‘I’m Going to Christ Church 2.0 This Joint”: Islamophobia Alive and Well in Australia

A 16-year old’s recent arrest over alleged threats to perpetrate a mass shooting at a Sydney mosque is just part of the 580% rise in Islamophobic incidents across the nation – one which has largely been ignored by state, territory and federal governments in favour of focusing on antisemitic incidents and passing antisemitic specific initiatives, including criminal offences that only capture antisemitic conduct.

The incident has led to calls for similar attention to Islamophobic conduct – which have for many years been prevalent across our nation, and which many believe mainstream politicians and media organisations have normalised by failing to expressly rebuke them, or even sympathetically reporting on them, and thereby emboldening far-right extremists to come out of the woodwork and publicly incite racist attacks with little or no consequences.

Perhaps there is no better example of this than the 2005 ‘Cronulla Riots’, whereby broadcaster Alan Jones publicly encouraged ‘white Australians’ to gather and engage in a ‘wog bashing’ against Muslim people in general, and Lebanese people in particular, who he described at the time as ‘scum’ and ‘vermin’.

Mr Jones was not charged with the offence of inciting violence, or the offence of urging violence, or any offence for that matter, despite the carnage that followed, with many innocent civilians being assaulted and hospitalised after his followers did exactly what he stirred them up to do.

The Threat

The recently arrested teenager, who lives in Western Australia, is alleged to have published a number of online threats directed at The Australian Islamic House – Masjid Al-Bayt Al-Islami mosque in Edmond Park, South West of Sydney, one of which stated, ‘I’m going to christ church 2.0 this joint’.

The post was a reference to the horrific 2019 massacre at a mosque in Christchurch, New Zealand, where an Australian right-wing extremist murdered 51 people, the vast majority of whom were attending prayers.

The Australian Islamic House reported the threats to Western Australian police, who then arrested the teenage male.

The Response

Shortly after the arrest, New South Wales Premier Chris Minns issued a statement expressing that the incident is ‘very distressing, particularly as Muslims right across the state are participating in prayer during the month of Ramadan’.

The President of Australian Islamic House’s, Mazhar Hadid, also issued a statement, conveying that members and attendees are ‘profoundly concerned by this threat and take it seriously.’ 

Other politicians and government officials have backed the mosque’s President’s sentiments, with The Alliance of Australians for Muslims, The Australian National Imams Council, and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese all stating that there ‘is no place for this in Australia’, and they are ‘concerned for the safety and wellbeing of Muslims in Sydney.’

So, how did Australia get here? Have hateful sentiments always existed in the country, or have they heightened in recent years? Surprisingly, or maybe not so much so, Islamophobia, anti-semitism, and anti-’other group’ viewpoints have always been present. But, in the last couple of years, the number of incidents of hate speech, discrimination, and prejudice has severely increased — highlighting a growing issue of racism in Australia that needs to be addressed and taken much more seriously than it currently is. 

The Scourge of Hate

Hate crimes, discriminatory policies, and a general disdain for ‘other people’ within Australia have continually increased in recent months and years. Not only can we thank the new President of the United States, Trump, for inciting more hate speech and making it acceptable to blatantly show prejudice towards various ethnic groups, but we also need to take a hard look at ourselves, communities, politicians, and police forces to see why Australia has taken a sharp turn towards hate crimes, tensions, and conflict across the country. 

Since October 2023, incidents of anti-semitism and Islamophobia have increased dramatically. The Australian Federation of Islamic Councils even had to plead with Albanese to take urgent action to fight Islamophobia, with the Executive Council of Australian Jewry issuing a similar sentiment, stating the country is ‘no longer safe for Jews.’ 

After the deadly Hamas attacks on 7 October 2023 that killed over 1,2000 people and kidnapped nearly 300 innocent people, the rise of violence and hatred towards other ethnicities has risen in Australia. There has been a sharp uptick in ‘racist violence’ — a keyword coined by the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission – that defines specific violent acts, intimidation, or harassment carried out towards individuals or groups based on race, colour, or ethnic origin. 

