• ‘I hate Islam’: Violent racist’s train tirade not Australian
• A 39-year-old woman was arrested and charged with assault on Saturday but has been released on bail.

MELBOURNE – A Melbourne Muslim women suffered cuts and bruises after coming to the aid of another passenger and her child who were being racially targeted on a train, Sunshine Coast Daily reported.

“I was attacked along with another lady and her child,” Fahima Adan, 20, wrote on Facebook. “I … protected this innocent woman and her child against this racist crazy lady.”

Adan was travelling towards Westall train station in Melbourne’s southeast shortly after midday on Saturday when she says a Muslim woman and her child were attacked.

Video footage of the incident showed another woman yelling, “I hate Islam.” When Adan intervened, the woman ripped off her hijab.

“This woman ran for her safety away from the lady to the other side of the train leaving her belongings where she was harassed. It really opened my eyes how no one even tried to stop the lady once she jumped towards me trying to take my hijab off.

“All everyone did was recorded… I’m so hurt and disgusted to be disrespected like that, I’m an Australian citizen, I work and take public transportation like everybody else.

“When I got outside the lady continued to harass me and actually took my scarf off me, threw it into the bushes.”

According to news reports, a 39-year-old woman was arrested and charged with assault on Saturday but has been released on bail.

Rising Hate

The incident was shocking for the young Australian Muslim woman.

“I feel belittled and disgusted in a country I call ‘home’. I was disrespected in so many ways; this was so wrong and justice never came, it was thrown to the side like it was nothing,” she said.

“I fear for my safety at this point. I no longer feel safe outside and don’t know what’s next.”

Muslims, who have been in Australia for more than 200 years, make up 1.7 per cent of its 20-million population.

Islam is the country’s second largest religion after Christianity.

Women wearing a hijab or other Islamic head coverings are overwhelmingly bearing the brunt of public Islam hate attacks, making up almost 80 per cent of victims.

Overwhelmingly, the majority of the attacks (75 per cent) were perpetrated by Anglo men and NSW has the most reported physical assaults — 60 per cent.

The alarming statistics were revealed by the Islamophobia Register Australia in July 2017, showing 243 verified incidents of harassment between September 2014 and December 2015.

The Islamophobia Register Australia was established in 2014 in response to growing anecdotal evidence of Islamophobic discrimination.