Anti-Islamic teens
threaten to behead Gold Coast man they mistook for a Muslim
A GOLD Coast father has called for calm in the community after his son was targeted by a car load of teenagers who threatened to behead him on the street because he looked like a Muslim.
Police are investigating the
attack where the young man was allegedly threatened and abused at a set
of traffic lights at the intersection of Wardoo Street and Benowa Road
about 6.30pm on Thursday.
Craig Pollard says his son was bailed up by the group of teens who’d threatened to behead him simply because he had a beard.
“I am, to put it mildly, pissed off with some of the drop-kick idiots on the Gold Coast,” he said.
“My son was picking up my youngest
boy and was stopped at the lights when a bunch of (men) stopped beside
him in in their white p-plate Holden Commodore and started to abuse him
about being a Muslim.
“They threatened to cut off his head if they saw him on the street.”
Mr Pollard said his son told the
group he was not a Muslim, instead a kiwi with a beard, but they carried
on with the abuse, preaching “kiwis were next” before eventually taking
off.
It’s the latest in a spate of recent
offensives targeting Australia’s Islamic community in the wake of a
series of counter terrorism raids across Sydney and Brisbane, and
the shooting death of a teenage terror suspect outside a Melbourne
police station on Tuesday night.
“He has made an official complaint to the police about it, but is now afraid to drive his car,” Mr Pollard said.
“What is this place coming to if a young boy can’t feel safe on the Gold Coast while driving to pick up his brother.
“This is going to get worse, not
better. I can see the writing on the wall and feel sad for the majority
of the Gold Coast that will be caught up in the hate storm.”
The incident follows an attack on
an Islamic prayer centre on Brisbane’s south-side on Wednesday night,
where the words “Muslims are evil” and “die” where spray painted
across the buildings exterior.
Meanwhile in New South Wales, police
have appealed for information after a man wielding a large knife
allegedly stormed an Islamic school in south-west Sydney yesterday
afternoon and reportedly threatened to kill staff.
“The perception may be in some
quarters that the Muslim community have some ties to the perpetrators of
some of these crimes,” Queensland Police Commissioner Ian Stewart told
ABC’s Lateline.
“They (extremists) are simply criminals who have no respect for any of us or for any particular religion or religious group.”
Last week Premier Campbell Newman
called for calm and understanding, warning police would be protecting
Queensland’s Muslim community against any backlash following the recent
terror-crackdown.
He said community hate directed at Muslim places of worship or schools would not be tolerated.
PICTURE: Warren Dodunski
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