The
Persecution Of Muslims
In Australia
By Ghali Hassan
15 November, 2006
Countercurrents.org
The situation has become so bad
for Australian Muslims; it forced the Federal Police Commissioner to
intervene and speak out against the persecution and alienating of the
Muslim community, and the policing tactic of Muslims racial profiling
and victimisation.
“As I travel around the country and speak to different Islamic
communities, I hear more and more stories of treatment of the Islamic
community that really is substandard by members of our own wider community,
such as vilification or picking them out of the crowd because they dress
or speak differently”, said Mick Keelty. However, Keelty should
be more concern with the government policy-institutionalised racism
and the new laws that specifically targeted Muslims.
Racism is not an attribute solely of Australians or of whites. Racism
is a worldwide phenomenon. But racism has deep roots in Anglo Australia.
Its roots are nurtured and propagated by politicians, and the inherently
racist media. As the domination of Australia by white Anglo settlers
over the native and nonwhites prevailed, racist notions emerged as justification
for white privilege and power. The arrival in Australia of Muslim immigrants
from the Middle East resulted in racial confrontations with the Anglo
settlers, promoting discrimination against Muslims. The violent attacks
against Muslim Australians form Middle Eastern origin in the Sydney
beach-side suburb of Cronulla was one recent example of Australia’s
underlying racism.
Viewing Muslims as different and inhumane, Anglo Australians thereby
rationalised policy-institutionalised racism patronised by the elites
in the government, the education system and the justice system, which
they feed to the media.
Muslims are vilified and demonised in order to justify greater violence
and destruction against Muslims in Iraq, Palestine and Afghanistan.
The slaughter of hundreds of thousands of innocent Muslim women and
children in Iraq, Afghanistan and Palestine has not shaken anyone’s
conscience. The Howard’s Government won a fourth term with an
increased majority.
Whether it is the Murdoch press (led by the warmongering, The Australian),
the ABC, the mainstream TV Channels, the Sydney Morning Herald or the
more jingoist, The West Australian, they are all promoting a racist
ideology reminiscent to Fascism and “anti-Semitism”.
The media have also enlisted native informers to confirm it for Australians
that attacks on Muslims and Islam are justified. The recent clone of
native informers is Tanveer Ahmed; an anti-Arabs vulgar from Bangladesh
has become a permanent household in Australian media. His distorted
comparison of Islam with Communism won him many anti-Muslim fascist
friends, including those in the Catholic Church’s hierarchy. Ahmed
is telling the media what the media want to propagate against Muslims.
He is blaming the Muslims for their own suffering and removes the government’s
responsibility. It is like telling members of the Jewish community that
“anti-Semitism” is your problem and you should do something
about it.
On 16 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
Western ideology. He stated: “And, because it is your faith that
is being invoked as justification for these evil acts, it is your problem”,
ignoring that the illegal invasion of Iraq was the most violent act
of terrorism on a defenceless Muslim nation.
Meanwhile, the Prime Minister John Howard always refers to Muslim Australians
in the third person as “they” and “them”, suggests
incitement to hatred against Muslims and an appeal to prejudice and
racism against Muslim Australians who are portrayed as “aliens”.
Every time Muslims and Islam are attacked, the Australian Prime Minister
barked in support of these racist attacks. Talking on the violently
racist talkback Radio like 2GB, Howard uses racism to manipulate the
public and divert attention from important domestic issues. He was able
to convert his prejudices into political tools and advance his right-wing
ideology.
A recent Saulwick Poll found that 55 per cent thought the Prime Minister
is a divisive leader. Howard succeeded in making Australians more individualistic,
prejudice and obsessed with material possessions. In ten years, the
Howard’s Government has succeeded in replacing every progressive
step that has been achieved in the last quarter century with two steps
backwards.
Howard’s attacks on Muslims sit very well with Western hypocrites
who are addicted to bias against Muslims. We al know how the US-led
occupation forces, including Australians, treated women in Iraq. Anyone
with basic education knows how women are treated in Australia. Howard
should know better how Dianne Brimble was treated by a gang of Australian
men and left dead on Cruise Liner. Even women with disabilities are
not spared the horror, promoted by Howard as “Australian values”
and “respect for women”. “When Mr Howard says migrants’
must be fully prepared to embrace Australian attitudes towards women’,
that is the dog whistle he is blowing”, said Senator John Faulkner
(Labor, NSW).
Senator Faulkner reminded Howard that; “There are workplaces,
as we all know, where women have been harassed, underpaid and ignored
for promotion. There are community organisations where women's participation
is limited to an auxiliary role. There are religious institutions where
women are relegated to subservience. Women's total wages average just
66 per cent of male total earnings. Sixty per cent of minimum wage workers
in Australia are women although less than 45 per cent of the workforce
are women. Women in our defence forces continue to be victimised, bullied
or harassed … Should we blame the 1 per cent of the Australian
population who are Muslim? Or should we look at ourselves, our workplaces,
our streets, our homes? Perhaps senators might even care to look at
our Parliament. It is easy to find scapegoats in members of our community
who look different”.
