Australia's Other Great Sport
By Haroon Buksh
26 September, 2006
Countercurrents.org
Strewth! For a while I was naively under the impression that soccer was fast becoming Australia’s next great love affair. How could one not be enchanted by the great spectacle involving 22 fully grown adults endlessly hurling their otherwise productive bodies around fields of artificial grass, all in pursuit of one inflatable contraption?It always perplexed me as to why we couldn’t just offer one ball to each player? Why the need for endless confrontation? With budgets that dwarf even some third world countries, surely soccer clubs could spare a little change for a few extra balls? Maybe it’s just me .
And it may just be me, but has anybody else noticed the increasing popularity of Australia’s other great sport? We may be oblivious to its presence since its promoters have yet to agree on its name. Not sure what I am talking about? I’ll give you a clue: politicians love it, ‘intellectuals’ champion it, the media can’t get enough of it, and the public is falling for it. Oh, of course, Muslim bashing!
But in this modern politically correct world, we can’t call it that. We call it asserting Australia’s values. Integration. Border protection. Home-grown terrorism. We call it anything but Muslim bashing.
The Australian public is increasingly being served a smorgasbord of politically charged rhetoric, an outpouring of invective masquerading as public debate. From questions of loyalty, discussions over identity, sermons about values, or warnings against extremism, the current discourse surrounding Islam and Muslims is presented in the context of an existential threat to the Australian way of life.
If we were to give credence to some of the commentary of late, apparently this threat emanates from the Muslim community’s inability to speak the national language. How could one possibly accept the logic of such an assertion, unless, of course, we presume that hatred, bigotry and violence are inherently foreign to the Australian vernacular? Or is it that Australian values are far from being universal and can only be appreciated in the national language?
Politicians have also been busying themselves preaching the virtues of integration. John Howard, speaking with what is presumed a straight face, laments in The Australian on the 15/09/06: “Our commitment to shared values is our social cement. Without it, we risk becoming a society governed by coercion not consent”. Kim Beazley, keen to breathe new life into the distinctly Australian slogan made famous by Don Chipp, opines on the same page: “As an Australian who embraces multiculturalism and immigration, I cannot sit back and watch John Howard manipulate values for what he perceives as political gain.” Oh, the disdain with which they treat the Australian public!
We should be careful, however, not to disconnect the state of modern Australia from its global context. Since 9/11, Western governments have been relentlessly and unashamedly constructing public opinion in support of their brutal campaigns at home and abroad. A campaign that was ostensibly launched to avenge the attacks on the World Trade Centres has morphed into what George Bush calls ‘the decisive ideological struggle of the 21st century, and the calling of our generation’.
No longer is the objective the capture of Osama bin Laden or the dismantling of terrorist infrastructure. Rather we are told the primary objective of the ‘war on terror’ is now the defeat of ‘Islamo-fascism’, an ‘evil ideology’ that seeks to return the world to a dark 7th century medieval version of Islam – the aims of which are apparently shared by a ‘section’ of the Muslim community in Australia.
But calling a spade a spade, as John Howard likes to assert, draws the predictable mind numbing responses. Muslims playing the race card! Muslims crying victimisation! It seems all and sundry is free to criticise, slander, harass, discredit and marginalise, but the only tenable response from the Muslim community is complete and utter acquiescence. Protestations to the contrary are either ridiculed as uninformed ranting or howled down as justifications of terror.But the debate has only just begun. In fact, those matters that require real and urgent attention have only marginally entered the public fray. Much of the discussion to date has served no real purpose except to heighten the level of anxiety in society in general, and to breed fear and distrust of the Muslim community in particular. One could be forgiven for thinking these were the sole aims of the current campaign.
The real and tangible relationship between western foreign policy and its reactionary consequences has yet to be even mildly explored. The Australian government continues to persist in its absolute state of denial and refuses to entertain such a debate. But failing to address the most critical underlying grievances is a stance that sadly threatens the lives of every Australian.
In a speech to the Conference of Australian Imams on the 16th September 2006, Andrew Robb, the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs, reiterated the government’s official line of holding the Muslim community solely responsible for a set of conditions generated as a consequence of a brutal and oppressive foreign policy. He stated: “And, because it is your faith that is being invoked as justification for these evil acts, it is your problem”.
The debate over values is not one that can be conducted under a climate of fear and intimidation. Why would one seek to engage the Muslim community only after the passage of draconian legislation, sustained propaganda and media sensationalism? Are these conditions the core requirements of open and frank debate or its complete antithesis? Pursuing such a course reveals volumes of the one persisting in such an endeavour.
It seems what the world desperately needs today is a war on ignorance, not a war on terror. As the current debate serves only to close our minds, we all have a responsibility to keep them open. We may choose to be indifferent to the growing popularity of soccer in this country, but we cannot allow ourselves this luxury when it comes to Muslim bashing.
(Haroon Buksh is a Sydney based IT professional)