The City of Dandenong is considering taking the unprecedented step of cancelling a council meeting on security grounds amid rising Afghan community tensions over a proposal to change the name of a local bazaar.
Dandenong Mayor Jim Memeti said threats of violence and intimidating online posts targeting Hazara and Pashtun ethnic groups had prompted the council in Melbourne’s south-east to seek police advice about whether to hold Tuesday’s meeting.
The Afghan Islamic Centre’s Rokhan Akbar at the Afghan Bazaar in Thomas Street, Dandenong, on Monday.Credit: Penny Stephens
“We have had people contact council and say they have received disturbing messages and [are] getting a bit fearful,” he said.
“We are just trying to settle things down. Council is very concerned, and we don’t want this to get out of hand.”
Sectarian divisions have emerged over a petition initiated by a Hazara group calling for Afghan Bazaar, the colloquial name given to a shopping strip in central Dandenong, to be formally changed to Little Bamiyan.
The petition argues that the term Afghan refers to the dominant Pashtun ethnic group in Afghanistan and is culturally insensitive to Hazara refugees who fled persecution by the Taliban. At the 2021 census, 2936 people living in Dandenong identified as Hazara and 2236 as Afghan.
The proposed name change to Little Bamiyan refers to a province in central Afghanistan where Hazara are the largest ethnic group.Credit: AP
Although the petition has been circulating since last July, the issue flared recently with the emergence of a TikTok video in which a young man speaking Hazaragi threatens to “stab Pashtuns anywhere I see them”.
Last month, a meeting of leaders of Hazara, Pashtun and Tajik communities chaired by Memeti and involving officials from the federal police, Victoria Police and Home Affairs failed to ease the increasingly volatile tensions.
Victoria Police confirmed the City of Dandenong had sought advice on whether Tuesday’s meeting should go ahead.
“Victoria Police has engaged with Greater Dandenong Council to provide intelligence about safety and any risks associated with their meeting,” a police spokesperson said. “The decision to cancel or postpone a meeting is ultimately made by the council. Police will respond to any disturbance at the council meeting if required.”
Community leaders from both sides of the ethnic divide are appalled by the threats of violence and are urging calm.
Hazara community leader Saied Rezawi said there was no need for people building new lives in Australia to import centuries-old grievances from Afghanistan.
“I have worked with the community for 28 years, and we have never seen hate between Pashtun and Hazara and Tajiks,” he said.
“They are bringing clashes from 200 years ago into Australia, which is ridiculous.”
Afghan Islamic Centre spokesman Rokhan Akbar, an ethnic Pashtun, said he was disturbed by the TikTok video, which has been referred to police.
“We chose Australia as our home because of its freedom of choice, democracy and equality. Then we have crazy people like this,” he said. “The whole community is shocked and in fear for themselves and their children.”
Rezawi and Akbar attended the February 21 community meeting and added their names to a joint statement calling for a cooling of the debate surrounding the bazaar.
“It’s OK to have a strong opinion,” the statement read. “It is not OK to threaten others, online or in person. Decent people don’t threaten others with violence or try to frighten and intimidate others.”
The proposed name change to Little Bamiyan refers to a province in central Afghanistan where Hazara are the largest ethnic group and Shiite Islam is the dominant religion. Most Pashtuns are Sunni Muslims.
The petition calling for the change was initiated by Barat Batoor, a Hazara filmmaker and photographer. It argues that for Hazaras, “the word Afghan reignites their collective trauma and rekindles images of the systematic killings of their people”.
Batoor said the petition was being unfairly framed as stoking division. “We have always been peaceful and asked everyone to remain peaceful,” he said. “That is why we requested the name change in a very democratic way.”
Tajik community leaders have proposed changing the name of the bazaar to Little Kabul. As a compromise, Rezawi has floated a possible change to Harmony Bazaar or something similar.
Memeti said a decision on whether to hold Tuesday’s meeting, cancel it or shift it to a remote forum would be made on the day. He said that if the meeting went ahead, it would not debate the name of the Thomas Street bazaar but consider how to ease community tensions surrounding the issue.
Memeti said the council was willing to establish an independent consultation process to consider a name change and had written to the state and federal governments seeking special funding.
“We have got the three factions, the Hazara, the Pashtun and the Tajik, and council is trying to work with the community groups and just get a better understanding,” he said. “I have lived in Greater Dandenong for 50 years. We are renowned as being the most culturally diverse municipality in Australia. We are very proud of that.
“We have always lived in peace and harmony and respected all community groups, and we want to continue that.”
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