Islamophobic and antisemitic incidents in Australia have risen substantially since Hamas’s terror attacks on Israel on 7 October and the subsequent Israeli attacks on Gaza.
The Executive Council of Australian Jewry’s tally of antisemitic incidents showed there were 221 incidents between 8 October and 7 November, with 42 incidents recorded in one week alone. From 1 October until 7 October, there was one incident.
Meanwhile, there were 133 reported Islamophobic incidents between 7 October and 6 November, according to Islamophobia Register Australia. Prior to 7 October, the average number of weekly incidents was 2.5.
Documented hate incidents include spitting at women, threats of gun violence, threats to mosques and synagogues, threats to Muslim and Jewish schools, graffiti, property damage, hate mail and verbal abuse. Islamophobia Register figures also include online abuse.
The trend is expected to be reflected in crime figures. Victoria police received 72 reports of antisemitic incidents and 12 Islamophobic incidents from 7 October until Friday. Of those, 37 resulted in investigations and 10 people have been arrested – nine related to antisemitic reports and one related to an Islamophobic incident.
A Western Australia police force spokesperson said police were dealing with “a small number of reported incidents targeting members of both the Islamic and Jewish communities”, some of which were being investigated. Queensland and NSW police were unable to provide figures.
Jews make up about 0.4% of the Australian population, while Muslims account for 3.2%, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
Hidden hate
The executive director of Islamophobia Register Australia, Sharara Attai, said she believed the real number of Islamophobic incidents in the past month was “much higher” than 133 and that Islamophobia, and hate crimes in general, historically went under-reported.
Immediately after the 7 October attacks, the register received its highest number of reports in a single week since it began in 2014.
“There’s a lot of fear and anxiety in the Muslim community, a lot of Muslim women, in particular, are afraid to go out alone or with their kids,” she said. “People shouldn’t have to fear going out in their daily lives in their own country.”
The research director at ECAJ, Julie Nathan, said the spike in incidents was part of a steady rise in antisemitism, but that many instances went unreported. She expects the October figures to increase by as much as 100% as victims take time to come forward.
Incidents are logged statewide and nationally, with members of the public encouraged to self-report incidents directly to both organisations.
Nathan said hate crime was “normal” for the Jewish community, but the steep rise in incidents, particularly death threats, was a “major concern.” In October 2021, 38 were recorded over the entire month.
“We always expect incidents to go up when there are problems in the world but these have gone up exponentially compared to previous spikes,” she said.
Sydney imam, Sheikh Wesam Charkawi, said he had seen a “very significant” rise of Islamophobic incidents, including physical assaults and racist abuse, since 7 October. One man was threatened with being shot in the back and was afraid to pray at his local mosque, he said.
“Every single day I receive a phone call from somebody who has been a target of Islamophobia,” he said, cautioning his community to stay safe in times of heightened tension.
“We encourage people to be vigilant, be aware, be cautious, take precautions. We tell people to let others know of their whereabouts.”
He said the government’s choice of language since 7 October had affected the rise of Islamophobia, claiming Australian leaders have “selected empathy, selective outrage, selective morals.”
A global problem
Ballooning Islamophobic and antisemitic sentiment is a global trend, the director of policy at the Community Security Trust in the UK, Dr Dave Rich, said.
He said that both hate crimes had risen in the UK since 7 October, and the rise was particularly sharp for antisemitic crime, both in terms of absolute numbers and proportionally.
Rich, the author of Everyday Hate: How Antisemitism is Built into Our World and How You Can Change It, is in Australia for commemorations on the 85th anniversary of Kristallnacht. His trip has taken on a “different complexion” in the light of the Israel-Hamas war.
“The moment we woke up on the morning of 7 October and saw what was happening in southern Israel, we knew that there would be a spike in antisemitism because it happens every time Israel is at war,” he said.
Countries and communities around the world were facing similar challenges, he said, citing “alarming” antisemitic incidents in Pakistan, Russia, Tunisia, Germany and Britain. Reports from the FBI in the US and the Paris police chief in France reflect the same trend.
“There’s just this sense that things are kind of spiralling out of control, or at least going to a whole other level, and this is off the back of several years of antisemitism becoming more apparent in mainstream society and mainstream politics,” he said.
