In an act of retaliation against “a series of complaints, some of which were of an abusive and threatening nature”, anti-racism campaigners have doubled their $50,000 target to have a taken-down Australia Day advertisement, featuring two young girls in hijabs, put back up.
The electronic billboard, which was originally located in the Melbourne suburb of Cranbourne, is said to have received copious amounts of complaints, namely targeted at QMS, the organisation that put the billboard up.
“There were a series of complaints, some of which were of an abusive and threatening nature, that were made to the organisation QMS that put the billboard up,” Robin Scott, Victoria’s Minister for Multicultural Affairs, says.
And it is these “complaints” that spurred advertising agency Campaign Edge to create a GoFundMe page to feature the girls in another campaign.
“I’m really angry, this was a photo of two young Australian girls celebrating Australia Day,” executive director of Campaign Edge told ABC Radio Melbourne, [as reported by the ABC.
“I feel for the Muslim community, they’re damned if they do, damned if they don’t.”
Worryingly, this comes after Helen Kapalos, chairperson of the Victorian Multicultural Commission, explained that racism experienced by the Islamic community was inciting “genuine fear”.
“Racism is cyclical”, she began, “but this brand of racism is not something that we’ve seen before and not encountered before, and I believe that this will have to be a sustained campaign.
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