Protesters attend a ‘Reclaim Australia’ rally to oppose religious extremism in Sydney. Protesters carried banners reading ‘Yes Australia. No Islam’ and ‘No Muslim. No Sharia. No Halal’ and braved wet weather to take part in a ‘Reclaim Australia’ protest in Sydney with organisers saying that the 16 protests scheduled for around the country were protests against religious extremism.

DPA/AFP/Sydney

Rallies across Australia staged by a group that says it opposes radical Islam drew thousands of supporters and anti-racism demonstrators yesterday, media reports said.
The Reclaim Australia group spoke out against Islamist extremism, Shariah law, halal certification and the burqa at 16 rallies in cities and towns, broadcaster ABC said.
On its Facebook page, the group says: “We as patriotic Australians need to stand together to stop halal tax, Shariah law & Islamisation.”
Socialist groups, trade unions and several representing Muslims and indigenous Australians staged counter-rallies.
“We’re not against any particular race or any particular religion,” John Oliver of Reclaim Australia was quoted as saying in the report. “We’re against the extremists of one particular religion. I know in Sydney and Melbourne they’ve got Muslims already signed on to attend because they can see what’s happening and they don’t like what’s happening.”
“We are pro-Australian values and anti-extreme Islam, but we’re not anti-Muslim,” Reclaim Australia spokeswoman Catherine Brennan told AFP, adding there was no racism behind the rallies, which she said had attracted people from diverse backgrounds. “Since when is it being racist to love your country and to love the values and culture that you’ve been brought up with?”
One of the organisers of an anti-racist rally, Mel Gregson, accused Reclaim Australia of spreading “conspiracy theories”.
He said the group linked halal food with the militant Islamic State group fighting in the Middle East.
“It’s basically implicating good Muslim people in the political movements of a tiny minority,” Gregson was quoted as saying.
ABC said Pauline Hanson, the former leader of the right-wing One Nation party, addressed a crowd in Brisbane.
“I’m not a racist – criticism is not racism. I am a proud Australian fighting for our democracy, culture, and way of life,” she was quoted as saying.
Hanson made international headlines in the late 1990s with an election campaign that was widely regarded as xenophobic.
In Sydney, hundreds braved the rain to rally in Martin Place, near the site of a deadly siege in which a lone gunman inspired by the Islamic State group took customers and staff hostage in a cafe in December.
Two people, and the gunman, were killed in that incident.
In Melbourne, tensions between competing protesters led to scuffles, with police on horseback forced to form a barrier between the groups, and paramedics treating several people for injuries.
Police arrested three people in Melbourne, while a man in Hobart was arrested for assault and two women were removed for breaching the peace at the Sydney rally.