The echoes of Hazara persecution in Australia

In my previous post, when I wrote that Afghans brought the persecution of the Hazaras to Australia, there was a reason. Clear signs of this persecution have emerged. Just yesterday, The Guardian Australia reported that Zahid Safi's campaign team has escalated their tactics. According to journalist Henry Belot, the team is now pressuring members of the Hazara diaspora, claiming that voting for anyone other than the Liberal Party constitutes a betrayal of Abdur Rahman Khan, often referred to as "Afghanistan's Hitler." Zahid campaign volunteers, mostly made up of Pashtuns, have told the Hazaras that we have to resurrect Abdur Rahman Khan. 

Labor alleges the volunteer told people that a vote for anyone other than the Liberals would betray Khan, and called for him to be “brought back”. Khan is linked to the Hazara genocide in the late 1800s.

“I am concerned that the reason Liberal volunteers are invoking Abdur Rahman Khan’s name is to harass and intimidate members of the local Hazara community,” said the letter to the commission from Jett Fogarty, an Australian Labor party official.

This is deeply concerning. For members of the Hazara community in Australia, such rhetoric must be profoundly distressing and potentially retraumatizing. It raises serious questions about what protective mechanisms are in place to support targeted communities in situations like this. The political parties and representatives have a responsibility to address and counteract this kind of vicious rhetoric and to ensure Hazaras feel safe.