Usman Khawaja helps launch national Islamophobia awareness campaign

Retired cricketer Usman Khawaja has thrown his support behind a national campaign to raise awareness of Islamophobic behaviour.

The 39-year-old, who was the first Muslim to represent Australia on the international scene, retired in January, having played 88 Test matches and 40 one-day internationals in a 15-year career.

In a bid to build a safer community, the campaign encourages people to call out Islamophobic behaviour when they see it.

The growing problem of Islamophobia hit home to Usman Khawaja a couple of years ago when his mother was verbally abused while she was watching her son play in a Test match in Melbourne.

Wearing a traditional hijab, Fauzia copped abuse from two Australian fans at the 2024 Boxing Day Test match against India at the MCG.

"She had a couple of guys come up to her and start yelling into her ear and she was pretty shocked by the experience," Khawaja said.

Usman Khawaja said he often felt like an outsider in the Australian cricket team due his religious beliefs. (ABC News: Alexandra Alvaro)

Having retired from international cricket in January after a stellar 15-year career, Khawaja is now using his high profile to fight against Islamophobia across Australia.

He's joined a national campaign to raise awareness of Islamophobic behaviour, urging victims to report incidents.

Khawaja joined Aftab Malik, Special Envoy to Combat Islamophobia, at the campaign's official launch in Melbourne on Monday afternoon.

A video, launched as part of the campaign, calls on bystanders to take action if they witness incidents of anti-Muslim hate.

"It can happen anywhere at work, online, while shopping, in the places we feel safe. Its effects are universal, ongoing and increasing," the narrator says.

Aftab Malik (right) said the anti-Muslim rhetoric of One Nation was "unhelpful". (ABC News: Alexandra Alvaro)

"When we call it out, when we report it, we make space for systemic change.

"Reporting gives organisations, institutions and the entire community the power and the backing to create a future where acts of Islamophobia can be properly addressed."

The author of a landmark report on Islamophobia in Australia says the federal government is taking too long to act on the issue.

Mr Malik described the rise of One Nation, and the anti-Muslim rhetoric of leader Pauline Hanson, as "unhelpful".

"I think the discourse that surrounds these conversations are stereotypical, damaging and dangerous," he said.

"It keeps me up all night. It's the same everywhere you go across Australia.

"We have an understanding that what is reported is just the t