Australia’s peak body representing Muslims has labelled comments by Peter Dutton over pro-Palestine protests “dangerous, divisive, misleading and grossly irresponsible”.
The Australian National Imams Council spokesperson, Bilal Rauf, also rejected the opposition leader’s “broad, sweeping” call for the visas of antisemitic protesters to be cancelled.
Dutton made the comments after a pro-Palestine march through Sydney’s CBD on Monday evening. Some people at the event threw flares and chanted slurs including “fuck the Jews”.
On Thursday morning, Dutton told 2GB Radio: “If there were people there [at the rallies] who were on visas, they should be identified and have their visas cancelled. They should be deported.
“People with that hate in their minds, in their heart, don’t have any place in our society. If they’re non-citizens, and police should be doing this work now [to identify them] … their visas should be before the minister and on character grounds they should have their visas cancelled.”
In response, Albanese government ministers have urged the public to stay calm and let police do their work, and noted there was no evidence that the protesters making antisemitic comments were temporary residents.
Asked about Dutton’s suggestion that visa-holders involved in antisemitic chants should be deported, Rauf noted that Dutton had “more broadly” called for anyone who had attended to face visa cancellation.
“This presumes that those in attendance at a rally were engaged in illegal conduct, which is just incorrect,” Rauf said.
“Any anti-Semitic behaviour is wrong and should be addressed. But it is irresponsible to presume who said [the chants] and broadly threaten people with visa cancellation. That’s not how our system works.”
Rauf said that Dutton’s rhetoric was “designed to inflame tensions”.
Albanese has denounced rallies at which he said “appalling” and “antisemitic” slogans had been chanted, arguing publicly that they “shouldn’t have gone ahead”.
“The opposition leader is doing very little to address the genuine issues,” Rauf said. “Rather, he is inflaming the situation with provocative statements.
“This is misleading and creates division – it’s disappointing.”
The rally organisers have condemned the use of racist language at the event and said the troublemakers were in the minority.
Ahead of another pro-Palestine gathering planned for Sunday, New South Wales police announced a plan to use “extraordinary powers” to search protesters without reason and arrest and charge people who refuse to identify themselves.
The NSW premier, Chris Minns, said the powers were justified. He said there was a right to protest in NSW but the event on Sunday was being organised by the same people who organised Monday’s march and “no one can claim that that ended well”.
“We need to learn from the lessons from Monday night. Police will of course be reasonable and proportionate on the weekend,” he said on Friday.
Minns said he had a responsibility to ensure the “central tenets” of the state’s multicultural community were upheld and that he had spoken to “a range of faith leaders” over the past week.
The premier confirmed he still had not spoken directly to any of the state’s peak Palestinian groups.
In a rare public statement on Thursday, the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation chief, Mike Burgess, said tensions in the Middle East were “resonating in the Australian community”.
He added: “It is important that all parties consider the implications for social cohesion when making public statements.” He did not name any individuals.
“As I have said previously, words matter,” Burgess said. “Asio has seen direct connections between inflamed language and inflamed community tensions.”
On Friday, Dutton told FiveAA Radio that “Mike Burgess, the director general of Asio – he’s a first-class public servant – has made it very clear that he was making no reference to me in his comments”, an apparent reference to a briefing Dutton received from Burgess on Thursday.
“The Labor party’s been shopping this around, on background, they won’t say it on the record,” he said.
Dutton said he thought Burgess was instead referring to the “very serious issue” of chants at the rallies including “F the Jews” or “F Israel”.
Dutton’s call to cancel visas has been rejected by the Palestinian Action Group and the racial justice organisation Democracy in Colour.
The president of the Zionist Federation of Australia, Jeremy Leibler, backed the suggestion anyone on a visa who chanted antisemitic slogans or waved Islamic State flags should be deported.
