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Audio Resources - Audio Grabs

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The Commission has made the following Audio Resources available for download in Wav format and MP3 format:

Bill Jonas: Establishing the Ismaع project

"Well after those awful attacks in New York in September 2001, we’d heard that there were attacks and racial vilification occurring here towards Arab and Muslim people. We were hearing it from a number of sources and yet complaints were not coming in from people who were the subject of racial vilification.

So what we wanted to do was reach out to people and actually find out what was going on. We wanted to get a handle on the sort of attacks on Arabs and Muslims that we were hearing about and on the racial vilification that people were experiencing."

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Omeima Sukkarieh: Establishing the Ismaع project

The consultation process was very extensive and we had approximately 1400 people participate in about 70 consultations, in all states and territories, between April and November 2003.

The most complex and difficult aspect of planning the consultations was to capture the opinions of the wide variety of ethnic and religious groups to reflect the diversity of Australian Muslims and Australian Arabs.

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Bill Jonas: Recommendation on law

So a number of our recommendations aim to enable and encourage Arab and Muslim Australians to report incidents of discrimination and vilification. Currently, there is only piecemeal coverage of religious discrimination and vilification across the states and territories. A federal law will mean there is a national ‘safety net’, protecting everyone around the country from religious discrimination or vilification.

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Bill Jonas: Recommendation on education

We also think it’s important to encourage anti-discrimination agencies, like the Commission, to work closely with Arab and Muslim communities to increase their knowledge about anti-discrimination laws and complaints processes.

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Bill Jonas: Recommendation on leadership

Strong and effective leadership at a local, state, federal and at a community level is essential in providing support to the community and there is a role for everybody - government institutions, media, service providers and Arab and Muslim community organisations and individuals, all working together to eliminate prejudice against Arab and Muslim Australians.

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Consultation quote: Negative experiences - Young woman

I was working for a law firm in the city, and obviously I am going to notice it a lot more because I have just started wearing the hijab and I was called a terrorist by some men in business suits which was not expected. It totally shocked me.

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Consultation quote: Negative experiences - Young man

I’m hesitant to say I’ve experienced discrimination but when I was looking for a job my resume said I spoke Arabic. I didn’t get one interview. Then we I took this off my resume I got four interviews. It might have been a coincidence.

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Consultation quote: Impact of prejudice - Older woman

After September 11, it felt like our home – and Australia has been my home for all my life and definitely all of my children’s life – was not our home anymore. I started feeling more like a foreigner.

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Consultation quote: Positive experiences - Woman

I had a really positive response from people … I used to do the mad rush at home every lunch hour to pray and one of my bosses said to me one day ‘come and have lunch’ and I said ‘no I’ve got to go home to pray’ and he said “what do you do when you pray”. ‘I got to wash I got to pray do this do that.’ He said ‘do it here’. I said ‘can I?’ He said, ‘yeah go in the conference room - and if anyone says anything tell them to come and see me.’

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Consultation quote: Strategies to address prejudice - Man

Unless you educate people, you’re always going to have racism.

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Consultation quote: Strategies to address prejudice - Young man

At Kuraby mosque the other day I was driving past and I saw a big Catholic school bus full of males and females and they were being shown the Kuraby mosque. So things are already in process. I’m pretty sure that the view those kids had before they went into the mosque was different and then they think ‘wait a minute, this is not a place that harbours terrorism; this is a peaceful place’. It breaks down the barriers.”

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Consultation quote: Strategies to address prejudice - Man

We need to move beyond a discussion of us and them and come together around a common goal. This commonality needs to be built by having an open, frank discussion.

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Consultation quote: Identity - Young woman

Look, what I get quite often is ‘ah really you don’t look like a Muslim’ and I’m like ‘ah what does a Muslim look like? Do we have an extra arm? Or like a couple of horns coming out?’

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Consultation quote: Identity - Woman

I was questioned once about whether or not I consider myself to be Australian. I said yes and the lady asked me ‘Then why do you wear that scarf?’ I said ‘Because I am also Muslim and when you see me this is what you see. I am Australian but I am also Muslim and Arabic speaking and this is who I am. I am still me; I can’t put one of them aside because if I do then it’s not me anymore.”

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Consultation quote: Identity - Man

And I really feel that we should be equal - it shouldnt matter where we come from, our religion, or what nation or background we come from. We should all feel equal and we should all feel proud to be Australian.

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Last updated 16 June 2004.