Israel-Palestine Protests - Adjournment Speech
Over the past few weeks I have met with leaders of Muslim communities in Sydney, including Maha Abdo from Muslim Women Australia. For 43 years now, along with other Muslim women, she has worked hard to walk together with other communities and with the government of the day. But she says what is happening now is not normal.
The term "social cohesion" breaks her heart. She said that what is happening now is much worse than after the Cronulla riots. It is worse than after the horrific terror attack on two Christchurch mosques, which killed 51 people and injured many others, when many Muslim women would not go to a mosque to pray, and after which in the back of every Muslim woman's mind was whether her husband or son would come home safe today.
In 2024 Muslim Women Australia held its annual general meeting on the banks of the St Georges River, and not even 12 months later, in 2025, it held its last AGM in a house because they no longer felt safe enough to hold an event like that in public. No, this is far from normal. For every threatening letter being sent to a Muslim organisation that we hear about, the Lakemba mosque being the most recent, many other disgusting and disrespectful letters and messages are being sent to Muslim women. Often they ask, "What is the point in bringing this matter to the attention of the police?" More often than not, they do not want to draw attention to it because it will most likely lead to more copycat letters and threats.
The Australian Muslim community, particularly Muslim women, are in absolute despair. Why is it so bad now? Many in the Muslim community I have spoken to have two words as to why: Chris Minns. Ever since the terrible attacks of 7 October 2023, Chris Minns has blatantly sided with the pro-Netanyahu, ultra-right-wing Zionist lobby, attempting to shut down pro-Palestinian protests well before the Bondi terror attack. After the attack he is off the charts, saying in December:
How can we say that protests that have these signs have no bearing on either the culture, the temperature or even extreme actions within our community?
Putting a dangerous new terrorism bill before us late last year that gave police unprecedented powers, he urged us not to bury our heads in the sand and say that there is absolutely no relationship between the two. Today, hundreds of Muslim groups from around the country put out a statement regarding the abhorrent scenes from last night of police dragging people observing Muslim prayer at the rally against Isaac Herzog's visit. I put some of that on record. They stated:
What occurred was completely unacceptable. Police officers knowingly intervened in a moment of religious observance, forcibly interrupted prayer, and used physical force against individuals who posed no threat to public safety. Some worshippers were dragged away and thrown to the ground. Interrupting prayer mid‑act demonstrates a lack of respect for religious freedom and raises serious concerns about discriminatory and heavy‑handed policing. If left unchallenged, this incident sets a dangerous precedent for the policing of lawful Muslim religious expression and raises serious concerns about the role of Islamophobia in operational decision‑making.
But the Premier has not apologised. He has backed the police all the way, saying that their "proportionate response was designed to keep the public safe". Also backing the police all the way was Alex Ryvchin of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry. He said, "We've seen the propensity for violence in this country and the police are determined that we need to make sure it never happens again." That is just not true.
This week the ABC aired claims by a former ASIO agent who worked undercover as a radical cleric and provided ASIO with a detailed account of how the younger terrorist killer, the son, was associated with an Islamic State cell. He met the father in 2019 and said the father voiced support for Islamic State then. He said, "After this conversation, I thought the father was more extremist than his son." A senior ASIO official told the ABC that the father may have already been radicalised when he met with the agency to discuss his son as part of its assessment. That means he was already radicalised, well before the pro-Palestinian rallies. It is enough. It is now dangerous for everyone. The linking of support for Palestine with the antisemitic murders on 14 December must stop. I tell the Premier that New South Wales needs leadership right now, not a lackey.