An Australian writer has become the target of intense online abuse and political condemnation after a controversial Facebook post about Anzac Day. Yassmin Abdel-Magied, a 26-year-old mechanical engineer and former Young Australian of the Year, wrote 'LEST. WE. FORGET. (Manus, Nauru, Syria, Palestine...)' on April 25, referencing Australia's offshore detention of asylum seekers. The post was quickly deleted and followed by an apology, but the backlash was immediate and severe.
The Daily Telegraph branded the post 'a sickening insult to the nation's war dead', while Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and other senior ministers publicly criticised her. Government backbencher George Christensen urged her to consider 'self-deportation' and called for her to be sacked from the ABC. Social media erupted with hate, forcing Abdel-Magied to move house and change her phone number. She later revealed she received daily death threats and videos of rapes and beheadings.
Abdel-Magied, who was born in Sudan and moved to Australia as a baby, had previously been celebrated as a symbol of multiculturalism. She was named Queensland's Young Australian of the Year in 2015 and appointed to the federal government's Council for Australian-Arab Relations. However, her outspoken views on Islam and feminism, as well as a public spat with writer Lionel Shriver in 2016, had already drawn criticism.
Some commentators argue that the ferocity of the attacks reflects a broader coarsening of Australia's discourse on race. The controversy has been linked to other incidents, including a call for the Race Discrimination Commissioner to 'go back to Laos' by a Spectator Australia editor. Abdel-Magied has since moved to London, saying she was 'traumatised' by being 'deemed the face of all that is evil'.
