Most victims of targeted racist abuse towards Muslims in Australia are women wearing a hijab with a majority of the perpetrators being men, new research has found.
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The report, led by Dr Derya Iner from Charles Sturt University, surveyed nearly 250 incidents of religious and racial vilification online and offline from January 2018 to December 2019.
It drew on verified data from the Islamophobia Register of Australia, a community-run service founded in 2014, analysing 138 physical incidents and 109 online cases.
"Hijabi women, unaccompanied women and women with children are vulnerable; therefore, they are the easiest targets for cowardly perpetrators," the report's authors said.
"Of the 103 victims, 85 per cent were wearing hijab, 48 per cent were alone, 15 per cent were with children and 12 per cent were with other women".
The authors said nearly two thirds (63 per cent) of physical incidents of abuse took place in public spaces and were committed by men (74 per cent).
"The abusive behaviours towards hijabi Muslim women also reflect intolerance to Muslims' visibility and especially women's expression of faith and difference through the hijab," the report said.
The report released on the third anniversary of the Christchurch massacre in New Zealand analysed how the attacks inspired online abuse targeting Muslims.
A white nationalist Australian gunman killed 51 Muslim worshippers in March 2019 in a Christchurch mosque.
In the two weeks following the terrorist attack, hate speech online towards Muslims in Australia spiked by 65 per cent.
Most of the 109 online cases of Islamophobic abuse examined occurred on Facebook (83 per cent) - a popular platform among right-wing and neo-Nazi groups.
The authors, who attached sample screenshots of online abuse including death threats, said far-right extremist Australian political parties and leaders had "a major role in creating online hate agendas which were reproduced by far-right group administrators and followers".
"The nature of the Christchurch attacks and their origin and effects online prove that treating online violence as less real is illusory and unhelpful," Dr Iner said.
She called for a holistic approach to dealing with racial discrimination and religious vilification that takes into account the severity of virtual networks of hate.
"Islamophobia is not a 'Muslim' problem but a social cohesion risk," the report recommended.
"It requires national engagement if Australia is to live up to its multicultural legacy."
Australian Associated Press
