In brief
- The 50-year-old man was arrested on Tuesday after an alleged incident last Thursday.
- Islamophobia Register Australia says there has been a sixfold increase in Islamophobic reports over the past three years.
A NSW man has been charged after allegedly directing racist and Islamophobic abuse at a teenage girl on a bus in Sydney's inner-west last week.
The Muslim teenager was travelling home from school on 10 September, heading from Strathfield railway station to Greenacre, when she was allegedly subjected to a stream of verbal abuse from the man.
The 13-year-old was wearing her full school uniform and a hijab.
Footage of the incident circulated on social media and showed a man calling the girl a "terrorist", an "immigrant dog" and an "immigrant mutt", and saying she "didn't deserve to be here".
In a separate unpublished video seen by SBS News, the man could be seen speaking to a bystander who intervened, a woman wearing a hijab, saying he couldn't "wait 'til they kill all of you".
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The 50-year-old man was arrested by NSW Police at a home in Greenacre on Tuesday afternoon and taken to Bankstown Police Station.
He has been charged with stalk/intimidate with intent to cause fear of physical harm, which carries a maximum penalty of five years' imprisonment.
He was refused bail and will face Bankstown Local Court on Wednesday.
The girl's mother, who spoke to SBS News before the man was charged, said her daughter believed he was photographing another girl in school uniform and approached her to let her know.
The mother, who was not on the bus at the time, said the man then started "attacking" her daughter verbally, saying she "didn't deserve to be in this country".
She was also subjected to a string of other slurs, including sexualised and dehumanising language, which SBS News has chosen not to publish.
The girl could be heard repeatedly saying she was 13 years old.
Her mother believes she was targeted because she was wearing a hijab.
Aishah Ali, executive director of the Islamophobia Register Australia, said the incident reflected the more than sixfold increase in Islamophobic reports since October 2023.
"The harassment of a young, visibly Muslim thirteen-year-old girl is a microcosm of the state of Islamophobia nationwide," she said in a statement to SBS News.
"It is unsettling that these Islamophobic incidents are occurring in public spaces, which, as well documented by the Register’s research, still do not remain safe for every Australian, especially the young and vulnerable."
There were 309 reported in-person Islamophobic incidents between January 2023 and December 2024, according to an Islamophobia in Australia report published last year — more than double the annual average of previous reporting incidents.
State Labor MP for Strathfield Jason Yat-sen Li issued a statement saying he was "horrified and deeply angry" by the alleged incident and congratulated the teen for speaking up.
"In response, she was subjected to [an alleged] vile tirade of racist and Islamophobic abuse," he said.
"Let me be absolutely clear: Strathfield will not tolerate racist or Islamophobic abuse, particularly when it targets children."
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