Arabella, a 14-year-old Lebanese restaurant in Sydney, Australia, was attacked Sunday morning. Racist slurs were also scrawled on the smashed windowpanes.
The attack comes after a steady rise in popularity of right-wing politics in Europe and the West, such as the National Front in France or Pegyda in Germany, due to escalating fears of ISIS-linked operations. Faced with a refugee crisis, countries such as Hungary have sealed their borders, allowed violent repression, and threatened to imprison those who illegally cross into their territories .
Mohammad Zahrour, who goes by Moey Hachem on Facebook and is Arabella's owner and chef, told the Daily Telegraph that he and his family had been receiving threats for months before the attack on Sunday. Last year, anti-Arabic and anti-Islamic slurs were painted on the restaurant's back lane.
“Last Friday someone used a key or something metal to write on my glass f*** all Arabs," he said.
Zahrour, who immigrated to Australia in 1974, said that these attacks were brought on by the current tensions in the Middle East and blamed the rise of ISIS.
He posted pictures showing the smashed windowpanes on Facebook, and wondered if the media would cover what happened to his restaurant:
[include id="12" title="FacebookEmbed"]
Talking about racist people this what happen at my restaurant (Arabella ) tonight at 130 am and they left racist...
Posted by Moey Hachem on Monday, September 21, 2015
“If one Muslim guy got attacked, no one would talk about it much, that’s why I put it on Facebook because this time, I’m tired, I want to spread it ... I want to talk it out," he later told The Daily Telegraph.