saw three elderly Muslim women wearing veils.

“He was standing up and screaming abuse the entire time he was on the train, as soon as he saw the three women in veils,” Ms Affleck told Daily Mail Australia. “He was a big, imposing figure. An Aussie, Anglo guy. He was enraged and seemed unstable. There was spit flying out of his mouth.”

Ms Affleck had boarded the train at the same time as the women, two of whom appeared to be in their seventies and the third in her fifties. They were all wearing veils and long dresses, according to Miss Affleck. “The man was screaming from the second he saw them. We were terrified. He was way past being stood up to,” said Miss Affleck.

Ms Affleck said the three Muslim women and another passenger left the train as soon as it came to the next stop, North Richmond Station. The man continued his raging tirade after the train doors closed. “He came up on the window and started bashing on the glass and screaming abuse at them. We were all scared. I was just waiting for the glass to smash because there was so much force.”

Ms Affleck, who is not Muslim, says that the victims of the abuse did not seem shocked and believed calling police would be futile. “I was apologising profusely, worried if they were okay,” said Miss Affleck. “They didn’t appear shocked, they seemed to take it as a given. The fact they were so accustomed to it really frightened me.”

Ms Affleck called the closest police station, East Melbourne, to report the incident, prompted by Victoria Police Commissioner Ken Lay urging members of the public to report instances of Islamophobic abuse in the wake of last week’s shooting of a known extremist.

“Ken Lay told Australia to come forward and report instances of where Muslims are being abused, but is that message reaching the officers at the local police stations who take the calls?” she said. “The police officer who answered the phone would not transfer me or pass the message on to anyone. He said there’s nothing they can do unless the victims come forward.”

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Activists protest ‘massive spike’ in racist attacks in Melbourne

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Batman Station anti-racist posters

Muslim activists say they are seeing a “massive spike in racist attacks”, prompting a rally this morning to stand against Islamophobia.

About 30 people gathered at Batman train station in Coburg, speaking to commuters about a sickening racial attack on an Upfield train last Thursday.

A Muslim woman, 26, was racially abused by an offender who then slammed her head into the wall of the carriage as it approached Batman station. Campaigner Yasemin Shamsili said the attack was a “consequence of a hysterical political campaign” which had vilified Muslims. “(This) will no doubt give more confidence to racists to come out of the woodwork,” she said. “We have already seen a massive spike in racist attacks.”

Another community activist, Vashti Kenway, said: “It is vital for Muslims and non-Muslims to fight for a genuinely multiracial Australia”. She claimed “racist scaremongering” had created “a perception of terror that is not based on reality”. “People in Australia at very little risk from terrorism,” she said.

A mass rally will be held on October 19 at the State Library.

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Muslim woman thrown off moving train in Australia

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A 26-year-old Muslim woman suffered injuries after being racially abused, assaulted and thrown off a moving train in Australia’s Melbourne last week, in an alarming Islamophobic attack.

Detective Senior Constable Michael Potter was quoted by 9News on Monday saying the attack had a “massive effect” on the victim, calling it “totally unacceptable.”

The victim had her head bashed into the wall of the train a number times by an unknown woman who was shouting abuse before being pushed off the train, a Victorian police spokesperson told the Daily Mail.

Prominent Australian Muslims say their community is being unfairly targeted by law enforcement and threatened by right-wing groups, as the government’s tough new policies aimed at combating ‘radicals’ threaten to create a backlash.

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Police investigate ‘disgusting’ hate mail and threats against Muslim businesses in Sydney suburb

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Five threatening letters delivered to Muslim businesses and ­groups in Lakemba are being investigated by police, with more incidents believed to be going unreported. Campsie crime manager detective Inspector Paul ­Albury said the material was offensive and would be to anybody in the community.

“It’s degrading, disgusting and derogatory to people and their religion,” he said. “The reality is the groups targeted have no direct link with any conflict or with anybody that has been ­arrested. They are normal, everyday people going about their day-to-day business and they’re subjected to a level of hate which is quite stunning.”

The letters, believed to contain threats against mosques and the Islamic community, are an alarming response to recent terror raids across Sydney. It is a criminal offence to send offensive material through the mail.

The Grand Mufti of Australia, Dr Ibrahim Abu Mohammad, and leaders of a number of Australian Muslim community organisations released a statement in response to an increase in incidents of abuse and discrimination against Muslim Australians in the past month. They called on anyone who may have suffered a hate or bias motivated crime to contact police or ­report it using a special Facebook page set up to register incidences.

The letters are the latest sign of rising tension in the south-west Sydney suburb following the terror raids in September. Earlier this month, a scuffle broke out between young people and Lakemba shopkeepers and rocks were reportedly thrown at businesses along Railway St.

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New South Wales: ugly incidents shock Muslims

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Female Muslim medical students have been verbally abused and have had patients refuse to be treated by them in a fortnight where the spectre of ignorance has raised its ugly head in the Hunter.

Two female students were walking back to their car at Maitland hospital last Wednesday when they were verbally abused by a car-load of men because they were wearing the religious head dress, known as a hijab. A nurse who witnessed the incident assisted the terrified women to flee the tirade of obscenity.

“I’ve always met lovely people since I have been in Australia; but what happened to us was a horrible experience,” one of the students said. She said several of her Muslim female friends had reported some patients had refused to be treated by them. “We are taught in medicine not to take offence, but ultimately we are human and it does hurt; you do feel it,” she said.

