My respect to the Original custodians of the land and their elders past
and present.
Before I cite a few quotes from regular columnists in the major
Australian mainstream media who have fuelled the Islamophobia industry in
Australia, I would like to offer this insight from Prominent lawyer Julian Burnside, he
wrote: “Right now, Islamophobia is the new antisemitism, and it is
dangerous.”
In my spoken speech, I will refrain from using names of those media
personalities who perpetuated minority blame, these names and appropriate
references are reproduced in the written speech:
The Sydney Morning Herald - Paul Sheehan:
“A de facto world war is under way and it has everything to do with
Islam. It is not thousands of lone wolfs. It is not un-Islamic conduct. It
involves thousands of Muslims acting on what they believe is their religious
duty to subjugate non-believers, as outlined in the Koran.
And the problem is growing, not contracting.”
(11 Jan 15)
In
another column he quotes a number of part verses from the Holy Qur’an and part
Hadiths and then presents the following ill-conceived conclusion:
“So many Muslims have
been encouraged to murder civilians by such exhortations that the rate of
violent incidents perpetrated in the name of Islam is staggering, a toll that
shows no sign of subsiding.” (26 May 13)
http://www.smh.com.au/comment/twisting-islam-to-justify-cruelty-20130526-2n535.html#ixzz3fpI4DStv
http://www.smh.com.au/comment/twisting-islam-to-justify-cruelty-20130526-2n535.html#ixzz3fpI4DStv
And towards the end of this same article:
“Not included in the
log of violent crimes are the outbreaks of civil violence such as the riots
that have rocked Stockholm over the past week, where an urban underclass of
predominantly Muslim immigrants, refugees and asylum-seekers and their children
has erupted in violence, vandalism and attacks on police.” (26 May 2013) (it should be noted that he provides no
evidence for the Muslim reference).
http://www.smh.com.au/comment/twisting-islam-to-justify-cruelty-20130526-2n535.html#ixzz3fpIMyYS4
http://www.smh.com.au/comment/twisting-islam-to-justify-cruelty-20130526-2n535.html#ixzz3fpIMyYS4
In another
article he blames Australians of a Middle Eastern Background for the Cronulla
Riots:
“Cronulla, where after
yet another assault thousands of people demonstrated about the years of abuse
and intimidation from a disconnected, racist, violent, moronic and sexually
dangerous subculture.” (13 Jan 2006).
The
Herald Sun’s Andrew Bolt:
Opens a 14
July 2015 blog post with:
“You might get the impression
that many Muslim leaders are treating our police as the real enemy in this
battle against Islamist terrorism.
“Whatever the truth of their
motivation, such leadership is grotesquely irresponsible and another disturbing
sign that Islam may be incompatible with a pluralist and secular country such
as ours.”
in an
article dated 9 April 2015, he completely misrepresents a University of
Melbourne Curriculum study with the following:
“What an
offensive corruption of our curriculum. Children are to be taught the fabled
best of Islam and the imagined worst of Australia to blind us all to the real
challenges Islam poses even to a country that’s peacefully integrated the many
more Buddhists here.”
He closes
this long article with:
“Only a fool
could not see a problem in importing more people from a faith that sets many so
apart from, and at odds to, the culture of their host country.”
The same
commentator excuses or attempts to rationalise the cold blooded murder by Anders
Brievik of 93 Norwegians as being a result of his becoming unhappy about
Muslims, he wrote on 25 July 2011:
“Some are left
deeply wounded and enraged by a sense of powerlessness and rejection. Which
means this is more likely than anything else I’ve seen to be a clue to this
explosion of murderous rage:”
Radio 2GB’s Alan Jones:
Here is a selection of his comments about Lebanese
Australians over the course of four days towards the end of April 05:
“These mongrels.”
“Lebanese males in their vast numbers not only hate
our country and heritage.”
“They have no connection to us.”
“They simply
rape, pillage and plunder a nation that’s taken them in.”
“What did we do as a nation to have this vermin
infest our shores?”
“Tell me we don’t have a national security problem
in the making.”
“Take the gloves off, and make life a collective
hell for these bastards and their followers …”
Nearly eight
months later, he or his callers said on air:
“My suggestion is
to invite one of the biker gangs to be present in numbers at Cronulla railway
station when these Lebanese thugs arrive, it would be worth the price of
admission to watch these cowards scurry back onto the train for the return trip
to their lairs … Australians old and new shouldn’t have to put up with
this scum.”
“Jones: Yeah, good
on you John.
John: Now, ah, my
grandfather was an old digger and he used to say to me when we were growing up “Listen,
shoot one, the rest will run!”
Jones: (laughs)
John: Right?
Jones: (still
laughing)”
Rather than
standing up for the vilified minorities, both the Prime Minister and the leader
of the opposition come to Jones defence after ACMA found that “Jones was likely to have encouraged violence and
vilification of Australians of Lebanese and Middle Eastern background.”
