A faith council and its leaders, representing more than 650,000 Australians, have been taken to court, accused of spreading Islamophobia online.
Senior leaders in the Hindu Council of Australia have been accused of spreading racial hatred after a major Islamic group took legal action in the Federal Court.
The Alliance Against Islamophobia alleged the council and its leaders engaged in unlawful racial discrimination against Muslims in 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 marketing chief wife Neelima of sharing far-right anti-Muslim ideology from controversial figures online.
They include retweets quoting slain US right-wing activist Charlie Kirk and British anti-migrant firebrand Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, better known as Tommy Robinson.
"Islam is not compatible with the West. Importing millions of Muslims is suicidal," Mr Kirk said in a video shared in June by Ms Paravastu, a prolific user with more than 38,000 tweets.
The posts are alleged to "offend, insult, humiliate or intimidate Muslim people of the specified ethnicities, national origins and races in Australia" and to have "engaged in unlawful discrimination", according to the application.
The council's director Ash Agarwal said the Hindu non-profit group and the respondents named intend to vigorously defend themselves against the accusations raised.
"While we are taking all matters raised by AAI very seriously, we strongly disagree with the characterisation of the alleged facts presented in this matter," he told AAP.
"We respect the judicial process, and will not comment on the specific details of the allegations at this early stage of this matter."
The council is not yet required to file a defence and a first hearing date for the case has not been set.
The alliance initially lodged the complaint with the Australian Human Rights Commission in August 2025 but attempts to reach a conciliation agreement failed.
As a result, court action was launched seeking the removal of the posts, a public notice for three months acknowledging an adverse finding and a contribution to their harm prevention fund.
The alliance claims many of the posts shared by the council leadership prompted comments making racist generalisations against Indian Muslims, including that they are inherently criminal.
A conspiracy theory known as the "Love Jihad" theory - where Muslims are alleged to plan a demographic takeover by seducing Hindu women - is also referenced under one of the posts, the alliance claims in the documents.
Both Mr and Ms Paravastu's X accounts remained active and publicly viewable on Tuesday.
