"I call them verbal bullets, because that is what they are," says Abdur Razzaq, Chairperson of The Federation of Islamic Associations of New Zealand.
"They impact the young, they impact women, they impact the elderly and they impact on society and generate hate."
Razzaq is referring to verbal abuse online, or hate speech, that targets the Islamic community in New Zealand.
He says it is worse than ever and it is coming from New Zealanders.
"They range from what happened on March 15, absolute support for that kind of violence, to extreme speeches which I can't even mention."
"When you compare it to other countries, the hate is just as bad, if not more. Per capita, we have more hate than any other country in the digital space."
This week, the Department of Internal Affairs will release its 2022 Digital Violent Extremism Transparency Report.
The department says white identity-motivated ideology continues to form the core of its referrals, with the Christchurch mosque attacks continuing to proliferate in high traffic areas online.
Wednesday marks four years since the mosque attacks, which saw a gunman, radicalised online, kill 51 Muslims at two mosques in Christchurch.
But despite a Royal Commission into the tragedy recommending law changes to better protect religious groups from online hatred, nothing has changed.
Currently, the Human Rights Act only provides protection for people experiencing abuse based on their skin colour, race, ethnicity or national origin.
The government did put forward most of the recommended changes last year, but they were met with criticism by free speech advocates.
Professor Paul Spoonley, who has just co-authored a book called Histories of Hate: The Radical Right in Aotearoa, says that aspect of the debate concerns him.
"We are not listening to the communities that are being targeted," Spoonley says.
"We somehow blithely talk about free speech without acknowledging there are individuals and communities who are facing ongoing hate speech in ways that threaten their safety."
A watered down proposal was put forward again by the government late last year, which amended the Human Rights Act to add religion to its group of protected people.
But that too sparked a backlash for not protecting the rainbow community as well.
Now, the Law Commission is reviewing that amendment, and how to better protect the rainbow community.
It’s given no time frame for when the recommendations will be back in parliament.
Razzaq fears it won't happen before the election.
"We are going onto the fourth anniversary of the mosque attacks, so how long are we going to take?" Razzaq says.
"The delaying is actually impacting on vulnerable communities. These verbal bullets hurt. We need this legislation pretty quickly."
SHARE ME