Racism and Islamophobia are rife in our country.

For nearly fifteen years we have been all too aware of radical Islamic fighters in the middle east. We have seen and heard the horrors of the 9/11 bombings, the Bali Bombing and the London Bombings. We know and we understand the dangers of radical beliefs of any kind.

But it is not fair to place the blame for those violent attacks on peaceful Australian Muslims.

It is dreadfully important to fight terrorism of all kinds, and it is imperative to protect our nation from the reach of organisations like ISIS, but it cannot be at the expense of law abiding men and women.

When women are assaulted for wearing a niqab (not a burqa!), Islamic places of worship are defaced​, threats of violence are issued against Muslim citizens, and even the Sikhi Community are targetted in a case of misidentification as Muslims, it is fair to say that the last thing that we need is somebody stirring the pot on Islamophobia.

And nowhere in Australia is that more evident than the ironically named Australian Defence League.

The ADL "was inspired by the emergence in early 2009 of the English Defence League, and first appeared in NSW in early 2010. At this point it was an informal project of members of the Australian Protectionist Party (APP) who wished to emulate the EDL’s ability to mobilise thousands in support of its anti-Muslim agenda – and for which the nearest precursor in Australia was the Cronulla riot" (source).

Their primary goal is the total eradication of Islam in Australia. Their methods have included bullying, harassment, illegal photography and video/audio recording, rowdy protests and intimidation.

They are a hate group.

Yet despite their openly antagonistic approach to Islam, they have a large gathering on social media and it appears to be their primary meeting place.

The Facebook community standards make it clear that they do not "permit individuals or groups to attack others based on their race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, sex, gender, sexual orientation, disability or medical condition." (source)

Google+ states that they don't "support content that promotes or condones violence against individuals or groups based on race or ethnic origin, religion, disability, gender, age, nationality, veteran status, or sexual orientation/gender identity, or whose primary purpose is inciting hatred on the basis of these core characteristics." (source)

Yet despite this there are groups on both the Facebook and Google+ platforms (these are only two examples of their seemingly haphazard arrangement of pages and groups).

Facebook and Google+ if your terms and standards are more than a vague attempt at appearing fair, then we are calling upon you to show that you are capable of enforcing them and remove the ADL pages and groups, as well as any future attempts by the organisation to rebuild their social media presence.

The ADL have made it very clear that they are incapable of being reasoned with, and driven purely by hate. For this reason there can be no dialogue with them, and no attempt at mediation, they will always subvert this and try to twist it to their own outcomes.

There can be no tolerance of hate of this kind. In the interest of equality, we ask you to please shut them down!