‘Brain dead morons’: Federal minister Jason Clare fires up over Islamophobic graffiti
Federal minister Jason Clare has fired up after Islamophic graffiti popped up in his electorate.
Federal minister Jason Clare has fired up after Islamophic graffiti popped up in his electorate, saying “brain-dead morons” are sowing division in Australia.
NSW Police confirmed on Monday it was investigating after “F*** Islam” and “Cancel Islam” was spray-painted onto an underpass in the Western Sydney suburb of Chester Hill.
The suburb is home to a large Muslim community.
It comes after cars were torched and anti-Semitic messages were graffitied onto builds in an Eastern Sydney suburb with a large Jewish population.
Reacting to the Islamophobic incident in his electorate, Mr Clare said whether it was “anti-Semitism on the streets of Sydney or Islamophobia, both are just as bad as one another”.
“Kids aren’t born racist,” he told the ABC.
“This is a parasite that eats away at people and our community.”
As the MP for Blaxland, Mr Clare represents one of the most culturally diverse seats in the country.
Nearly 32 per cent of the electorate is of Islamic faith.
He said Australia was “the best country in the world because we’re made up of people from all backgrounds living in harmony”.
“It’s brain dead morons writing things on walls on the streets of Sydney like this that undermine all of that,” Mr Clare said.
“That’s why we need to call it out and talk about why we’re the best country in the world and why we need to do everything we can at the moment to keep our country together.”
Israel’s war against Islamist militants in Gaza has sparked social friction on the streets of Australia’s biggest cities, with inflammatory rhetoric casually hurled about in conversations.
With the death toll in Gaza north of 40,000, many of the Australia’s Palestinian community have lost family in the war.
Meanwhile, reports of anti-Semitism have soared, with a Melbourne synagogue firebombed earlier this month.
State and federal officials have repeatedly warned against importing the conflict.
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