A major Islamic group has taken the Hindu Council of Australia and its leaders to the Federal Court. The group accuses them of spreading Islamophobia online. The council represents more than 650,000 Australians, AAP reports.
The Alliance Against Islamophobia (AAI) alleges the council and its leaders engaged in unlawful racial discrimination against Muslims. It points to a series of online posts and speeches from September 2024 onwards.
Documents filed with the court and seen by AAP accuse council president Sai Saravastu and his wife Neelima, the council’s marketing chief, of sharing far-right anti-Muslim ideology from controversial figures online.The posts include retweets quoting slain US right-wing activist Charlie Kirk and British anti-migrant activist Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, known as Tommy Robinson. In June, Neelima Saravastu shared a video of Kirk saying, “Islam is not compatible with the West. Importing millions of Muslims is suicidal.” She is a prolific user with more than 38,000 tweets.
The application describes the posts as material to “offend, insult, humiliate or intimidate Muslim people of the specified ethnicities, national origins and races in Australia.” It says the posts amount to unlawful discrimination.
The alliance first lodged its complaint with the Australian Human Rights Commission in August 2025. Attempts to reach a conciliation agreement failed. The alliance then launched court action.