In this briefing, we discuss the Facebook community page Restore Australia (Id#152464798295040), which has 12,211 followers and is spreading anti-Muslim hate in Australia. In its About page, the page admins state that they are “dedicated to bringing about political reform through constitutional change, and exposing the many attacks on our civilization by Islam”. It is not clear what constitutional change the page is aiming for, but the admins further state: “We do not believe multiculturalism works, because it divides people. We DO believe in immigration and integration. We want immigrants to come here and fit into our culture and laws.”
However, the page doesn’t debate multiculturalism as much as directly attack the Muslim community of Australia, presenting them as an economic, cultural and security threat to Australians. The page previously encouraged its supporters to cyberbully Muslim lawyer and community leader Mariam Veiszadeh. We are happy to say that Facebook removed the post after it was reported by us. You can read about it in our briefing.
Below we share three examples to illustrate how the page promotes negative stereotypes and generalisations about the Muslim community in Australia. We will also show you how to report the comments, images, posts, and the page to Facebook for promoting hate speech.
Example 1: Comparing Muslims to Nazis
The comparison of the worldwide Muslim community to Nazis fails to acknowledge the huge geographical spread of the Muslim community, and the religious, historical and political diversity within it. It suggests that there is something inherently violent to each individual Muslim, which is a form of racial vilification rather than religious vilification, as we argued in a detailed report we published on online anti-Muslim hate.
You can view this item live on Facebook and report it here.
Example 2: Presenting Muslims as a threat to our way of life
The online campaigns promoting boycotting of mosque constructions in Australia present the practice of Islam as a cultural threat to Australian life. In this briefing, we discuss in detail why such campaigns – against Halal certifications and the building of mosques – are both against Australian values and have actually been imported from British Far Right Groups.
You can view this item live on Facebook and report it here.
Example 3: Presenting Muslims as an economic threat
A previous briefing by us discusses how online campaigns against Halal certification are really aimed at excluding Muslims from Australian society. Their claims of how much they burden Australian businesses and buyers are exaggerated. As this investigative article on Halal certification and its opposition says, there is little evidence to support the claims made against the Halal certification process.
You can view this item live on Facebook and report it here.
If you encounter any form of Anti-Muslim hate on social media,first report it to the platform provider then also report it to OHPI’s online hate reporting tool FightAgainstHate.com
- Here is a step-by-step guide to reporting content on Facebook for promoting hate.
- Go here for instructions on how to report to OHPI’s online reporting tool Fight Against Hate
The page had also created a backup page (Id#953757791315083) in case the first page is removed by Facebook for promoting hate speech. It now appears to be offline.
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View all of our publications on the issue of online anti-Muslim hate here. Your support via our Facebook page will help in our work to combat all forms of online hate. You can also stay informed about our work by joining our mailing list for a monthly summary of our activities.