Leaders of different religious groups in Australia together issued a message of love and support for their Muslim counterparts in an attempt to spark a viral campaign that will counter divisiveness, hatred and marginalization of the community in the country. The movement comes after Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott labeled some Muslims “petty” and “foolish” for boycotting his meeting to discuss proposed laws that would further strengthen intelligence agencies in fighting terrorism. The Islamic organizations that boycotted the meeting in Melbourne said that they feared the new laws would unfairly target Muslims.

“We believe people of Muslim faith are being unfairly smeared in the eyes of the Australian public.... The violence and values of extremists like ISIS are not representative of the vast majority of Muslim people in Australia, who are recognized better by their commitment to peace, community and mutual respect,” the statement read.

Christian and Jewish leaders issued the statement, reiterating they will “love Muslims for 100 years,” a reference to a topical headline that misquoted ex-Army Chief Peter Leahy as saying, “we’ll fight Islam for 100 years.”

At the contentious meeting, Abbott had said, “I was disappointed a small number of Islamic leaders rather foolishly boycotted that meeting and I doubt that sort of thing would happen again because it’s so self-evidently petty to do that kind of thing. You can hardly complain people aren’t talking to you and then when you offer them a talk, [they] say sorry, we are not coming.... Sure, not everyone agreed with everything I said. I dare say they continue to have some questions about aspects of government policy, but as one of the leading imams said to me at the end of one of the meetings, we are all a part of team Australia.”

Silma Ihram from Australian Muslim Women’s Association, who stayed on until the end of the meeting, said Abbott’s comments were in fact divisive.

“[The Prime Minister] is doing very well at being divisive...referring to Muslim migrants when many are born here, giving short deadlines for meetings, little information, finger pointing that this is your problem and if you don’t fix it, we will. It doesn’t help to get respect. We are not confident at the full sincerity of the government and whether they will demonstrate what they have claimed. Some are skeptical at the engagement so far, those of us who are positive are hoping for more than that,” she said.

The recent statement was signed by over 150 members from different religious groups including Christians and Jews. They said their concern was the growing atmosphere of divisiveness in Australia.

“There’s a growing shrill dialogue relating to Muslims that’s infecting relationships here in Australia, from shock jocks and social media. It’s not helpful. I accept that sometimes there needs to be robust discussion, but we need to be very careful to maintain ties between communities,” said Rabbi Zalman Kastel, while asserting that the current situation must act as a reality check.

Gatherings have been organized at Lakemba Mosque in Sydney, St Peter’s Anglican Cathedral in Adelaide and St George’s College Chapel in Perth, where demonstrators have gone on to express solidarity with Australia’s Muslim community.

Anglican Deacon Lynn Arnold said, “We hope to be a kind of antibiotic against this virus that is spreading around the community because we all have many Muslim friends who are feeling targeted, are being targeted by this campaign of inflammation, this campaign of hate. We want to have a viral effect to have ordinary Australians stand up and say this is not the Australian way, this is not the Australian tradition.”

Mohammed Al Khafaji, who believes the recent campaign is completely justified, said the Islamic community deserves a lot more than “rushed, one hour meetings” that are supposed to serve as consultation for laws legislated in Australia.

“The Muslim community is divided with this approach and some of them have boycotted the meeting and this has not given them the chance to review the proposed legislation, have a think about it and actually sit down together in a roundtable to discuss these issues.... If I want to travel to Iraq to visit my family, I don’t want to be questioned by security agencies every time that I need to travel over there, under suspicion of terrorism,” he said.

The campaign was organized around the same time as Australian Security Intelligence Organization’s top spy David Irvine inviting more Muslims to join the country’s security forces. He too, said that the government is sometimes impatient with Muslims and needs to work on its communication with the community. He said he was outraged after some news reports implied Australia was fighting Islam.

While urging more Muslims to join ASIO, Irvine said, “This is an organization that is designed to protect you and you should be part of it.”

Keeping up with recent trends, Twitter and Facebook users coined the hashtag #love100years to express their support for the campaign.