Sunday 6th July 2025
By Christina McIntosh
On Sunday 6th July Never Again is Now organised a ‘Rally against Terrorism’ in four Australian cities, Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and Perth.
I would describe the “United Against Terror” rally (it really should have been called ‘United Against Jihad and Sharia’, because that was what it was!!!) here in Brisbane. It was a smallish gathering, with maybe 2 or 3 hundred people present (I tried making a rough count; but as each of the several groups collaborating – not only Never Again Is Now, but at least three other bodies – will have asked intending attendees to register, they should have a pretty good idea of how many turned up; I have not yet checked their website or communiques).
The blue and white sky above the office towers surrounding the square made me think of the Israeli flag
There was a smallish contingent of non-Jewish euro-Australians like myself (mostly middle-aged and upwards, though I did speak with a young man who would have been in his 30s), an expat Māori group who were all Christians, a small number of Queensland Jews (our Jewish community in Brisbane and in southeast Queensland is very small compared to that of Melbourne or Sydney) and a large contingent of Indian and freedom-minded Iranian (or, rather, ‘Persian’?) attendees and speakers.
The Indians focused on the recent jihad mass-murderous raid in Kashmir on 22nd April this year, which was carried out by Lashkar-e-Taiba; victims of this raid were commemorated alongside the Jewish victims of the 7th October 2023 assault by Hamas, and the many young Iranians who have been murdered in recent years by the sharia enforcers in despotic Islamic Iran. Two young ladies from the Indian community sang a traditional Hindu song in honour of the soldiers who defend the homeland; specifically honouring those who undertook India’s response to the jihad atrocity in Kashmir.
I get the feeling that the energy with which the Indian government responded to the atrocity in Kashmir – entering Pakistan to hammer four Lashkar-e-Taiba training camps…and then also delivering a salutary wallop to a few Pakistani military targets – may have been in part inspired by the Israeli actions in response to October 23.
Toward the close of the rally there was a minute and a half’s silence in honour of the victims: portrait photos of many – recent Jewish and Indian victims of Jihadi terror raids, and young Iranian victims of the mullahs’ reign of terror – were set out in rows on the green grass of the chosen venue – Post Office Square, a small green space in central Brisbane, directly south of Anzac Square.
Brisbane has quite a large expat and immigrant Indian community, who – whether Christian like my own current parish priest, or traditionally Hindu – are mostly deeply appreciative of Australia and its (relative) peace and freedom to date. The Iranian speakers, (with not a hijab in sight!) their non-Islamic Persian flag with its lion was flying alongside the Israeli flag, (and the Indian flag and of course the Australian flag) were calling for one plain and practical measure: that is, they wanted the Australian government to identify the IRGC (Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps) as a terrorist organisation, and ban it, in line with action taken by the USA and, surprisingly, Canada. Seemingly our current government has NOT taken this simple and obvious step; it needs to do so.
The gathering concluded with the singing of the Australian national anthem. I had interesting conversations toward the end, with a couple of the Jewish attendees. Taking the opportunity to express solidarity with Aussie Jews and with Israel, and my disgust with the appalling anti-Israel propaganda that now passes for ‘news’ in our legacy media, and the gutlessness of our current government. The weather was clear and not too cold. indeed, it was so warm and sunny that the crowd ended up becoming a sort of hollow rectangle, with people clustering together along the edges of the oblong lawn where there was a bit of shade! (Except for people like me who had providently brought umbrellas, to use as parasols). It was warm enough, indeed, that the organisers sent a few people around to offer bottles of water to anyone who might be feeling the heat.
There was no external disruption of the proceedings; everyone arrived peacefully, behaved politely, and dispersed peacefully afterward. I didn’t take a lot of photos, not wanting to inadvertently photograph the face of anyone who might not want to be photographed.
The images of the victims of Jihad.. those young Israelis, young Indians (including small children) and young non-behijabbed Iranians are very eloquent..
Note: I understand that the Sydney and Melbourne rallies, taking place at about the same time, were much larger; there was also one held in Perth, I don’t know how that one went (Perth is somewhat smaller than Brisbane).
There is not a grea deal of news on-line about these rallies but the Australian Jewish News has this report on the Melbourne Rally, held in the aftermath of the jihad attacks there on Friday night and Saturday morning.
About 800 people from Melbourne’s Jewish, Hindu, Iranian and Christian communities gathered on Sunday afternoon for a peaceful rally and vigil to honour victims of terrorism worldwide.
The event, organised by the Minority Impact Coalition, commemorated victims of the October 7 Hamas massacre, Israeli civilians targeted by Islamic Regime missile strikes, Hindus murdered in the Pahalgam terrorist attack in India, and Iranian civilians persecuted and executed by the Islamic Regime.
Similar events were also held in Sydney, Brisbane and Perth.
The rally at the Victorian State Parliament came in the wake of recent antisemitic incidents in Melbourne, including attacks on a restaurant and synagogue, which organisers said contributed to higher than expected attendance.
“I think people felt the need to come out today, after what’s happened this week,” said Simmone Whine from J-United, one of the Melbourne event organisers. “It was amazing to have our Hindu and our Iranian friends who we’ve built connections with for the last eight months to have them standing with us side by side, same message, we’re all united against terror.”
Whine said the Jewish community had built relationships with other communities through initiatives including the Put the Greens Last campaign. “When we as Jews build relationships with other people we can unite and things will be better for us in this country,” she said.
Saurabh, secretary of the Australian Hindu Community, who spoke at the event, cited historical bonds between the communities as motivation for his participation.
“Both the Hindu community and the Jewish community are the victims of terrorism. We have suffered a lot because of terrorism. Our people have been displaced multiple times because of the terrorism issues, and we share the same grief,” he said. “Hindus and the Jewish community have a very strong bond. Jews arrived in India 2000 years back, and we have never been at confrontation. And for last 2000 years, we lived very peacefully. Hence it’s my moral duty to stand with the Jewish community.”
Victorian Opposition Liberal Party Leader Brad Battin attended the rally alongside Caulfield MP David Southwick. “I think it’s an important message to send out to not just the Jewish community, but the Iranian communities, the Hindu communities, that we all stand together against terrorism, whether it’s here in Victoria with the hate on the street or overseas,”
The Opposition Leader emphasised the broader significance of the unity displayed.
“When you get three groups like that united, you’re actually starting to see that this is actually not just a one off cause. This is a cause to say we’ve got to stop this worldwide.”
