A controversial billboard condemning Islamic Sharia Law has been vandalised.
The ‘No Sharia Here’ sign on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast was spray painted with the phrase ‘No Racists Here’.
The billboard, on the Sunshine Motorway at Maroochydore, was commissioned by conservative activist group Sunshine Coast Safe Communities.
The Sunshine Coast motorway billboard before (top) and after (bottom) the graffiti attack
They have denounced the weekend graffiti attack as an affront to western, liberal values.
‘Those responsible for vandalising this sign on private property support Sharia law,’ the group said.
‘We challenge them to defend it along with the denigration of women’s rights, underage marriages, wife beating, female genital mutilation and polygamy under Sharia.’
The group, who commissioned the sign three years ago, called the vandals ‘cowards and ignorant idiots’.
‘Only those that hate equality, freedoms and western values would support Sharia and call the defense of freedoms and equality as racism,’ it said.
‘But will they remain cowards and ignorant idiots?’
Conservative activist group Sunshine Coast Safe Communities have challenged the graffiti
The group ended the message by challenging the vandals to contact them directly.
The message was met with support from local residents in the Sunshine Coast region.
‘Yep, vandalism here! Left-wing Green voting dim wits!,’ one man said.
Another said: ‘This is scary. How are they trying to introduce Sharia Law onto the Sunshine Coast?’
Another supporter described the graffiti attack as cowardly.
‘They do their cowardly deeds in the middle of the night when no one can see and they would never confront you to ask why because they would not have the brains to comprehend what you are saying. Cowards.’
While there were messages of support for the page and its condemnation of Sharia Law, there were far more who slammed the page for its ‘stupidity’.
‘Sharia Law is only 2.8 per cent of the Australian population you muppets,’ one man said.
The original billboard condemning a strict Islamic legal system has attracted controversy
In the 2016 Census, Muslims made up 2.6 per cent of the Australian population but not all Muslims support Sharia law, especially secular-minded people who support a separation of religion and state.
Sharia law is a strict Islamic legal system, which ranges from 100 lashes for adultery in Indonesia’s Aceh province to the death penalty for homosexual acts in places like Iran, Yemen, Nigeria and Saudi Arabia.
Islamist extremists groups in Australia support Sharia law, including Hizb ut-Tahrir.
Despite this, critics of the billboard threatened to desecrate the billboard again.
‘The only cowards are the flogs that put up this billboard. How stupid are they, (if they) put up another one? It will meet the same fate,’ one message said.
One woman threatened to tear down the sign.
‘I don’t support Sharia law but I’d happily tear this sign down because I don’t support stupidity either,’ she said.