Religious establishment\u2019s wall sprayed with Islamophobic comments and white supremacist symbols
\n Brisbane
\nDays after a terrorist attack at Sydney\u2019s Bondi Beach that left at least 15 people dead, a mosque in Australia\u2019s Brisbane was vandalised, sparking further tensions in the country.
\nThe wall of the mosque, named Masjid Taqwa, at Bald Hills \u2014 a northern Brisbane suburb \u2014 was sprayed with Islamophobic comments and white supremacist symbols.
\nIn the Bondi attack, a father and son duo, identified as Sajid Akram and Naveed \u2014 who originally hailed from India \u2014 opened fire during a Jewish event on December 14, in an attack that shook the nation and intensified fears of rising antisemitism and violent extremism.
\nOne of the mosque\u2019s directors, Kambiz Koshan, said he received countless calls from worried community members after the vandalism. \u201cOur message to the community has always been to keep peace,\u201d Koshan said.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s unfortunate that we have people that do such things in it. We do understand people\u2019s frustration but this is not a solution.
\n\u201cWe\u2019re all Australians. We shouldn\u2019t be pointing to a specific community for the fault of someone who doesn\u2019t even know what they\u2019re doing. Our message is peace. It\u2019s always peace,\u201d he said.
\nBisma Asif, who represents Sandgate in the Legislative Assembly of Queensland, shared the photo of the vile vandalism and strongly condemned the incident.
\n\u201cOvernight, the local Bald Hills Mosque was vandalised with white supremacist symbols and the subject of death threats,\u201d she wrote on Instagram.
\n\u201cThis, on the back of 15 innocent people losing their lives at the hands of extremists in an anti-Semitic attack on Sunday,\u201d she said, adding: \u201cI\u2019m sick of the constant anti-Semitic, Islamophobic and racist incidents we\u2019ve had in our community.\u201d
\n\u201cThis is not the way forward. This is not how we get through this. Not with more hate. Not with retaliation. Not by tearing each other apart,\u201d Asif said, calling for the community to stand together against divisiveness and for the state government to pass racial vilification laws.
\n\u201cEveryone in our community deserves to feel safe in their homes, places of worship and at work. Now more than ever, it is important we stand together against divisiveness,\u201d she added.
\nMeanwhile, Australian cricketer Usman Khawaja, a South East Queensland resident, also condemned the incident.
\n\u201cDon\u2019t let the haters divide us,\u201d he posted in an Instagram story with an Australian flag emoji.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Religious establishment\u2019s wall sprayed with Islamophobic comments and white supremacist symbols Brisbane Days after a terrorist attack at Sydney\u2019s Bondi Beach that left at least 15 people dead, a mosque in Australia\u2019s Brisbane was vandalised, sparking further tensions in the country. The wall of the mosque, named Masjid Taqwa, at Bald Hills \u2014 a northern […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":520837,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-520816","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n