Out of 2,062 incidents in 2024, there were more than 600 incidents of hate speech, almost 400 occurrences of graffiti inciting violence or harassment, and more than 600 counts of verbal abuse. 

In addition to the outright violence, crimes, and hate speech against Jewish people and Muslims within Australia, there are also long-standing biases and discriminatory beliefs that are the undertone of the country’s belief system. Western Sydney University gathered data regarding people’s beliefs on racism, finding that 61% of people would be ‘concerned’ if a relative married a Muslim and 46% would be concerned if a relative married a Jewish person. 

Islamophobia Alive and Well in Australia

Even considering the substantial increase in incidents in the last couple of years, Islamophobia is not a new concept in Australia. During the First Gulf War, a conflict that took place in the early 1990s between Iraq and a coalition of Western nations led by the United States, there were numerous racist attacks against Arabs and Muslims, along with stigmatisation and blame for attacks on Jewish institutions. 

In the early 2000s, Muslims were blamed for a link between terrorism and halal food, along with violent confrontations during the Anti-Islam Reclaim Australia rallies, which were a series of protests and rallies organised by the Reclaim Australia movement, a far-right nationalist group, and the formation of nationalist and neo-Nazi hate groups by the United Patriots Front. 

New Hate Crime Laws 

On Thursday, 6 February 2025, parliament passed the Criminal Code Amendment (Hate Crimes) Bill 2025 (Cth) as a nationwide response to the anti-semitism across the country. The expanded offences of the new bill include making it a serious criminal offence to urge or incite violence against group members or specific groups characterised by race, religion, or ethnic origin. Furthermore, the new amendments consider it to be a crime to ‘advocate’ force or violence against specific groups. 

New offences included in the Criminal Code Amendment involve using threats or force of violence against groups. The legislation also introduced a mandatory minimum sentence of one-year imprisonment for offences relating to the display of Nazi symbols and 6 years minimum imprisonment for terrorism-related offences. 

In addition, on 21 February 2025, the NSW Government passed additional hate crime laws in response to the anti-semitism in NSW to bolster the newly-introduced federal legislation. The Crimes Act 1900 expanded on the offence of displaying Nazi symbols near synagogues and defining the meaning of ‘public act’ for offences that threatened or incited violence.

Along with clarifying current legislation, new offences were created in The Crimes Act 1900

(NSW), such as intentionally blocking a person from accessing places of worship, harassing individuals leaving/attending places of worship, and publicly inciting racial hatred. The new laws also cover aggravating circumstances that apply to crimes motivated by prejudice or hatred. 

Addressing Rampant Bigotry

There has been an increased importance placed on new national hate crime laws and legislation within New South Wales to combat the rampant racism and human rights issues plaguing the country. But is it too little too late? 

There were more than 166 reports of antisemitic attacks between mid-December and 25 January, showing how the sharp rise in anti-semitism has increased in Australia’s two biggest cities — Sydney and Melbourne. Similarly, there has been a 700% increase in reports of Islamophobia since 7 October 2023. 

Even with task forces such as Strike Force Pearl, a group that is designed to combat and investigate anti-Semitic hate crimes in Sydney and the eastern suburbs, the rise in ethnic and racially motivated crimes is hugely concerning for the entire country. 

It seems as though the realisation that Australia as a whole is a racist and discriminatory country has come too late. Of course, we should know this already with the treatment of the Aboriginal people within the country — the lack of resources, being pushed off their natural land, discrimination in everyday life, and a lack of opportunities for the native people of the land are shocking enough. So, how could we expect better treatment of ‘foreigners’ trying to make a home for themselves in Australia? 

If we are to consider ourselves a progressive and liberal country, we need to do better. Suppose Australia follows the footprints of the United States, which has recently elected a dictatorial bigot as its leader. In that case, we can expect a regression in terms of policies, ideologies, and society as a whole.