An Australian Muslim leader says the dumping of a kangaroo carcass outside an Adelaide mosque was intended to incite “fear and anger” among Muslims.
Security cameras captured on Thursday a masked figure using a wheelbarrow to transport the dead marsupial across a busy main road before dumping it outside the gates of the Marion Mosque in Park Holme in the city’s south.
The figure then pushed the empty wheelbarrow down the street, crossed the road and disappeared from view behind the nearby houses.
South Australia Police confirm they are investigating the incident.
A Facebook post from the Islamic Society of South Australia said it “appears to be a form of symbolic aggression or intimidation directed at the Muslim community”.
“This act is both bizarre and deeply disturbing.”
President Ahmad Zreika said the act was “clearly” an attempt to “intimidate or express hatred”.
At the same mosque, and also at the Al Khalil Mosque in Adelaide’s north, burning gas cylinders were placed outside last year.
Security footage shows the figure dumping the kangaroo outside the gate of the Marion Mosque in Adelaide
The person then calmly walked away and disappeared from view behind nearby properties
Recently, a Muslim woman had her child’s headscarf ripped off and was slapped in the face while Westfield Marion was with her toddler and told to ‘go back to her country’.
Shocking surveillance footage from earlier this year showed a group of Palestine supporters being pushed into a hotel elevator in the city and verbally abused by a man.
Mr Zreika called on the government to “take these incidents seriously”.
“Some political leaders are exploiting these fears to gain support or promote specific agendas,” he said. 7 News.
‘Furthermore, these problems are exacerbated by a lack of understanding and limited knowledge of Islam and Muslim cultures.’
A local Muslim leader called the dumping of the dead kangaroo “disturbing” and said it was intended to “incite fear and anger”
The government announced an envoy for both anti-Semitism and anti-Islamophobia in June this year, after tensions rose following the war between Israel and Palestine.
Jewish lawyer and businesswoman Jillian Segal was appointed anti-Semitism envoy, but her anti-Islamophobic counterpart has yet to be appointed after more than two months.
Queensland Muslim leader Ali Kadri and Sydney doctor and Lebanese community leader Jamal Rifi are both said to have held discussions about the role.