Anti-racism campaigners want to put Australian Muslim girls back on a billboard for Australia Day

Anti-racism campaigners have started a crowdfunding project for an Australia Day billboard advertisement featuring Australian Muslims, after backlash to a billboard showing two girls in hijab led to its removal.

The campaign has gathered steam on social media and is fast approaching its goal of $50,000, with donations earlier in the afternoon doubling within the hour from $15,000 to $30,000.

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The photograph used for the original billboard, which advertised an Australia Day event in Melbourne's Kings Domain Gardens, was taken at last year's Australia Day event at Docklands. In it, two young, smiling girls in hijab are seen waving Australian flags.

But outraged social media users slammed the picture for being too "politically correct", and outdoor media company QMS took down the billboard after receiving threats.

Anti-Islamophobia advocate Mariam Veiszadeh, who is Daily Life's 2016 Woman of the Year, reacted to the backlash on Tuesday by creating a "billboard" featuring herself and fellow high-profile hijabi Yassmin Abdel-Magied.

Now Veiszadeh and fellow campaigner Dee Madigan are working to put Muslim girls back on a billboard as part of a new campaign to encourage tolerance on Australia Day.

"The same groups who complain 'Muslims don't assimilate', complained about the photo OF AUSTRALIAN MUSLIMS CELEBRATING AUSTRALIA DAY," Madigan posted on her GoFundMe campaign, which aims to raise enough money for a new billboard and print advertising campaign. It's already raised more than $40,000, and leftover funds will go to the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre.

"The vast majority of Australians support the message behind the original ad," said Mariam Veiszadeh, who added that both Labor and Liberal politicians had also donated to the campaign. A second petition has also popped up via Change.org demanding the original billboard be reinstated.

Veiszadeh said she has been in contact with the families of the two girls, and that protecting their anonymity is important. "As for the images, they're already out there and unfortunately the reason we are in this situation is they were used in a negative way."

The backlash is a concern not just for the girls who were featured on the billboard, but on Muslim girls throughout Australia who are having their "Australianness" questioned, Veiszadeh said. Which is why she created the billboard meme in the first place.

"The point of that was: Be proud of who you are, be proud of your identity and even though that's a real struggle right now, it's really important to send that message to young people of all backgrounds.

"Unfortunately with the xenophobia we are seeing today, no minority group is spared. Some are copping it more than others, and we all have to band together."