A man in Sydney has been charged with punching a pregnant woman and trampling on her, in an attack that an Australian Islamic institution considered a “hatred of Islam”.
Shocking video footage from a surveillance camera showed a man approaching a table where three women wearing headscarves were sitting in a cafe in western Sydney on Wednesday.
Without any apparent provocation, the 43-year-old suspect was seen pouncing on the table to attack the 31-year-old woman, who police said was 38 weeks pregnant.
After being punched several times, the woman fell to the ground and stepped on it before people took him away.
Police said he was charged with "an attack that caused actual bodily harm and a quarrel."
But she declined to comment on the attacker's motives at a time when other charges could still be brought against him.
For his part, the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils on Thursday that the man was heard as «screaming hate speech anti-Islam in the face of the victim and her friends».
"This was a racist attack and clearly falls within the hatred of Islam and we expect it to be treated as such," said union president Ratib Junaid.
"Had it not been for the courageous actions of the community members to stop the attack, the victim would have suffered much more serious injuries," said police official Luke Seongkeggy.
Police said on Friday that the woman was taken to hospital after the attack and later left.
A recent research by Charles Sturt University has suggested that Islamophobia in Australia is a “persistent phenomenon” and that women who wear the hijab are the most vulnerable.
The researchers concluded that 96 percent of the 113 women who were victims of physical intimidation and harassment were wearing the hijab.