Just a small sample of the casual #racism I sometimes cop as an Arab Australian journalist 🤌🏽
Notice how polite I was to him before he declared immigrants are the root of all problems.
I was covering a hit and run by the way…but I guess the culprit is always “immigrants”. pic.twitter.com/Q7tI0l15XU
— Nabil Al-Nashar | نبيل النشار (@NabilAlNashar) March 6, 2024
An Egyptian ABC journalist who grew up in Qatar has been slammed for a social media post complaining about “casual racism”.
Nabil Al-Nashar, who became an Australian citizen just one year ago, shared a video on X captioned: “Just a small sample of the casual racism I sometimes cop as an Arab Australian journalist.
“Notice how polite I was to him before he declared immigrants are the root of all problems. I was covering a hit and run by the way…but I guess the culprit is always ‘immigrants’.”
The video showed a passerby saying “because of increased immigration, thanks very much” and Al-Nashar replying “Great. Immigrants are always the problem, even when it’s a hit-and-run – you’ve heard it here first”.
But the top X comments were all negative, and users pointed out that Al-Nashar appeared to have misunderstood the member of the public, and that the context was unclear.
“He said immigration, not immigrants … mentioned absolutely nothing about race or your Arab background. Takes like this do worse for ethnic relations than simply mentioning the word “immigration’,” wrote one critic.
“He couldn’t have stated his opinion any more politely, Nabil.. and surely you have a basic grasp on statistics sufficient to recognize that he’s speaking the truth, re hit and run statistics?” another highly liked comment said.
“What’s the full context of this including the question posed to him?” asked another X user.
“Otherwise, all I see is a cheap ‘gotcha’ by someone hazily inferring the reaction was born of inherent hatred towards anything ethnic for clicks.”
This is not the first time Al-Nashar – who gives his location on x as “Darug Country (Parramatta, NSW)” has claimed to be a victim of racism while on the job.
In December 2022 he claimed he was working when a police officer asked him if he worked for the Middle-Eastern broadcaster Al Jazeera and not the ABC, and filed a complaint asking for an apology.
NSW Police responded by saying “misconduct had occurred” but no apology was given.
Al-Nashar also came in for criticism over a May 2023 article where he sympathised with two Sudanese refugee brothers with horrific criminal histories who were “in limbo” in indefinite immigration detention.
“Why is an ABC journalist advocating for people like these two violent criminals to stay in Australia?” asked an incredulous reader.
It is unclear whether the two brothers were among the 149 criminal asylum seekers released in November after a landmark High Court decision ruling indefinite detention unlawful.
