Today's Sonia Kruger 'vilified' Muslims

Television host Sonia Kruger vilified Muslims when she urged for borders to be closed to migration from the religious group, a tribunal has found.

Perry Duffin

Australian Associated PressFebruary 15, 20195:57pm

Television host Sonia Kruger's calls for Australia to close its borders to Islamic migration were a "vilifying" and "stereotypical attack on all Muslims in Australia" but did not constitute racial hatred, a tribunal has found.

The NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal on Friday ruled Kruger's assertion there was a correlation between the number of Muslims in a country and the number of terrorist attacks "would likely encourage hatred towards, or serious contempt for, Australian Muslims by ordinary members of the Australian population".

She called for an end to migration from Islamic countries.

"Personally I would like to see it stopped now for Australia," Kruger said while hosting the Today Show in 2016.

"Because I want to feel safe, as all of our citizens do, when they go out to celebrate Australia Day."

Sam Ekermawi, a practising Muslim, filed a complaint to the tribunal against the Nine Network claiming the comments were racial vilification.

But the tribunal was unable to conclude Muslims living in Australia "are a 'race' by reason of a common ethnic or ethno-religious origin" and dismissed the application as a result.

"Apart from that issue, we would have found that both of the Respondents engaged in racial vilification of the Australian Muslim community, being Muslims living in Australia, in breach of s.20C of the ADA," the judgement reads.

The tribunal also concluded Kruger and Nine acted "in good faith and without malice" in having the discussion but they could not accept her remarks were "reasonable".

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"She provided her own views and commentary on the issues and these additions were not just opinion, they were vilifying remarks in their own right," the judgment states.

The tribunal said Kruger could have given her views in a "more measured manner" to avoid vilifying the group but instead presented "a stereotypical attack on all Muslims in Australia".

The tribunal members, however, declined Mr Ekermawi's request for an apology from Kruger and Nine because he was not personally named or defamed and the event took place more than two years ago.