Muslim schoolgirl called a 'terrorist' during racist tirade on Sydney bus

A Muslim teenager was subjected to a stream of racist abuse on a Sydney bus after, according to her mother, she confronted a man she believed was photographing another schoolgirl.

NSW Police has confirmed it is investigating the incident that occurred when Janna, 13, was travelling towards Greenacre in Sydney's south-west on Thursday afternoon.

The incident is a "microcosm of the state of Islamophobia nationwide", according to the Islamophobia Register, which says it has recorded a more than sixfold increase in reports of Islamophobia since the October 7 attacks .

Roula, the teenager's mother, said her daughter noticed an older man photographing another girl in school uniform and approached the girl to tell her.

"He heard my daughter and he started attacking her," Janna's mother Roula told SBS News.

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Janna, in Year 8, told the man that what he was doing was "disgusting" — then the stream of abuse started.

Roula said he told her daughter, who was born in Australia, that she "didn't deserve to be in this country".

Footage of part of the incident has since circulated on social media, showing the man calling Janna a "terrorist", an "immigrant dog" and an "immigrant mutt", and telling her she "didn't deserve to be here".

She was also subject to a string of other slurs, including sexualised and dehumanising language, which SBS News has chosen not to publish.

In an another video seen by SBS News, a woman wearing a hijab is seen speaking to the man.

Roula said she was disappointed that no one else on the bus stepped in, including the driver or other adult male passengers.

"There was a lot of men sitting right next to that man and they were just looking up and looking back down at their phones," she said. "No one helped her, which is really, really, really disappointing."

She was also disappointed that the bus driver didn't intervene or eject the man from the bus.