A Muslim mother verbally abused at a Melbourne playground and ordered to stop her child from playing with others is among dozens of attacks against the Islamic community in recent weeks.
It is one of at least six incidents nationally in which a Muslim mother has been abused, either in front of her children or while heavily pregnant, that appears on a list of abuse being compiled by Muslim community leaders.
Overall there have been 30 recorded attacks, mainly on women wearing the hijab – in the three weeks since anti-terror raids swept Sydney and the feared Islamic State stepped up their threats.
Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Ken Lay has heard anecdotal reports about Muslim members of the Melbourne community becoming the object of abuse in a heightened terror environment.
However, police data suggests the community is not reporting these attacks to police, something Mr Lay wants to see change. He has advised all police that bias-related crime must be treated seriously.
Standing beside two respected Melbourne sheikhs just days after a young Muslim man was alleged to have stabbed anti-terror police who then fired a single shot claiming his life, Mr Lay's message was clear. "It is very important for Victoria Police to become aware of these events so we can take decisive action," he said.
"Whilst we're hearing it anecdotally, without getting the actual data we're not getting the opportunity to take these people before the court, to charge them, to publicise what they're doing and thereby increasing the level of reporting," he told Fairfax Media on Thursday.
"Overwhelmingly it's covered women who are being insulted, threatened, challenged, about the way they look. Those sort of assaults they're cowardly, they're against vulnerable people."
Among other incidents recorded by the Muslim Legal Network and the recently launched Islamophobia Register is a woman who was threatened with having her hijab torn from her head and set alight, a cup of coffee being thrown through the car window of a woman driving in a hijab and a pig's head and cross thrown into the grounds of a Brisbane mosque.
A mother in western Sydney was spat on and had the pram carrying her baby kicked.
At least four mosques have been targeted with written threats, graffiti and had objects thrown at them. Queensland has the highest rate of personal assaults and threats to mosques, according to the list.
The release of the register comes after a Melbourne man was charged with racial vilification for allegedly attempting to blame a house fire on Islamic terrorists. Fabrizio Ferrari, who was also charged with arson, is accused of setting fire to a Doncaster house and posting a sign that threatened jihad on the owners.
Solicitor Lydia Shelly of the Muslim Legal Network said: "We have noticed an increase in attacks against Muslim women in public places, of those who wear a scarf or a hijab.
"As a Muslim woman, I am very concerned that this is impacting on the rights or perhaps the freedom of movement for Muslim women, because they simply do not feel safe anymore. We have had property defaced. We have had death threats issued to our spiritual leaders and threats to bomb the mosques and things like that."
Ertunc Ozen, chief executive of the Australian Turkish Advocacy Alliance said the focus on the attire worn by Muslim women was doing the work of the Islamic State by "telling our youth that they do not belong in this country and they never will".
"Also to the more extreme elements in the broader Australian community who actually feel that Muslim people and Muslim thought are totally incompatible with the Australian way of life," he said.
- With Tammy Mills