A left-wing Middle Eastern immigrant councillor has launched an attack on Australia Day, calling the colonisation of the country a “holocaust” and saying January 26 should not be celebrated.
Pharmacist and western Sydney councillor Ahmed Ouf, who was allowed to come to Australian from Egypt, has so far posted two videos attacking his adopted country’s national day on his official Cumberland City Councillor Instagram account.
In the most recent clip Mr Ouf, who ran as an independent in last year’s federal election with the endorsement of a Muslim voting bloc organisation, started by saying: “The Australian holocaust began on 26th January 1788. At that time, Australian was home to around one million aboriginal people.
View this post on Instagram
“These were stable societies that lived for tens of thousands of years. What followed was catastrophic. Massacres, genocide, forced removals, ethnic cleansing, introduced disease. The destruction of land, food systems, families and culture.”
In an earlier video he says “it’s important we do not celebrate the day on which the genocide, the beginning of the killing, the displacement, the rape started”.
Mr Ouf’s comments sparked outrage in his comment sections, with many Australians objecting to his claims, and comes after a poll showed the vast majority of Australians support keeping the day on January 26.
“You seem to not like Australia? Perhaps it’s time to leave,” said one.
“Islamic colonisation killed millions . Looking forward to your videos on that,” said another.
“If you don’t stand for it, leave the country and find one that supports your values,” said a third.
View this post on Instagram
While running for parliament in the seat of Blaxland, which at the time of the 2021 Census was majority foreign-born and 31.7% Muslim, Mr Ouf said Canberra needed “someone with an accent”.
“You need someone with dark skin, an immigrant, someone from a minority, who is independent and can speak freely, in Canberra, representing this area,” Mr Ouf said.
Then in August he made headline for a loud council meeting clash with Labor’s Diane Colman over an Easter event, in which he told her to “shut up when I’m talking”.
Ms Colman later said it looked like a case of “extreme misogyny”, but Mr Ouf calling that a “mischaracterisation” and said he never meant to disrespect Ms Colman or “make any comments based on gender, race, or religion”.
At the time of the 2021 Census, Cumberland Local Government area was just 39.7% Australian-born, with 10.6% of the population saying they had Australian ancestry, and 26.6% speaking only English at home.
Header image: Left, right, Ahmed Ouf in his videos (Instagram).