Howard is using Muslim women as a pretext to demonise and isolate the
Muslim community, and to cover his deep-seated prejudices about Islam
and Muslims. Australians image of Muslim women is distorted by the very
small minority of Muslim women who chose to wear headscarf and Hijab.
Why the dresses of few Muslim women considered “confronting”,
while Westerners sporting Nazi uniforms and Swastika are not, remain
a mystery.
There is no hard evidence that Muslims living in the West pose any threat
to Westerners. It is poisonous fearmongering designed to manipulate
the public by blaming the victims for the crimes perpetuated against
them. The vast majority of Muslims whom were detained – by Australia,
Britain and the U.S. – have been released, convicted of minor
crimes unrelated to terrorism or remained in prisons without charges.
The first and probably only Australian convicted of terrorist act is
Jack Roche, a Christian Australian. History has shown that Muslims like
to live in peace and coexistent.
Yet, while Western leaders – Pope Benedict, George Bush, John
Howard, Tony Blair Cardinal George Bell of Sydney and Jack Straw are
recent examples – can claim to promote “debate” by
deliberately attacking Muslims and Islamic values, Muslims who criticised
Western society are castigated, abused and portrayed as “intolerant”.
The recent comment by Sheikh Taj al-din al-Hilaly of Sydney’s
Lakemba Mosque is a case in point. The imam’s comment about modesty
and abstinence was deliberately taken out of context, mistranslated
and ceased upon by hypocrites and bigots to mean immodestly dressed
women are "uncovered meat". Anti-Muslims politicians, the
media and pundits have seized upon al-Hilaly’s remarks, citing
them as proof that attacks on Muslims and Islam by politicians and the
media are justified.
Sheikh al-Hilaly has given anti-Muslims Australians and the racist media
ammunition in time when the Muslim Community is under siege and every
Muslim Australian is trying to prove the bigots wrong. His attacks on
the Iraqi Resistance while on a “mission” to “rescue”
an Australian conman (Douglas Wood) allegedly taken hostage by unknown
group have contributed to the distortion of the image of the Resistance
and Islam. He proved to be unsophisticated and a liability on the Muslim
community, a convenient tool for Islamophobic Australia.
Furthermore, the justice system – portrayed as “independent”
– is rotten with corruption, miscarriage of justice and biased
against Australian Muslims. Courts are used for the sole purpose of
criminalization of Muslims allegedly accused of committing crimes in
what became known to many people as an automatic convictions based on
fabricated evidence obtained by coercion and bullying. Australian police
backed by new ASIO laws and the increase in police powers – selectively
applied and biased against Muslims – are arresting Muslim Australians
simply to ascertain their identity, reminiscent to the Nazis’
policing to ascertain the identities of people from minorities. In most
cases, Muslims are arrested and charged for minor incidents. Muslim
offenders who committed minor crimes were given much harsher penalties
than non-Muslim Australians who committed far more serious crimes. The
aim is to criminalise Muslims and make it difficult for them to find
employment and be part of the community.
As a result of the Howard’s Government policy, racial abuses and
violent attacks directed against Muslim Australians have increased dramatically.
Muslim women and girls have been spat on in the street, assaulted on
public buses and have had their scarves torn from them in Sydney and
Perth. Many of them have become hostages in their own homes, afraid
to venture out. Mosques and schools have been vandalised and set a light.
Although Muslims constitute a small percentage (1.5 per cent) of the
total Australian population, they are the nations most alienated and
underprivileged in economic, social and political arenas. Unemployment
among Muslim Australians – particularly among Muslim youth –
is increasing dramatically to more than 30 per cent compared to 5 per
cent the official national total. In addition, government figures show
that 30-40 per cent of professional Muslims with PhD and MD are unemployed.
Muslims, both female and male, have reported discrimination in the workplace,
both in obtaining and retaining a job. It is almost impossible for Muslims
to find employment, despite the large number of vacant professional
positions, including academic positions. Muslim Australians and Australians
with Muslim names are shut off from these positions.
Finally, Kerry Nettle (Greens, NSW), John Faulkner and a handful of
others who have acknowledged that the persecution of Australian Muslims
have to be addressed urgently stand as honourable exceptions in Australian
politics. In September 2006, the Australian Senate debated a proposal
by Senator Kerry Nettle on the increase in the persecution and alienation
of Muslim Australians. At the end of an hour debate, the senate voted
36 to 32 votes to leave things as it is and do nothing.
“The Muslim community is no different from any other community.
We see Muslims across the country making a great contribution to Australian
society. The Prime Minister's claim he is raising honest concerns is
simply not credible. What we have seen are all the hallmarks of cynical
fear campaign to exploit community concerns about terrorism at the expense
of the Muslim community”, said Senator Nettle.
Keelty’s concern for Australian Muslims is a good start, but it
must be backed with action. Australia needs to abolish its policy-institutionalised
racism and promote a climate for peaceful coexistence and mutual enlightenment.
Ghali Hassan lives in Perth, Western Australia.
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