Pro-Nazi sticker jolt
A STICKER from a neo-Nazi group who idolise Adolf Hitler has been found in Geelong’s CBD.
The sticker, which features the Nazi-era Totenkopf symbol and the message “No Islamic Takeover”, appeared on a parking machine on Yarra St yesterday morning.
It was not immediately clear if more stickers were placed around Geelong.
It remained in plain view until at least 3pm as Boxing Day shoppers, including children, streamed down Yarra St.
The sticker claims to be the work of Combat 18, an international white supremacist group whose numbers represent the position of Adolf Hitler’s initials in the alphabet.
The group, also known as Blood and Honour, declares it is committed to “saving the white race” and accuses the media of being controlled by Zionists. On its Australian website, it states it has a “strict no media policy” and “all requests (for interviews) will be ignored”.
The sticker targeting Muslims comes 18 months after Geelong’s only mosque was destroyed in a suspicious fire.
No one has been charged over the May, 2016, incident in Manifold Heights, but police have previously said they believe the arsonist mistook the mosque for a church.
According to figures from the 2016 Census, Muslims make up just 1 per cent of the City of Greater Geelong’s population.
The number of Muslims in the area stands at 2530, an increase of 950 since 2011.
The Islamic Society of Geelong, Islamophobia Register Australia and City of Greater Geelong have been contacted for comment about the sticker.
Similar anti-Islamic stickers were placed in a children’s playground in Melbourne’s northeast in September, 2015, while in 2011 “White Power” stickers were plastered around Torquay, sparking a probe from the Victorian Multicultural Commission.
Earlier this year, a report from Charles Sturt University found there were 243 verified Islamophobic attacks in Australia during a 14-month period between 2014 and 2015.
Muslim women bore the brunt of 80 per cent of the attacks — which included assaults and verbal abuse — and 75 per cent of the attacks were inflicted by Anglo men.