Lebanese restaurant owner defiant after racist attack

A sickening racist attack was carried out on a Lebanese restaurant, Arabella, on King Street, Newtown, Sydney, in the early hours of 23 September.

Several glass panels at the front of the restaurant were smashed, and the words “fuck Arabs” were scrawled along the windows.

Owner and head chef Mohamad Zouhour covered some of the damage with a defiant banner reading “No racism down under: live the dream”, which was displayed for all to see on King Street, alongside the hashtag #fuckracism. During the clean-up, support from the public was impossible to miss, with every second or third person stopping to offer support.

The incident is not isolated. Vandals targeted the shop the previous night, and there had been an increasing number of racist calls over the last months.

“[We’ve had] phone calls a couple of times saying, ‘Lebanese bastards, go back to your own country’. We’ve been here 14 years, but the last six months it’s happened a lot”, Mohamad told Red Flag.

The climate of anti-Muslim and anti-Arab racism created by the racist policies of both the Coalition and the ALP towards refugees – as well as the slew of so-called anti-terror laws, media stories and early morning police raids on Muslim families – has opened a space for these sorts of attacks. In this context, it’s important to take a stand against racism in every form.

“We’ve had a lot of support from the public”, Mohamad said. “It’s important because we need to show these people that we [Australians] are not racist.”

Mohamad wants his story spread as far and wide as possible to combat the constant stream of racism in the media. “If any Muslim did something, this would be everywhere. But when an Australian does something? Nowhere.”