Australia Day Billboard with Girls in Hijabs Prompts Online Call to 'Bomb' Canberra Theater
The ACT Government-run theater took to social media on Monday stating it was "proud to be displaying" the advertisement on its big screen in the center of Canberra until January 26.
But the theater soon deleted the post and locked down its social media pages after it was inundated with threatening messages.
The anti-Islamic group Respect Australia posted the theater's contact details to its members encouraging them to make their feelings known.
Those posts have attracted hundreds of comments including calls to bomb the theater building, set fire to it or destroy the screen with bricks.
"Bomb it," reads one post, "burn that down now" reads another.
Others called for "people ... to go there and destroy it" and "torch da (sic) dump".
In a video he uploaded to his own Facebook page, an organizer of Respect Australia can be seen with supporters out of the front of the theater, accusing the ACT Government of being "un-Australian".
"This isn't a racial thing, it isn't any religious discrimination or anything, this is an Australian cultural thing," the organizer said in the videos.
The billboard first made headlines when it was pulled down in Melbourne's south-east after the advertising company was abused and threatened for including the images of the two girls in hijabs.
Anti-racism campaigners lobbied and raised funds for its return.
The ACT Government said on Monday it was joining that campaign by "using this image across Government assets in the lead up to Australia Day".
"The image of these young girls is a wonderful example of multiculturalism at work," an ACT Government statement said.
"These girls are proudly Australian but also respectful of their heritage. They are a fine example of a 21st century Australia which should be celebrated and seen by as many people as possible."
Source: ABC.net