Not to be
outdone, the Abbott government promised (that it later dropped in return for
more draconian security measures) to introduce a repeal of the racial
vilification laws (a move named after one of Australia’s leading Islamophobe)
When Andrew
Bolt gets caught out for breaking the racial vilification laws, a conservative
coalition promises to change the law to suit him.
Back to
the Cronulla Riots,
those I have quoted along with other commentators, rather than condemn the
racist violence, went on the attack against the backlash from Middle-Eastern
Youth youth – and the system followed suit, ME youth getting heavy-handed
treatment whilst the rioters received very light treatment.
In addition
to the example I quoted earlier from Paul Sheehan, here is a classic example
from 2gb’s Brian Wilshire:
“Brian Wilshire: We
Australians do not have to apologise for anything. My anger is reserved for the
politicians and bureaucrats who conspired to bring in people who were
guaranteed to be incompatible and have demonstrated that in every country into
which they have moved.
“Francis: Absolutely. Look, I couldn’t agree with you more.
“BW: Many of them have parents who were first cousins, whose parents were first cousins, because of the culture - it’s not a religious thing, it doesn’t say this in the Koran - but it’s a cultural thing for some part of the world to have parents who are very closely related. The result of this is inbreeding, the result of which is uneducationable people, and very low IQ.”
— 2GB, Brian Wilshire, 15th December 2005
http://www.abc.net.au/mediawatch/transcripts/s1574242.htm
“Francis: Absolutely. Look, I couldn’t agree with you more.
“BW: Many of them have parents who were first cousins, whose parents were first cousins, because of the culture - it’s not a religious thing, it doesn’t say this in the Koran - but it’s a cultural thing for some part of the world to have parents who are very closely related. The result of this is inbreeding, the result of which is uneducationable people, and very low IQ.”
— 2GB, Brian Wilshire, 15th December 2005
http://www.abc.net.au/mediawatch/transcripts/s1574242.htm
New Matlida
columnist Michael Brull highlights some of the impact of Bolt’s Islamophobic
commentary including:
“A man threatened to set a Muslim woman on
fire. When she looked to another man for help, he
called her a terrorist.
“Another
man entered a mosque and threatened to
hit a woman with a chair. He also threw cement
bags at the mosque. Another Muslim woman
was physically attacked and called a “fucking terrorist”.
Another Muslim woman was attacked by a large
man, who told
her to “go back to where you came from”.
His physical assault broke her arm.”
https://newmatilda.com/2014/11/03/why-we-cant-ignore-andrew-bolt#sthash.LHiwNZ49.dpuf
Of course
there are other attacks[1],
such as the photographing of a Muslim woman on her way to work and posting her
image on social networking and denigrating her and her faith[2],
filming Muslim schools[3],
inciting people, uploading a youtube clip calling for the killing of prominent
Muslims[4]
and the creation of a computer game whose object is to Massacre Muslims[5]
(and recently in the United States of America, the cold blooded murder of 3 Muslim
university students[6]).
(additional resources)[7]
Yet as these
attacks occur – the call is always for Muslims to dissolve into some sort of
ideal that sits in the mind of the political and media antagonists.
They lay all
the blame for Muslim discontent on Islam and Muslims – taking no responsibility
for the hostile conditions they created which have silenced and forced many
members of the Muslim community to the margins making it difficult for many
Muslims to find work or a clear sense of belonging.
It would
seem that the assimilation demanded by Pauline Hanson is no longer their
ambition, Sheehan, Bolt and their ilk seem to no longer be looking for Muslims
to assimilate, their commentary is profoundly antagonistic to Islam – and
through that, Muslims become unassimilable or incapable of integrating into any
majority Western country.
Comments
such as: “The killing will go on because jihad is
built into the fabric of Arab Islam.”
http://www.smh.com.au/comment/jihad-is-built-into-the-fabric-of-arab-islam-20140806-10142h.html#ixzz3frnm8ZbG
http://www.smh.com.au/comment/jihad-is-built-into-the-fabric-of-arab-islam-20140806-10142h.html#ixzz3frnm8ZbG
and others quoted earlier make it very clear that there is very
little room for Islam in such people’s worldview.
This fixation with Islam seems unquenchable
Groups such
as: The Q Society[8],
Reclaim Australia[9],
the ADL[10]
(Australian Defence League), Catch the Fire Ministries look[11]
like a neo-crusade against Muslims and columnists such as Bolt and Sheehan
along with politicians like Senator Cory Bernardi have supported some of these
groups.
We now have
a parliamentary enquiry into Halal certification (which the senator
instigating the enquiry referred to as a “racket”). The words Halal, Sharia (the corpus of
Islamic teachings), Jihad ( the exertion of effort, the greatest of which is to
speak up against tyranny) are increasingly used in a pejorative way in public
discourse.
