00:01The Lebanese Muslim Association, who are the custodians of Lakemba Mosque here in Sydney's west,
00:07say that members of their community have expressed their anxiety over the arrival of that third threatening letter
00:15that police have confirmed was sent to the mosque yesterday.
00:18The association says that there are many who have told them that they are simply too frightened
00:25to bring their own children to pray during the holiest time of the year for Muslims here in Australia.
00:31Now, this is the third letter that has been sent to the mosque since late January.
00:37The first was sent on January 22nd. It resulted in a 70-year-old Belmore man,
00:42an adjoining suburb here in western Sydney, being charged over those threats.
00:47The second letter was on February 4th.
00:50And in fact, this third letter that police have confirmed was sent yesterday
00:55does actually make reference to the media reporting of that second threatening letter
01:02as well as depicting violent depictions of Australian Muslims.
01:07Now, we've heard this morning from Bilal Hayek.
01:10He's the mayor of the city of Canterbury-Bankstown, the LGA that Lakemba Mosque falls under.
01:15He's called on the broader Australian community to do everything they can
01:20to combat what he has described as rising Islamophobia.
01:24Let's take a quick listen to what he had to say.
01:27Very difficult times for the community.
01:29Mate, there's no time for hate.
01:30We need to get together.
01:31No matter what side of the aisle you sit on,
01:34we live in the best country in the world
01:36and we need to make sure we shut those hate voices out there.
01:40Max, what's the government had to say?
01:44Well, the Premier, Chris Minns, has assured Muslim Australians
01:48that the New South Wales police force are very much on their side
01:51and will be doing everything they can to ensure their safety during the month of Ramadan.
01:57It is obviously a very difficult time.
02:00That relationship between the New South Wales police and Muslim Australians
02:04has been under a great deal of strain.
02:06That's something that the Premier acknowledged in that statement.
02:10He did make reference to those February 9 town hall demonstrations
02:14where vision did show New South Wales police officers moving on a group of Muslim men
02:20during the act of prayer.
02:22But the Premier does say that that move was not intentional.
02:26At the same time, he has said that the New South Wales police will have extra services
02:32and extra officers on the ground throughout the month.
02:36One thing that we did see from the Lebanese Muslim Association
02:38was a call to the government to increase security measures,
02:42including additional CCTV, as well as calling for the funding of additional security on the ground.
02:49Now, the New South Wales police will be beefing up their security over the month.
02:54This will be part of Operation Shelter, which was originally formed back in October of 2023
03:00to combat rising anti-Semitic attacks across New South Wales.
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