Image: NSW Premier Chris Minns (AAP Image/Dan Himbrechts)
NSW Premier Chris Minns has refused to apologise to the Muslim community after police were filmed dragging a group of men kneeling down to pray during Monday’s protest against the Australian visit of Israeli president, Isaac Herzog.
The Lebanese Muslim Association (LMA) and the Australian Federal Imams Council (Afic) have called on the premier and the NSW police commissioner, Mal Lanyon, to issue a public apology, saying police conduct on the night represented serious breach of religious sanctity.
“It is deeply distressing, unacceptable, and not reflective of the Australia we know or the values we claim to uphold,” they said in a joint statement on Tuesday.
“This outrage and deep concern are shared by more than one million Australian Muslims and many more faith leaders across Australia.”
While Lanyon has apologised “for any offence that may have been taken”, Minns told reporters on Thursday that he wouldn’t be apologising.
“I don’t do that in an antagonistic way, but I think the circumstances are important, and I genuinely believe … that NSW police, their leadership, their regular officers, would never, ever have disrupted a prayer service, or individual Australians who were exercising their religion unless it was in the middle of a riot,” he said.
It echos his comments made earlier in the wake of the violence, where Minns said the “circumstances leading to the confrontation [were] incredibly important” and that police did everything in their power to avoid confrontation.
Labor MPs back Greens’ call for inquiry
The Islamophobia Register said the absence of accountability from Minns and Lanyon deepens the harm done to communities already facing disproportionate levels of hostility, and reinforces the minimisation of Islamophobic harm.
“The public backlash we are seeing reflects a deeper discomfort in the Australian community,” said Executive Director Dr Nora Amath. “People understand instinctively that interfering with peaceful worship, particularly when it involves women who already face disproportionate hate, crosses a serious line.”
Since 7 October 2023, the Register has documented a 619% increase in reported instances of Islamophobia.
Greens upper house member and party spokesperson for justice, Sue Higginson, has called for an independent inquiry from the Law Enforcement Conduct Commission (LECC) into police conduct at the protest.
“No person is above the law in NSW, and where police officers have committed offences, they should be investigated and charged where an offence has occurred,” she said.
“If the LECC do not have the powers that they need to independently investigate the police operation and conduct, the Greens will introduce legislation into the NSW Parliament to deliver any changes necessary. We expect all Members of Parliament to support any reforms in the name of public safety and sound policing.”
Labor MLC Stephen Lawrence has backed calls for an inquiry, but said it shouldn’t focus soley on “protesters and police”.
“The difficult truth is that political and legal elites actually caused the Town Hall riot,” he said. “A dysfunctional political culture in NSW created possibly the most draconian anti-protest laws in the Western world and an almost inevitable riot, that I openly predicted in parliament late last year.”
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