{"id":530510,"date":"2026-03-10T07:04:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-10T07:04:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/530510\/"},"modified":"2026-03-10T07:04:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-10T07:04:10","slug":"ballarat-muslims-traumatised-after-right-wing-attack-on-community-dinner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/530510\/","title":{"rendered":"Ballarat Muslims traumatised after right-wing attack on community dinner"},"content":{"rendered":"

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

“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.<\/p>\n

He said he ran inside thinking there might have been a fire in the kitchen.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“When I went in I asked my kids and they were shouting, ‘A guy has come in \u2026 Daddy,'” Usman said.<\/p>\n

“I saw three of our mates had restrained a man and he was having a go at us, making racial slurs.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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

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.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“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<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Victoria Police says officers did not arrest the man, but asked him “to move on”. (Supplied)<\/p>\n

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

“Not even once in 20 years we have experienced such a thing before \u2014 not me, my kids or wife,” Usman said.<\/p>\n

He said it was a “real shock”.<\/p>\n

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.<\/a><\/p>\n

Usman said he was trying to shield his daughters from this kind of thinking.<\/p>\n

“Do we need to prepare ourselves for this new thing? Is it going to be common?” he said.<\/p>\n

“[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<\/p>\n

Victoria Police said police did not arrest the alleged attacker at the scene, instead asking him “to move on”.<\/p>\n

“On arrival, [police] located a man being detained by people in the hall,” they said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“A 37-year-old man was interviewed by police at the scene and was then given a direction to move on.<\/p>\n

“The investigation into the incident is ongoing.”<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“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.<\/p>\n

“Behaviour involving threats, intimidation, and racist abuse, particularly in the presence of children, must not be tolerated.”<\/p>\n

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

“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.<\/p>\n

“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.<\/p>\n

“There is no place in Ballarat for behaviour like this.”<\/p>\n

Online racism fuelling hatred<\/p>\n

Ballarat Regional Multicultural Council\u00a0CEO Suzanne Ryan-Evers said the attack greatly saddened her, and was evidence of anti-Muslim rhetoric becoming more common.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Suzanne Ryan-Evers says she is seeing racism more frequently. (Supplied: Ethnic Communities Council)<\/p>\n

“At the moment, it’s more online,” Ms Ryan-Evers said.<\/p>\n

“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.<\/p>\n

“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.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“But we are seeing these incidents happen more frequently and it does sadden us.”<\/p>\n

She said most of the content was AI-generated, but posting it invited real humans to comment further.<\/p>\n

“The AI content stirs up more activity, and that’s what worries us,” Ms Ryan-Evers said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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