Culture

A Muslim School In Perth Has Been Targeted In An Islamophobic Terror Attack

"Muslim community of Thornlie, I feel sick that you have to endure attacks like this."

by Alex McKinnon  29 June 2016

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WA Muslims have been targeted in an Islamophobic terror attack. Worshippers at Perth’s Thornlie mosque and the Australian Islamic College were praying evening prayers at around 8pm last night when a petrol bomb inside a four-wheel drive parked outside exploded.

While no one was injured in the explosion, the fact that it’s currently Ramadan meant that an unusually large congregation, numbering in the hundreds, was inside when the bomb went off. The words “Fuck Islam” were scrawled on the college’s wall.

WA Police said that “three people were seen running down an alleyway next to the college” after the attack, and encouraged anyone with information to call Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.

In a post on Facebook, AIC representative Yahya Adel Ibrahim said the attack was “undoubtedly is a criminal act of hate”, and that “everyone stayed to finish their prayers refusing to give into the terror that had just occurred”.

“I know the outpouring of support from the community will be overwhelming because Perth has the best, kindest, and most warm-hearted people,” Ibrahim said.

Chris Tallentire, a WA Labor politician and Member for the local district of Gosnells, was on the scene to help remove the graffiti.

In a post on Facebook addressed to the “Muslim community of Thornlie”, Tallentire said that he “feel[s] sick that you have to endure attacks like this”.

Several WA universities have been targeted with similar attacks recently. In December, a severed pig’s head was left in a prayer room bathroom on the University of Western Australia campus in December, while members of far-right anti-Islam group Reclaim Australia have physically intimidated Muslims trying to pray at Curtin University.

While the bombing has caught the attention of numerous media outlets, places like Sunrise and the Daily Mail have been reluctant to describe this as a terrorist attack. Australian media has a history of referring to these kinds of attacks — perpetrated by people who aren’t Muslim — in more innocuous terms, as “bomb plots” or “arson”.