Police have revealed they're investigating a second potential online threat towards mosques this week in southwest Sydney. On Thursday, Lakemba Mosque posted on Facebook that it had received a comment on its TikTok account that referenced the 2019 Christchurch massacre. And this morning police said another mosque in neighbouring Padstow has also been threatened.
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:00Well, Dan, it's clearly a developing situation.
00:05Let's just start with the Lakemba mosque incident.
00:07So it was on Wednesday that at least one comment was made on TikTok, potentially a second comment
00:12also invoking the Christchurch massacre.
00:15Now that is under an urgent investigation by police.
00:19But what we've since learned is that as police commence these inquiries, a separate incident
00:25again involving a potential online threat with again an apparent reference to the Christchurch
00:31massacre targeting this time the Padstow Mosque.
00:34Here's Assistant Commissioner Brian McFadden.
00:37Well, during the course of the investigation into the Lakemba mosque, we've actually identified
00:41a second threat that's come into the neighbouring Padstow mosque.
00:45So our team out at the Camp C police area command are working with our engagement hate
00:50crime unit, the counterterrorism command, and the investigation is ongoing as we speak.
00:56And you've been at Lakemba mosque.
00:58How are people in the community they're feeling?
01:01Well, Dan, there's a real sense of fear in some instances.
01:06People talk about the noted rise in Islamophobia.
01:09We know there's research that's been produced just this month noting hundreds of percent
01:13increase in the rise in Islamophobia since the war between Israel and Hamas began.
01:20And indeed that there are many instances where people are experiencing Islamophobia and not
01:25reporting it because it is something that some people in the community say has become
01:29so frequent and so regular.
01:31However, it's also worth noting that pre-dawn prayers here Fajr at Lakemba mosque was incredibly
01:37well attended.
01:38Hundreds of people came out during Ramadan for this event and they also spoke about the
01:43need to remain resolute in their faith.
01:47It's just a shame in this day and age that we can't get rid of it.
01:51There's good and bad people everywhere.
01:53You've just got to look on the bright side and we've all just got to stay strong and
01:59stay together.
02:00These threats, they make some fear in the community because this is no good this much.
02:06We all live together here, all Lakemba nights going on the Ramadan, we pray together, everything.
02:12We fast, but this threat's no good.
02:15They have to look out for this one.
02:17So that's just a couple of people among the many hundreds that have come to the Lakemba
02:21mosque this morning to pray and there'll be more prayers throughout the day, both at midday
02:25as well, of course, into some special prayers that take place every night during Ramadan
02:30as well.
02:31In particular, Dan, just worth focusing on these police investigations once more.
02:34These are ongoing matters into these two potential online incidents at both now Lakemba mosque
02:40and neighbouring Padstow mosque.
02:41No arrests or charges as yet, but they do bear some similarity to an alleged incident
02:47earlier this month at the Masjid al-Bayt al-Islami site in Edmondson Park, also in
02:52Western Sydney, a mosque there where there was an alleged online comment made by a teenager
02:57in Western Australia who's been charged over that incident over allegedly invoking again
03:02the Christchurch massacre in relation to the mosque.