Muslim women and girls have become the targets of threats and abuse in Sydney’s south-west following police reports that blame Middle Eastern men for recent gang rapes of European women. “They have been receiving threats of rape and also some ladies in our community have been spat on in the street,” a spokesman for the Lebanese Muslim Association, Mr Keysar Trad, said yesterday.
The threats had been made in the Lakemba, Campsie and Bankstown areas, and had been fuelled in particular by calls to talk-back radio which identified the rapists as Middle Eastern, Mr Trad said. One radio report was “quite offensive” and the association was preparing a complaint about the broadcaster to the Anti-Discrimination Board, he said.
Mr Trad also said fearful parents were providing escorts for their daughters, and an anonymous caller to a Lakemba Muslim school threatened to abduct and rape students. Police said last night they would investigate any incidents reported by the association.
