A Ballarat man says his daughters are too scared to sleep in their own beds after a right-wing attack on a community dinner hosted by a regional Muslim group.

Usman, who asked that his full name not be used, was leaving an Iftar dinner held as part of Ramadan in the Ballarat suburb of Alfredton on Sunday when a man stormed into the community centre.

“I was almost at the car park and then a lot of kids came out crying. My wife, holding our little one, came running outside too,” Usman said.

He said he ran inside thinking there might have been a fire in the kitchen. 

“When I went in I asked my kids and they were shouting, ‘A guy has come in … Daddy,'” Usman said.

“I saw three of our mates had restrained a man and he was having a go at us, making racial slurs. 

“He was saying, ‘f*** Allah, f*** Islam, death to Allah’, and he was trying to get himself out of that restraint.”

Usman said the man, who declared himself as “far right”, threatened the children outside the community hall before barging in and throwing punches and abuse at people. 

“He obviously saw a different skin tone to start off with and started to give us racial slurs, like, ‘Go back to the s*** hole where you come from,'” Usman said.Children traumatised

Usman, who has lived in Australia for 20 years, said the attack on the community celebration had left his daughters too traumatised to sleep in their own beds.

A bald, bearded man sits handcuffed, head bowed, near two police officers.

Victoria Police says officers did not arrest the man, but asked him “to move on”. (Supplied)

He said his daughters were asking him questions such as, “Why was he chanting such things?” and, “Have we done anything wrong to him?”

“Not even once in 20 years we have experienced such a thing before — not me, my kids or wife,” Usman said.

He said it was a “real shock”.

In an interview with Sky News last month, Senator Pauline Hanson rejected a question about “good Muslims” and since last year’s federal election, her One Nation party’s popularity has skyrocketed.

Usman said he was trying to shield his daughters from this kind of thinking.

“Do we need to prepare ourselves for this new thing? Is it going to be common?” he said.

“[My daughters are] not aware of Pauline Hanson’s Australia right now and we are trying to keep these things away from them.”No arrests made

Victoria Police said police did not arrest the alleged attacker at the scene, instead asking him “to move on”.

“On arrival, [police] located a man being detained by people in the hall,” they said. 

“A 37-year-old man was interviewed by police at the scene and was then given a direction to move on.

“The investigation into the incident is ongoing.”

A petition online asking federal member for Ballarat Catherine King, Ballarat Mayor Tracey Hargreaves and Ballarat police to take the matter seriously has received 252 signatures. 

“We respectfully request that this incident be thoroughly investigated and that appropriate legal action be taken against the individual responsible, including the laying of charges where applicable,” the petition reads.

“Behaviour involving threats, intimidation, and racist abuse, particularly in the presence of children, must not be tolerated.”

Ms King, who is federal minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government, said the incident was “incredibly distressing”.

“Every Australian Muslim has the right to feel safe in their community, just like every other Australian has a right to be safe and feel safe,” Ms King said.

“Leaders and elected officials who care about social cohesion and national security have a responsibility to tone down the rhetoric and call out behaviour like this.

“There is no place in Ballarat for behaviour like this.”

Online racism fuelling hatred

Ballarat Regional Multicultural Council CEO Suzanne Ryan-Evers said the attack greatly saddened her, and was evidence of anti-Muslim rhetoric becoming more common.

A woman with glasses smiling

Suzanne Ryan-Evers says she is seeing racism more frequently. (Supplied: Ethnic Communities Council)

“At the moment, it’s more online,” Ms Ryan-Evers said.

“We had the mosque open day last month and many people from the broader community came along to that. It was a real day of celebration.

“A lot of people were posting about it and saying what a great day it was, but the backlash on that and some of the hate talk that was following it was just disgusting. 

“But we are seeing these incidents happen more frequently and it does sadden us.”

She said most of the content was AI-generated, but posting it invited real humans to comment further.

“The AI content stirs up more activity, and that’s what worries us,” Ms Ryan-Evers said. 

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