Brad Chilcott, who leads the Pentecostal Activate Church in Bowden and also heads up the Welcome To Australia movement said he had received several threats of violence last week, including from other Christians.

One threat was from a man who told Brad “I’m going to come past your church and pull your tongue from your throat because you’re bringing into disrepute the name of Jesus.”

The recent anti-Halal movement has been building, with Facebook pages supporting a Halal boycott attracting over 40,000 followers.

Those running the campaign have various reasons for boycotting Halal products, including allegations that funds from the certification goes towards terrorism.

Campaigner Kirralie Smith told the ABC she believed halal certification was extortion: “Many halal products that are halal certified are paying fees for certification that are already halal, eg milk, honey or nuts, yet companies are paying thousands of dollars a year [for the certification]” the ABC reports.

But Brad Chilcott thinks the campaign is spreading misinformation and hatred.

He believes the reason the campaign has taken hold now despite Halal being in Australia for 30 years is because of a “continual insistence from Government to link the Muslim community to terrorism.”

“Our leaders have created space for this kind of hatred to flourish,” he says.

Chilcott has been publicly speaking out against the anti-halal campaign, calling it “bullying” on the part of consumers.

The threats to Chilcott have been from people of a variety of backgrounds, and Chilcott says it’s not the first time he has received threats, though threats from other Christians has concerned this time around.

“Getting threats when you’re vocal about asylum seeker policy in this country is not that unusual,” Brad told Eternity. “But the saddest thing about [the most recent threats] is that other Christians are using their faith as the basis for threats and violence.”  

The ‘Welcome Centre’, a drop-in centre in Adelaide that provides support for refugees in the community was targeted on Facebook, with vitriolic messages that staff spent a full day monitoring and deleting.

Brad says he knows he and his church community are not following the “safest path” in terms of their own personal safety by standing against the boycott. There are many people who strongly disagree with his views, even within his own faith. “But to me, that’s the path that Jesus followed… the more he publicly affirmed the people that society hated, the more religious leaders wanted to kill him.”