'Fundamental threat': Australian Muslims call for extra protections in religious discrimination bill

Australia's Muslim community is urging the Morrison government to redraft its religious discrimination laws to include an anti-vilification provision, saying incitement of hatred and violence is a "fundamental threat to Australian Muslims".

A coalition of about 150 Muslim groups say Australian Muslims are vulnerable because they are "readily identifiable" by their names, appearance and dress and the places they worship. The groups, which include the Australian National Imams Council, the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils and the Lebanese Muslim Association, say anti-Muslim content has become "mainstream" online, which in turn, makes it "normal" to attack Muslim Australians.

Muslim Australians say they need greater protection against vilification and violence.Credit: Lisa Wiltse

In a submission to the government's consultations on the religious discrimination laws, they say the new bill must include extra measures to allow them to express their religious identity and feel safe.

"Australians Muslims - and people of minority faiths more generally - need a form of recourse to challenge those who openly vilify them," they say.

The submission says there have been worrying Islamophobic attacks since the deadly Christchurch mosque shooting earlier this year. It points to the Holland Park Mosque in Brisbane which was vandalised last month with the words "St Tarrant", in reference to the Christchurch shooter, as well as a Nazi swastika.

It also says harmful content about Muslims has become "mainstream" online.

"[This is] radicalising potentially violent individuals and making it 'normal' to attack other Australians in public places because they are readily identifiable as Muslim."

The groups say Muslim Australians do not have the same level of protection as some other religious groups - such as Jewish people and Sikhs - because they get extra protections under the Racial Discrimination Act as ethno-religious communities, from behaviour designed to "offend, insult, humiliate or intimidate".

Public submissions on the government's proposed new religious discrimination bill closed on Wednesday. The bill, as it currently stands, makes it unlawful to discriminate against someone on the basis of their religion. The Australian Muslim community wants a new provision to also make it unlawful to "harass, vilify, or incite hatred or violence" against a person on the grounds of their religious belief or activity.

An upcoming Charles Sturt University report on Islamophobia in Australia is expected to show Australian Muslims experience attacks on mosques and Islamic schools, as well as verbal assaults, posters and graffiti and physical attacks.

According to a 2016 eSafety Commissioner survey of 2448 12-17-year-olds, 53 per cent of young people said they had seen hateful comments about religious or cultural groups online. More than 50 per cent of those surveyed believed Muslim people were a target.

Attorney-General Christian Porter said the government will "respond substantively after all submissions have been received and considered".