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Muslim leaders fear anti-Islam violence could escalate to Cronulla-style riot

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Australia anti-Muslim backlash

Mounting incidents of anti-Muslim violence in Sydney will ignite a Cronulla-style riot if authorities don’t step in to quell tensions, Muslim leaders have warned. Community members have begun keeping logs of Islamophobic incidents and say some people are resorting to vigilante-style justice in the wake of counter-terrorism raids in Sydney and the fatal shooting of a terror suspect in Melbourne.

On Friday, police released CCTV footage of a man who they believe stormed into an Islamic school in Sydney’s south-west and threatened children with a knife the length of his forearm. Parents at Al-Faisal College in Minto said police swarmed to the school on Thursday afternoon after the man walked in, waving the knife around and asking if it was a Muslim school.

The incident came as police dropped their investigation into a separate assault claim by an Australian Defence Force member. The 41-year-old naval officer claimed on Thursday he had been assaulted by two Middle Eastern men outside his Bella Vista home at 6.30am but police deemed the report to be false. Defence force chief Air Chief Marshal Mark Binskin issued an apology for the incident, particularly to the Middle Eastern community, for “any angst this has caused”.

Mariam Veiszadeh, who has launched Islamophobia Register Australia, said there had been a “surge in Islamophobic incidents” in Sydney. She said she has been urging police to act on the incidents before one erupts into large-scale violence. Community activist Rebecca Kay has also been keeping a log of violence such as cars being vandalised and people being abused in the street.

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Anti-Islam hate mail pamphlets fire up Sunshine Coast community

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Maroochydore anti-mosque protest (2)Anti-Islam campaigners have begun a hate mail offensive targeting Maroochydore residents.

An eight-page booklet detailing “the unpalatable truth” about Islam and Muslims has been left in letterboxes in an apparent bid to spread fear among residents.

Jacquie Dubois-Stanton, of Maroochydore, was left “shaking” and “disgusted” by the contents of the pamphlet, which includes claims that Muslims will “capture the Western world” in the next 50 years.

The letterbox drop follows a protest on Saturday by anti-mosque protesters [pictured]. Tempers flared as about 500 people, most of them opposed to mosque plans, faced off outside the proposed site on Church St, Maroochydore.

Mrs Dubois-Stanton said she had no doubts the booklet was not about informing the community, but encouraging people to revolt and become violent.

“I thought I was going to learn something about Islam when I saw it,” the 80-year-old said. “But instead it turned out to be hate mail. This is trying to make people do something bad. They are trying to scare people. I felt like burning it when I saw it – but I decided I should stick my neck out and fight for what I believe in.”

Ms Dubois-Stanton said she had seen a lot in her lifetime but opposition to the proposed mosque was one of the worst.

“I believe people need to be more tolerant and open-minded,” she said. “People need to understand it’s okay for people to believe different things. There are already two churches on Church St. What harm will it (the mosque) do?”

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Armed intruder threatens staff, students at Sydney Islamic school

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Al Faisal College policePolice have swarmed an Islamic school in western Sydney after reports of an intruder threatening staff and students with a knife.

Officers were called to Al-Faisal College in Minto on Thursday afternoon amid reports that an armed man had entered school grounds and was asking if it was a Muslim school.

Police said the man entered the school on Benham Road about 2.10pm, spoke with a female staff member and left a short time later. He was last seen on Kitson Road.

Primary school students hid under their desks while those from the high school were gathered in a prayer hall as the school went into lockdown, one mother said. The mother, who did not wish to be named, said she was greeted by a swarm of police when arriving to pick up her children.

“I am still pretty much in shock,” the mother said. “I am keeping my younger two [children] home tomorrow, one doesn’t want to go back there.”

Mariam Veiszadah, spokesperson for Islamophobia Register Australia, said she had spoken to two parents from the school and a community leader who was in contact with the head of the school. They had reported a man running onto school grounds, asking if it was a “Muslim school” and then pulling out a knife and threatening a teacher and students.

Ms Veiszadah said she believed the man didn’t manage to get inside the classroom because the doors were locked, but he later fled into an office and threatened female staff.

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Far-right Facebook page incites hatred against Australian Muslims

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Australian Defence League - Soldiers

The Muslim community are concerned an anti-Islam group is inciting hatred against them with racist Facebook posts.

Community members say the far-right wing group, Australian Defence League – Soldiers, has been spreading hate and instigating vicious Facebook fights with inflammatory posts. The group similar to Britain First in the UK, aims to ban Islam from Australia.

Malek Sleiman said she was disgusted when the ADL posted Facebook photos of her daughter and husband, Ramsey Elhouli. “It was very upsetting,” she said. “For them to target my daughter like that, it was disgusting.”

The post: “I would like everyone to meet Ramsey. He has a very interesting profile picture of his daughter worshipping a pedophile (sic) while his other picture is of him holding a gun. And Yes you guest (sic) it this is the sort of terrorist scum that are on our streets right here in Sydney Australia. Please share and make this guy famous.”

The ADL published the post after Mr Elhoui retaliated to a previous status update made by the group in which he called the ADL “terrorists” for “going around bashing Muslim women”. ADL encouraged their followers to share the post to “make this guy famous”.

Mr Elhoui’s profile picture was taken on a duck hunting trip in 2013.

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