Minorities
become easy targets when Othering goes unchecked. Othering is “The process of perceiving or portraying someone or
something as fundamentally different or alien.” https://www.wordnik.com/words/othering
Another
important tool in creating acquiescence to minority blame is “Projection”,
projection is when one projects his own flaws or societal malaise onto others,
you call them out for these flaws as if the flaws were not yours, but
theirs. This is part of the problem – if
Jihad is built into the fabric of Arab Islam, then what is built into the
fabric of cultures that sees their nations going from one war to another under
false or at best dubious pretexts? They
project their violent expansionism by accusing Muslims of doing or trying to do
or fantasising about doing the very thing that the dominant culture is
doing. An example is the headline to the
8 Nov 13 blog by Bolt: “First off: our freedom restored to
criticise the New Racism”
http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/index.php/heraldsun/comments/first_off_our_freedom_restored_to_criticise_the_new_racism/
The hard
truths are never told, these are:
1 – The
majority of asylum seekers from the Middle East or Afghanistan are here as a
result of either foreign intervention through invasions or through the
installation or backing of pliant dictatorial regimes.
2 – Some of
our youths get involved in anti-social behaviour because they have fallen
victim to the same anti-social behaviour that prevails amongst a section of
mainstream youth – this behaviour is not imported it already existed here. The gang rapes of 2000 are not imported, many
women have suffered and continue to suffer from rape, violence and misogyny are
also perpetrated by members of the dominant culture and have been so
perpetrated for far too long.
The children
of the recent wave of migrants didn’t introduce drugs into Australia, drugs had
been sold by gangs long before migrant youths started to get drawn into the
illicit trade.
Gang
violence is not exclusive to a few migrant youths, gang violence existed long
before migrant youths were introduced to it – the bikie shootout in 1984 on a
street in the Sydney suburb of Milperra left 7 people dead. http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/milperra-massacre-the-day-seven-people-were-killed-when-bikies-left-comancheros-to-join-the-bandidos-and-let-hell-loose-on-sydney-streets/story-fni0cx12-1227043760622
Blaming
minorities is the laziest and nastiest form of deflection. It transforms the dominant culture into a
bully and ironically, the bully projects his crimes onto his victim through the
use of Othering and other tools which the minority has limited means to address
or against which to seek redress.
Little
wonder that some of those who are “Othered” can start to feel like “the Other.”
I don’t ask
these cultural warriors to respect my human rights because their attacks show
that this would be the least of their concerns. They have Othered minorities and blamed these
minorities for most of their woes. I
tell them that they are pursuing a false pragmatism that cheats their “utopian”
society of our abilities. Depriving
highly capable or highly qualified migrants of access to work in their fields
and restricting them to menial work[12]
is as much a denial to the host culture as it is to the individuals who belong
to the deprived minority. Similarly,
youth who rebel against the system and steer towards anti-social activities
could, with the right direction in their formative years, be guided to harness
their skills for legitimate pursuits where they can contribute constructively
to the society.
This
minority blame deprives the host/dominant society/culture from the best fruits
of all its citizens (or residents) as it denies a section of citizens
opportunities to harness their potential the same way others can. On the pragmatic level, it is a crime against
the very host culture by those warriors who claim to be protecting it and as
long as minorities are denied the protections available to the rest of society,
the chasm within society will increase, the mistrust will increase and racially
motivated crimes will increase.
We need to
move from this minority blame for our society to move forward, there has to be
a very strong bipartisan approach at the political level. This is not about political correctness nor
about curbing free speech. However,
fanciful blame-shifting against the most vulnerable in society is not free
speech, it is bullying, it is denialism and it is a betrayal of society.
After the
bipartisan approach to protect the quality of life of all Australians, we need
to ensure that anti-vilification laws are accessible, affordable and effective
– my personal experience with these laws is that they are costly, take a
tremendous length of time and can leave the victim footing a huge bill (as I
stand on the brink of bankruptcy for seeking to uphold such laws). The case of Trad v Jones (the vilification
took place in April 2005, ten years later and aspects of the case are still unfinished). Our legal system showed that the higher the
court, the less its judges are likely to understand the vilification laws or to
understand the right of minorities to live free from vilification. (not only did this happen in my own personal
experience[13],
but a supreme court judge refused to accept the evidence of Mr. Mamdouh Habib[14],
a former Guantanamo Bay detainee that he was tortured, this case was overturned
on appeal after a major expose of the tortures at Guantanamo came to the
attention of the international media).
In addition
to these laws, the silent majority needs to speak out, I would say “we”, the
silent majority, but I am Othered in this debate, so the silent majority of the
dominant culture needs to speak out.
I have heard
phrases such as: the Chinese, the
Greeks, the Italians, the Vietnamese or the Catholics had to go through this,
now it is the turn of the Muslims. They
talk as if this widespread minority vilification is some sort of an initiation
ritual on the way to being accepted as Australian.
The reality
is that vilification of each of these minorities is a shameful blight on our
history as a nation, we should have learnt from the time we vilified the Afghan
cameleers or the Chinese labourers that such vilification is not in the
interest of Australia, but instead, our nation has a history of always
projecting its problems on the latest minority to arrive at our shores and that
unfortunately shows that we, the majority are not taking the most important
lessons from our own history.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment