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| ‘Un-Muslim’: How battle for Sydney’s west turned ‘militant, toxic’ |
** Messrs. Burke and Claire enjoy broad support from across the Muslim community in the region.
***
Dr. Rifi stated that in his decades of social work, he has never witnessed such a toxic environment.
***
He added, "They sow discord and division, ignore the opinions of others, and cause them pain."
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‘Un-Muslim’: How battle for Sydney’s west turned ‘militant, toxic’ By ALEXI DEMETRIAD
March 27, 2025. Updated 35 minutes ago
(See translation in Arabic section)
Sydney-Middle East Times Int'l: The political battle for Sydney’s southwest and long-held ALP heartlands has turned “toxic”, with corflutes defaced, “militant tactics” deployed, and mosques and Islamic schools attacked on social media for appearing with Labor figures.
Reminiscent of 2024’s British election, where four “Gaza independents” were elected amid alleged “bullying and intimidatory tactics”, anti-Labor pro-Palestine campaigns have ramped up as tensions have begun to boil .
Islamic schools and moderate Muslim leaders have been attacked on social media as “normalisers” for engaging with the government, corflutes at mosques have been stolen or destroyed, Tony Burke posters have been vandalised with slurs or smeared with paint, and Hizb ut-Tahrir activists have forced ALP candidates to cancel events given fears of tensions boiling over.
Backed by The Muslim Vote campaign, Ziad Basyouny is taking on Home Affairs
Minister Tony Burke in Watson, while Ahmed Ouf is looking to topple Education
Minister Jason Clare in Blaxland, which are both held with about a 15 per cent
margin and where Muslim voters make up 27 per cent and 35 per cent respectively in the two seats.
Mr Burke has become a particular target for activists, with scores of his posters
destroyed or defaced with the slur “c..t” and splattered with red paint.
Anti-ALP campaigners have started to distribute flyers in Arabic about the member, one of the Labor’s most vocal supporters of Palestinian statehood, calling him the “racist immigration minister”
Those flyers, which don’t carry an electoral authorisation, come despite Australia
providing pathways for thousands of affected Gazans and feature misleading claims about Mr Burke’s historical support.
Activists have unfurled banners decrying “Bloody Burke” outside the minister’s
electorate office and on Wednesday, at a Lakemba iftar, displayed another alleging he supported genocide.
Anti-Labor campaigners have also targeted Mr Clare, with Auburn’s Gallipoli Mosque forced to install CCTV cameras after repeat vandalism of the minister’s corflutes it had displayed at its front gate.
The mosque, whose leaders have remained steadfast in support of Mr Clare, stood
down calls to remove the posters, but which were later destroyed by vandals on two separate occasions.
Hizb ut-Tahrir activists have also targeted Mr Burke, via that group’s social-media
front, Stand 4 Palestine, which has links with The Muslim Vote.
In a video uploaded to its Instagram account – and later shared by Dr Basyouny’s
campaign manager – Hizb ut-Tahrir activist Mohamed al-Wahwah is seen standing outside a Parry Park community centre where Mr Burke was slated to speak.
Calling Mr Burke a “rat”, Mr al-Wahwah claimed the minister had refused to front the community and “scurried out”.
Mr Burke was invited to speak as part of a questions and answers session, but after a texts had been sent out by anti-ALP activists urging “brothers to show them (the
ministers) that they’re not welcome” at least 15 men not part of the centre’s
congregation arrived, and a mutual decision was taken to cancel the event to avoid
inflaming tensions.
The Australian is not suggesting that independent candidates Dr Basyouny and Mr
Ouf, or Muslim Vote convener sheik Wesam Charkawi, are themselves involved in the allegations, just that local anti-ALP activists are.
But their task has been made harder after the Liberals confirmed it would preference the two independents below Labor and both could struggle to win a plurality of voters from the Islamic faith, given staunch opposition to their campaigns within elements of the community.
Mr Burke and Mr Clare retain swathes of support from across the area’s diverse
Muslim community and despite rising vitriol remain cautiously confident their
relationships will stand firm.
Lebanese Muslim community leader Jamal Rifi established the “Friends of Burke and Clare” network in response to The Muslim Vote campaign to canvass for the two ministers.
Dr Rifi said that in decades of community work he had never seen such a toxic
environment.
“In my 40 years in community life I’ve never seen such tactics deployed with such
ferocity, it’s unbelievable,” he said.
“But we are hellbent on not letting ‘newbies’ hijack our community. If anyone is
taking us for granted, it is those guys (The Muslim Vote campaign) who have done nothing (for the wider community).”
Dr Rifi said that “tension” was boiling over, and that some political elements of the community had resorted to “militant” tactics to agitate and provoke.
“They are hurting anyone who has a view that differs from their own,” the doctor
said, who has been targeted on social media and by activists for his community work.
“They are sewing disharmony and division, disrespecting and disregarding others
opinions and pain.”
Although not run by or affiliated with the independent campaigns, Instagram
accounts have almost hourly hounded out members of the Muslim community it
claims are “normalisers” for engaging with the ALP, even Islamic schools and former AFL star Bachar Houli.
After the Australian Islamic House mosque in Edmondson Park received death
threats, Mr Burke and Anthony Albanese visited to meet with its leaders.
On Instagram, the “Vote for Palestine” account told its 5000 followers to “voice their outrage” towards the mosque for its “betrayal of the community” when it hosted the Prime Minister, and has also attacked Melbourne and Sydney Islamic schools for doing the same with Mr Clare.
Another account called “Misfits Return”, which has links to the area’s Greens, posts almost hourly about Islamic figures it deems “normalisers”, sharing pictures to its more than 4000 followers lambasting Muslim leaders for attending events with “Zionists”.
It has attacked Minaret College, one of Melbourne’s largest Islamic schools,
Canterbury-Bankstown Labor mayor Bilal El-Hayek, and the envoy to combat
Islamophobia, Aftab Malik. It has also depicted Mr Burke with blood dripping from his mouth and “demon eyes”.
One Muslim figure, speaking on the condition of anonymity after being targeted by the “Misfits”, lamented how activists had created a “culture” where if you disagreed on elements of the conflict you became “the enemy”.
“If you don’t agree with these people you’re the enemy, not allowed to practice your own freedom of speech,” he said.
“Stop attacking hardworking people … And you (the accounts) call yourself Muslims? Shame on you.”
Allegations of impropriety are not just at the expense of the ALP, with Dr Basyouny’s camp claiming that Labor supporters had been removing their campaign posters “under the cover of darkness” and trespassing on private property.
“Even more concerning is that these locations have since been flooded with Tony
Burke posters in place of ours,” their statement said.
“This is not just disrespectful, but deeply unethical. It reflects a disturbing lack of
regard for the democratic process, for community property rights, and for the fair and honest conduct that should underpin every election campaign.” |
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