۱۰ فروردین ۱۴۰۳ |۱۹ رمضان ۱۴۴۵ | Mar 29, 2024
‘Division, hatred and fear’: Victoria's Muslim community concerned it's fielding blame for coronavirus spike

Recent media reporting is creating “division, hatred and fear” and has unfairly laid the blame for Melbourne’s coronavirus spike on Muslims, according to the Islamic Council of Victoria.

Hawzah News Agency (Victoria - Australia) - The Islamic Council of Victoria says recent media reporting has unfairly blamed recent coronavirus clusters on the Muslim community without any tangible evidence.

Recent media reporting is creating “division, hatred and fear” and has unfairly laid the blame for Melbourne’s coronavirus spike on Muslims, according to the Islamic Council of Victoria.

Herald Sun newspaper columnist Andrew Bolt and Sky News commentator Peta Credlin have been among those in the media over the past few days to lay blame for the rise in cases at the feet of multicultural communities.

ICV vice president Adel Salman said there was no evidence that Muslims were responsible for causing the surge in cases but that hasn’t stopped some media outlets from focusing on the community.

“It plays to a narrative and it’s picked up by those who believe that narrative, that ‘here we go again, Muslims are a threat, they are either trying to harm us with guns and bombs and cars, or now through the virus',” he told SBS News.

“It’s completely unfair, there is no evidence for it and it doesn’t help. It doesn’t help make us safer, it doesn’t tackle the problem. It stigmatises the community and creates division, hatred and fear - and that ultimately hurts us all."

Several of Victoria’s recent coronavirus clusters have been based in the north and north-western suburbs, areas with high multicultural populations and with large Muslim communities.

These areas have been designated as community transmission hotspots by the state government, and testing has been ramped up there.

A Melbourne man lost two of his jobs because his employer found out that he lived in a hotspot area and told him not to come to work.

Comment

You are replying to: .