AAI Calls for Australia’s Classification System to Address Anti-Muslim Vilification and Dehumanisation

In a submission to the Australian Government’s review of classification standards, the Alliance Against Islamophobia has called for stronger recognition of vilification, dehumanisation and anti-Muslim hate — including harmful narratives circulating through some Bollywood films, streaming platforms and online media.

The Alliance Against Islamophobia (AAI) has urged the Australian Government to ensure that the modernisation of Australia’s classification system addresses a major gap: media content that vilifies, dehumanises or encourages hatred towards protected communities.

In its April 2026 submission on Modernising and Harmonising Classification Standards, AAI argues that Australia’s classification framework should do more than modernise ratings, language and technology. It should also recognise the harms caused when racial or religious communities are repeatedly portrayed as dangerous, deceitful, inferior or threatening to society.

A particular concern raised by AAI is the circulation of anti-Muslim narratives through some recent Bollywood and wider Indian media content, and the potential for these narratives to contribute to hostility and social division within diaspora communities, including in Australia.

Read AAI’s Full Submission

A gap in Australia’s classification system

Australia’s classification system already considers matters such as violence, sex, language, drug use and themes.

AAI argues that it does not adequately recognise another form of harm: vilification and dehumanisation directed at communities because of their religion, race or ethnicity.

The submission asks a straightforward question: should material depicting protected communities as inherently violent, deceitful, polluting, primitive or a civilisational threat continue to fall outside explicit classification consideration?

AAI says the answer should be no.

It recommends that the revised “Themes” category expressly recognise:

• vilification;
• dehumanisation;
• incitement or encouragement of hatred; and
• coded or conspiratorial narratives portraying protected groups as existential threats

Bollywood and the portrayal of Muslims

AAI’s submission identifies a discernible pattern in some recent Bollywood, wider Indian cinema and related media in which Muslims have been portrayed through dehumanising, conspiratorial, exclusionary or threat-based narratives.

The submission is careful to distinguish this from Indian cinema generally. The concern is with a particular subset of politically charged material and the harms such narratives can generate.

AAI specifically points to The Kashmir Files, The Kerala Story and Chhaava in discussing concerns about dehumanising portrayals of Muslims, communal polarisation and wider climates of hostility.

These films differ significantly in subject matter and historical setting. The concern is therefore not that films cannot portray terrorism, historical conflict, religious extremism or controversial political events.

The question is where portrayal moves beyond particular perpetrators, organisations or historical figures and begins to construct Muslims collectively as dangerous, conspiratorial, disloyal or fundamentally threatening.

That distinction is central to AAI’s position.

When these narratives travel to Australia

The issue no longer stops at the cinema.

Films are now distributed through streaming services and their most provocative scenes can be extracted, reposted and recirculated through YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and short-form video platforms.

AAI’s submission notes that harmful narratives can travel across cinemas, streaming platforms, social media, short-form video, online news and networked sharing systems.

For Australia, this has an important multicultural dimension.

Political and communal narratives originating overseas can be reproduced rapidly within diaspora communities here. Material associated with far-right Hindu nationalist politics can therefore become part of Australian conversations about Muslims, identity and belonging.

This is why AAI considers the issue not simply an overseas political controversy, but a potential Australian anti-Muslim hatred and social-cohesion concern.

Dehumanisation is an important warning sign

AAI proposes a workable way of distinguishing legitimate political or historical criticism from attacks on a community.

The submission says dehumanising material can include portrayals of a protected group as inherently dangerous, polluting, inferior, deceitful or fit for exclusion from the community.

That distinction protects robust debate.

Criticism of a government, state, ideology or political movement must remain possible.

A film can criticise Pakistan. It can depict Islamist terrorism. It can present historical rulers negatively. It can engage with Kashmir or communal conflict.

The concern becomes different when Muslim identity itself becomes the marker of danger.

Cultural expertise matters

These narratives can also be difficult for Australian decision-makers to recognise because they are often culturally coded.

Historical figures, slogans, religious references and political narratives may carry meanings obvious within South Asian politics but far less obvious to somebody assessing a film primarily through conventional categories such as violence or language.

AAI therefore supports the creation of a Classification Advisory Council and argues that it should include people with expertise and lived experience relating to racism, religious vilification, anti-Muslim hatred, multicultural community safety and transnational hate narratives

Protecting communities without creating new divisions

AAI’s position also requires an important distinction.

Far-right Hindu extremist politics should not be conflated with Hinduism or Hindu Australians.

The concern is with extremist and exclusionary political narratives, not a religious community.

Australia must be capable of confronting anti-Muslim hatred associated with far-right Hindu nationalist ideology while also ensuring that Hindu Australians are not stereotyped or collectively blamed for it.

That is precisely what a mature multicultural society should be able to do: identify harmful ideologies and behaviour without turning communities against one another.

A modern classification system should recognise modern forms of hate

AAI’s submission therefore calls for more than administrative modernisation.

It argues for a classification framework capable of understanding how contemporary hatred works — including how dehumanising narratives move between film, streaming services, online platforms and diaspora networks.

The submission calls for explicit recognition of vilification and dehumanisation, greater transparency in classification decisions, meaningful community expertise and strong safeguards where automated or self-classification systems are used.

For AAI, the principle is simple:

Australia should be able to protect freedom of expression while also recognising when media repeatedly portrays an entire community as dangerous, inferior or undeserving of equal belonging.

In a multicultural society, recognising that harm is not peripheral to social cohesion.

It is part of protecting it