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‘Does not belong in this country': Hockey Australia stands by Peris as more anti-Islam re-posts emerge

‘Does not belong in this country': Hockey Australia stands by Peris as more anti-Islam re-posts emerge

The Age5 days ago
Hockey gold medallist and former Labor senator Nova Peris shared a series of social media posts scathing of Islam in the lead-up to her election as a director of the sport, including one which said the religion 'should be banned in the West'.
Peris was voted onto the board of Hockey Australia last month, nearly three decades after her triumph with the national women's team, the Hockeyroos, at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.
But her position as a director of the government-funded national federation has come under question because of comments she has re-posted online this year.
This masthead reported that the pro-Israel campaigner shared a comment from another user on X in April that called Muslims 'Satan worshipping cockroaches that need to be eradicated'.
That account is no longer active, but other Peris re-posts of anti-Islam rhetoric in the three months before her elevation to the Hockey Australia board have remained on her profile on the social media platform.
The 54-year-old, who has 15,000 followers on X, shared a comment by right-wing commentator Kobie Thatcher on April 18 that denounced Muslims praying in public in Parramatta on Good Friday.
'An Islamic prayer service taking place in Prince Alfred Square. This does not belong in this country!' the post said.
Peris re-posted material from another user on April 16 who said, 'Islam should be banned in the West'. The comment was made in reaction to a Muslim man in the US who told an interviewer: 'this American empire must fall' and 'people are willing to fight and put their lives on the line to bring these Western empires down'.
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