Sydney Muslim Schoolgirl Verbally Abused on Bus in Shocking Islamophobic Attack

A disturbing video has gone viral online, showing a 13-year-old Muslim schoolgirl being verbally abused on a Sydney bus. The incident has sparked widespread outrage and renewed concerns about rising Islamophobia in the community.

"Immigrant mutt … You don't deserve to be here," a stranger on the bus said to Janna, according to footage of the incident. Janna, who was wearing a hijab and her school uniform, was riding the bus back from school in Sydney when the incident occurred.

"I kept telling him I was born here in Australia. I have never left," Janna said.

In the video recording, the accused man can be heard calling Janna names, including a "c**k sucking f***ing animal", an "immigrant dog", "a f***ing terrorist" and "a piece of sh**".

Janna said she did not know who the man was, and kept reminding him of her young age, but said the derogatory comments continued.

"It felt really … disgusting," she said.

According to Janna, the verbal abuse started after she saw the man taking photos of another young girl on the bus wearing a hijab, without her knowledge. Janna stood up for the girl and told her what was happening, which she said then triggered the tirade caught on video.

A witness on the bus filmed the incident and uploaded it to her social media account with the caption: "I'm so f***ing scared." The video has since gone viral with thousands of shares.

NSW Police are investigating the incident. Janna and her mother Roula filed a police report, and police told that "inquiries into the incident are continuing".

NSW Police acting deputy commissioner Peter McKenna described the alleged conduct as "disgusting".

"We will investigate that matter, and we will throw the book at that person when we find them because it is outrageous," he said.

"Social cohesion at the moment is at a precipice, especially since [the terror attack at] Bondi."

The behaviour of the man captured in the video was described as "deplorable" by a Transport for NSW spokesperson.

"Everyone deserves the right to travel safely and feel safe on public transport," the spokesperson said. Transport for NSW said the bus driver was not aware of the incident at the time it occurred.

This case is part of a growing number of anti-Muslim incidents recorded by the Islamophobia Register Australia (IRA). The Register said reported incidents had increased 612 per cent since October 2023.

IRA's executive director, Aishah Ali, said she was "beyond horrified".

"Janna's incident was not a salient one," Ms Ali said. "We have reports like this that come in every other day. We have victims who are experiencing verbal abuse daily."

"This situation actually is extreme, but it's actually not the worst of them."

Women and children have increasingly become targets of anti-Muslim hate, Ms Ali said. "Women have historically, through all of our documented research, disproportionately been affected by Islamophobia," she said.

More than 90 per cent of targets of Islamophobia are Muslim women, according to Ms Ali.

"These experiences are normalised by the public and are now also being normalised as part and parcel of just being a Muslim Australian," she said.

Janna's mother Roula said she was "incredibly proud" of her daughter for standing up for the other girl.

"The way she responded, the way she respected her environment and her hijab. It shows her character."

"She stood strong and said I'm not going to tolerate that," she said.

Roula said she had taught her daughter to be vigilant about possible Islamophobia when Janna began wearing a hijab earlier this year.

"When she told me what happened, I told her, 'Janna, you're going to go through a lot of that as a hijabi'," she said.

Roula said she was horrified that her daughter had very little support from others on the bus.

"Nobody intervened — I was not expecting the passengers to intervene, but the bus driver should have stopped the bus," she said.

Ms Ali said bystander intervention was key to combating Islamophobia.

"It should never be on a 13-year-old to have to take up space in that sort of way and put them in a position of unsafety," she said.