Page 2348 - Week 07 - Thursday, 4 August 2016
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When it comes to thinking about the biggest issue in our society at the moment in terms of vilification and intolerance we all know it is clearly religion; clearly the display of hatred, intolerance and offensive behaviour towards Muslims expressed on the basis of their faith. Attacks against Muslim people and places Muslims gather are disturbingly common. In Sydney, pigs’ heads adorned with an Australian flag were placed at the site of a proposed Islamic school. In Melbourne, a campaign was run to bar a Muslim prayer group using a community house in the Melbourne suburb of St Kilda East for one hour per week. In Bendigo, community members campaigned against the building of a mosque saying it would bring violence and sharia law to Bendigo.
In Western Australia last month the Australian Islamic College was firebombed and sprayed with offensive graffiti. In Sydney a Muslim woman was attacked in a shopping centre with taunts: “You Muslims go back to where you came from.” She was pushed to the ground and suffered a broken arm. In Melbourne a woman wearing a hijab was pushed down the steps of a tram and suffered injury. In Canberra our local Islamic Centre has been vandalised and trashed several times. Houses have been letterboxed with flyers opposing a local mosque because of its social impact on Australian neighbourhoods.
If we look at the news, the reports of these sorts of acts just go on and on. But beyond these more brazen acts, if one talks to Muslim people about their day-to-day lives it is clear they are frequently, almost constantly, exposed to discrimination, vilification and targeted offensive behaviour.
The University of South Australia’s International Centre for Muslim and non-Muslim Understanding released a report this year on Islamophobia in Australia. It used survey data to show that about 10 per cent of Australians were highly Islamophobic. Islamophobia is defined as negative and hostile attitudes towards Islam and Muslims. Members will be pleased to know that of the Australian states and territories the ACT showed the lowest rate of Islamaphobia, though it was still present here to a significant degree.
We have seen the emergence of movements such as reclaim Australia, whose Facebook pages undoubtedly contain offensive and vilifying comments directed at Muslims, and the Australian Defence League who is waging a hate campaign against Australian Muslims. It follows and photographs Muslim women on public transport, displays anti-Islamic posters outside mosques, films at Muslim schools and posts the videos online. A Muslim woman was photographed secretly on public transport and then posted on the Australian Defence League Facebook page with the caption, “Are you having problems getting a man? Then join Islam, taking the world’s rejects, paedophiles and weak-minded people for thousands of years.” Another comment from their Facebook page is, “I’m calling for the end of Islam in our country and hopefully the world. If Muslims have to die then so be it. It is us against them.”
We are currently witnessing Pauline Hanson’s reincarnation into the mainstream media and politics. She started her political life targeting Indigenous people, Asian people and multiculturalism generally. Now she has focused her hatred on the people
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