Australian Muslims warn of a deepening Islamophobia crisis

By Mushfiq Ahmed

KARACHI, Pakistan (MNTV) — Islamophobia and anti-Muslim racism in Australia have become more widespread, visible, and normalized, Muslim community leaders warn, with abuse, discrimination, threats, and violence increasingly affecting the everyday lives of Australian Muslims — particularly women and girls.

The warning comes as Muslim organizations point to a sharp rise in reported incidents, while raising concerns about the effect of political rhetoric, media coverage, and institutional practices on Muslims’ sense of safety and belonging.

The Australian Federation of Islamic Councils (AFIC) says the scale of the problem has changed significantly.

“AFIC’s assessment is that Islamophobia in Australia has become significantly more serious, more visible and concerningly, increasingly normalised,” AFIC President Rateb Jneid said. 

He cited the Islamophobia in Australia Report covering 2023 and 2024, which recorded a 150 percent increase in reported in-person Islamophobia and a 250 percent increase online, with almost three-quarters of incidents targeting women and girls.

“These figures reflect what Muslim communities across Australia have been experiencing,” Jneid said, pointing to verbal abuse, threats, online hatred, and intimidation directed especially at visibly Muslim women, along with threats and attacks against mosques — some escalating into physical violence.

For AFIC, the deeper concern is the environment enabling those incidents. 

“Our concern is not only the number of individual incidents. It is the environment in which they are occurring,” Jneid said, arguing that public discourse since October 2023 has increasingly portrayed Muslims as a problem or threat. 

“When Muslims are repeatedly portrayed as a threat, as outsiders, or as people whose belonging in Australia is somehow conditional, there are real consequences.” Young Australians, he added, “should not grow up believing that being openly Muslim makes them less Australian.”

AFIC welcomed recent government steps — including the appointment of a Special Envoy to Combat Islamophobia, Aftab Malik, and a national response containing 54 recommendations — but stressed that results depend on implementation. 

“The Muslim community has heard condemnations of Islamophobia for many years. The measure of success will be whether Muslims actually become safer,” Jneid said. 

The federation called for sustained national action spanning law enforcement, schools, universities, media, and civil society, including stronger hate-crime monitoring, protection for mosques, and accountability for vilification.

The advocacy group Muslim Votes Matter argues the problem runs deeper, into political and institutional systems. 

Islamophobia has become “more deeply embedded in our political and public institutions,” a spokesperson said, arguing that since October 2023 Muslim and Palestinian Australians have seen “legitimate advocacy for Palestinian rights treated with suspicion, protest and political expression increasingly securitised.” 

The group said the government’s response had “fallen well short,” treating Muslims as “a social cohesion problem rather than confront[ing] the discrimination” they face.

Both organizations framed the issue as one of equal citizenship. Australian Muslims, the Muslim Votes Matter spokesperson said, “should not have to demonstrate that they are sufficiently moderate, compliant or reassuring before their rights and concerns are taken seriously. 

They are entitled to the same safety, dignity, political participation and equal citizenship as every other Australian.”