Far-right terrorism in Perth
A petrol bomb attack on a car parked outside a Perth mosque on the night of 28 June was an act of racist hatred against Perth’s Muslim community.
The attack, which set the car alight, was accompanied by the words “F--- Islam” spray-painted on the Thornlie mosque wall, in Perth’s southern suburbs, while hundreds were praying.
That this was an act of terrorism from right wing racist bigots was plain to see. And it was not the first. A pig’s head was left at the Southern River mosque three days earlier, and another at the University of WA mosque earlier this year. Thornlie and Rockingham mosques were both vandalised with graffiti in 2014.
Ahmed, who witnessed the attack, told WA Today that attacks on Australian Muslims are on the rise. Ahmed had ceased praying at the Southern River mosque after it was splattered with pig’s blood, believing that the Thornlie mosque, located next to the Australian Islamic College, would be safer.
Imam Yahya Adel Ibrahim said on his Facebook page that the attack “is a criminal act of hate, but it is the act of a person or group not the greater whole”.
The attack was also immediately condemned by United Against Bigotry and Racism, which published a statement expressing “solidarity with the Perth Muslim community against this appalling display of Islamophobia”. The group also called an emergency speak-out in response to the attack, on the evening of Friday, 1 July.
Local Labor MP Chris Tallentine described the event as “an attack on all of us” on his Facebook page.
Yet this attack was not met with raids on the homes of local members of the fascist United Patriotic Front, or the Australian Liberty Alliance, which calls for a moratorium on Muslim immigration and bans on the wearing of the hijab, and opposes halal certification. There were no screaming headlines on daily papers declaring “Terror Scare”.
Foreign minister Julie Bishop condemned the attack, claiming that “the Australian government condemns any form of violence”. However, she sidestepped questions about whether the attack could be linked to recent government rhetoric around border security and asylum seekers in the lead-up to the federal election, according to the West Australian.
UABR spokesperson Miranda Wood was in no doubt that the two are connected. “Though they may be the actions of a few right wing vigilantes”, Wood told Red Flag, “they are fuelled by the racist vitriol coming from the Liberal government.
“Malcolm Turnbull may hold iftars to celebrate Ramadan, but his commitment to torturing refugees, to foreign occupations and to draconian anti-terror laws, aimed squarely at Muslims, speaks of the contempt his government has for Muslims.”
The Australian government’s fear campaign has provided fertile ground for the proliferation of a new breed of far right racist groups that echoes the rise of the Australian Nationalist Movement in Perth in the 1980s. Back then, the target was Asian immigration; today it is Muslims.
On 17 June, 200 Reclaim Australia supporters rallied at state parliament, some travelling five hours from Albany, where its sister organisation United Patriotic Front has now established a branch. Dozens wore the black uniforms of the fascist UPF. The group’s leader, Blair Cottrell, who had flown in from Melbourne, told the crowd their movement was “maintaining momentum”.
While this protest, like others before it around the country, was met with vocal opposition from anti-racist counter-protesters, it is clear that our side faces a significant challenge.
In Europe and North America, racists and neo-Nazis are on the offensive, seeking to make mileage from years of austerity against the working class.
This most recent attack on Thornlie mosque, the most brazen yet, makes it clear that the growing far right/fascist movement in Australia cannot be ignored. We must stand our ground.
