An Australian far-right group has escalated its hate campaign against the Muslim community, urging its supporters to take photos of veiled Muslim women in public and using them in hateful posts online.
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“I was in my way to work as I usually do,” a mother of three who was photographed on the train and then humiliated in a series of vile Facebook posts told ABC on Tuesday, April 22.
“Friends told me that my photo was on Australian Defense League (ADL) Facebook page. When I saw the picture I was shocked.”
The Muslim mother is one of the victims of ADL online hate campaign that targets Muslim women who wear hijab or burqa to taunt them on social media.
Taking attacks to a new level, ADL turned to social media to campaign against the Australian Muslim community.
“I am calling for the end of Islam in our country and hopefully the world,” Ralph Cerminara, One of ADL leaders, wrote in a recent Facebook post.
“If Muslims have to die then so be it. It is us against them.”
After being bullied in public, the Muslim mother was forced to take stress leave from work and seek counseling.
The mother's photo at ADL Facebook page was accompanied by offence comments from followers.
Fearing for her safety, the Muslim mother has turned to Muslim women Association for counseling.
“Why are they attacking women? Why are they taking photos without their consent?” asked Maha Abdo of the Muslim women Association.
“Whether it is racist or not, it's not about this anymore; it's about the effect of their words and their reactions on average people.”
As the anti-Islam group escalates its attacks on the peaceful minority, Muslim scholars urged followers to avoid violence and keep tolerance.
The ADL is trying to “explode society,” Australia's Grand Mufti, Ibrahim Abu Mohamed, said in a recent sermon at Granville Town Hall.
“Organizations created in the name of defending Australia want to start a fire in all Australia.
“They deal with the most precious thing a human being has and that is his beliefs,” he added.
'No apologies'
Commenting on the recent anti-Muslim attacks, ADL leaders refused to apologize in defiance of the law.
“If that's the way it has to happen, then so be it,” Ralph Cerminara, an IT technician by day who has spent more than three years as the national president of the ADL and claims to have support from within the Australian Defence Force, told ABC's 7.30 program.
“They are putting that hijab on themselves, the same as a person would be putting a satanic star around their neck.
“We know what they stand for by putting that on.”
The far-right leading added that ADL’s aim was to have Islam banned and to “defend Australia's culture and Australia's people at all costs”.
Reacting to the rising tide of ADL hate campaigns, Australian police and the Australian Security Intelligence Organization (ASIO) launched a large-scale investigation amid pressure from the Muslim community.
“We will not tolerate it and we will be there to do something about it,” New South Wales (NSW) Deputy Police Commissioner Nick Kaldas, told a community meeting last week.
“There's also some legal advice that we need to get. Some of the offences we can't charge until approval is given by the Attorney-General's Department and that will be pursued.”
Founded in 2009, the affiliate of the far-right English Defence League, ADL, is a registered not-for-profit organization which fosters anti-Islam sentiment in Australia.
ADL's recent attacks on the Muslim community included stalking and photographing Muslim women on public transport, spraying invective at Muslims on Sydney streets and on social media, displaying anti-Islamic posters outside mosques and even threatening to blow up an Islamic school.
Muslims, who have been in Australia for more than 200 years, make up 1.7 percent of its 20-million population.
Islam is the country's second largest religion after Christianity.
