The Islamic Council of Queensland has condemned a contemptuous video tour of Brisbane mosques by a far-right group as the latest incident in a “concentrated campaign” of harassment that was “terrorising” Muslims.
Council spokesman Ali Kadri said the video, posted online by the Australian Defence League on Monday, had fanned fears among congregations already uneasy about hate mail and the presence of unknown people in mosque carparks for hours at night.
One mosque featured in the shambolic and error-riddled video recently lodged a complaint with Queensland police after the presence of one such car caused a “huge scare” during Ramadan, Kadri said.
Inspired by far-right English street protest group the English Defence League, the ADL last year was accused of sending a letter that included a death threat to Australia’s leading Islamic cleric and a threat to bomb Sydney’s Lakemba mosque. The group has been active in the Reclaim Australia movement.
In the video, an ADL member calling himself Chris labels the Holland Park mosque an eyesore, saying it is pretty sad it is located next to “a memorial park where soldiers have been laid to rest”.
In fact the 108-year-old mosque originally owned the plot that is now Mount Thompson memorial park, and sold it to a Brisbane crematorium.
In the video, “Chris” falsely suggests that Isis jihadist Khaled Sharrouf, a Sydney man, was a product of south Brisbane mosques.
“Some of these mosques have generated jihadis that have gone overseas and fought,” he says. “I think you know the famous one with his kids holding the heads.”
He announces at the outset of the video, which is intended to rally opponents to a proposed mosque in Bendigo, that it will feature five of seven mosques on Brisbane’s southside. He later says there are 10.
“Why the fuck do these guys need 10 mosques on the south side of Brisbane within 20km of each other?” he says.
He gestures to a mosque at Darra and says: “That’s what the ADL’s against. This fucking shit over here getting built all the time and the government does nothing about it.”
He refers to another mosque under construction at Algester as a “fucking monstrosity”, urging people to “head down here and have a look”.
“The ADL’s had a gutful of these guys,” he says. “We want to ban everything. We don’t want them here. Ban the burqa. Get rid of it all. It’s fucking disgusting.”
Kadri said he believed the ADL was a dangerous group, despite police suggesting they saw no “major threat coming out of this”.
“These people are running a concentrated campaign and they want a reaction from us, that’s what they want,” he said. “To be honest, this whole thing is not taken seriously by police it seems. But it is terrorising the Muslim community.”
Queensland police said the local force worked with the Islamic community in Brisbane to help identify and address criminal and anti-social behaviour.
“Everyone in Queensland has a right to feel safe, to not feel threatened or victimised. The Queensland Police Service urges anyone who feels threatened or fearful by the actions of others to contact police,” the QPS said in a statement.
