Skip to main content

HREOC Website: Isma - Listen: National consultations on eliminating prejudice against Arab and Muslim Australias

Consultations
Homepage

|| Meeting Notes: 14 November 2003

Consultation with members
of the Interfaith Network of the City of Greater Dandenong, Dandenong,
14 November 2003

The meeting was organised
by Ms Margaret Mooney of the Network and facilitated by Omeima Sukkarieh,
HREOC (notes). 6 invited participants attended.

The Dandenong Interfaith Network

Isma was introduced
to the Network by a former member, Father Lindsay Fawlkner, now living
in Alice Springs who told us at the consultation there on 5 June 2003:

"Dandenong
in Victoria is the most multicultural city in Australia. There are people
from 148 different origins and countries of birth who live together
in harmony. The Interfaith Network there comprises of 50 or 60 religious
leaders including an Imam from Bosnia Herzegovina and a Serbian Orthodox
priest. This interfaith network is a sign of how we, as faith leaders,
can say to the community, discrimination is an evil.

"The other
thing about the interfaith network in Dandenong is that they go to the
schools. This interfaith network has established an education program
and every year, year after year, there's all sorts of programs going
on in that community that are overcoming racial and religious discrimination
of all kinds."

In Dandenong, participants
expanded on the way the Network operates.

"It's a partnership
[initiated 15 years ago] between the City of Greater Dandenong and the
various faith groups here within the City of Greater Dandenong and also
surrounding area. The partnership itself entails basically certain commitments
from these representatives from the different faiths and that commitment
is trying to understand each of our diversity and trying to develop
better understanding of what variations are. We are all volunteers in
the network. The objective is to bring peace and harmony. With that
objective we meet once a month for two hours at the City of Greater
Dandenong Council offices most of the time. Nearly 20 + representatives
always attend. The City of Greater Dandenong also expects the different
faiths to provide the prayers on every one of their fortnightly council
meetings and various faiths go and participate and initiate the first
sittings of that particular evening with the faith prayer. It could
be in Arabic, English or the native language whatever it is.

"We also do
the education program. We expect participation from the various schools
and these education programs have got certain objectives. One of the
objectives is to let the teachers know a little more about the faith
groups and faith contributions, especially the teachers who are involved
in the social studies and the religious studies. For them they organise
tours of local places of worship. We also invite them to participate
in the annual gathering [held on the third Wednesday of October].

"The important
thing is that the leaders should then take all that they learn back
to their own communities. So it is just not for the leaders, but it
is the leaders then who influence their own communities. When the annual
gathering is there the faith leaders need to bring their communities
along so they can all rub shoulders."

The Network adopts
a UN-related theme each year (2003 is the year of fresh water) and covers
it with a 'faith background'.

"School children
are asked to write essay and we also make it more attractive by making
it a competition and prizes are given. And also art work as well. Then
each child presents a kind of a cultural program with a theme. This
year nearly 500 students participated."

"We have a
sacred space in Dandenong public hospital which we in fact were instrumental
in creating out of a Christian Chapel into a multi faith prayer space.
Anybody can call into it. It is a public space. It is for staff and
patients and for family and visitors and for occasions where there is
a space needed for prayer and for counselling in fact as well."

Primarily in order
to qualify for government and other grants, the Network was incorporated
recently.

City Council support
in a partnership capacity has been critical to the Network's success.
Participants advised, "The whole council is very supportive"; "They
provide a budget to it as well"; "We have a convenor from council" and
"They provide us with our secretarial assistance"
.

The City Council
and Interfaith Network also make joint media statements from time to time:
"We use a council letterhead and it goes through the Mayor before release."

"Last year
I think we made a common statement about the Iraq war. We sent a letter
to the Prime Minister."

Interfaith Network Strategies

"September
11 we really did not do a huge amount. We were already having a prayer
for peace. The date was set in the sacred space. We already had a prayer
meeting in the diary and it was soon after September 11. So we focused
on that prayer time in that sacred space."

"There was
a Muslim staff member [at the Ethnic Communities Council of the South
East] who organised a regional statement and gave profile to Muslim
people from the area here. And invited different groups to come. Muslim
organisations were there; Members of Parliament were there and so was
the local state member of Parliament and the mayor and members of the
Interfaith Network. So we sort of got together and discussed the issue.
Speeches were made and Parliament made a statement more or less for
peace and that was endorsed."

"Yes and we
[the Interfaith] heard about it happening and we said we want to be
part of that as well. So together we made a statement and it got really
good press."

"Our meeting
tends to promote things that build up the community. The ongoing positive
educational, community relations, acceptance and tolerance. We should
be aware and we should do what we can in situations of prejudice and
discrimination, but we try to be an ongoing course for good rather than
to react to the negative. And we would like to stand beside the Muslims
and be more proactive on their behalf but at times we are lacking in
connection with the community. They are busy in their own situations.
The more involved they get the more difficult they are to get to meetings.
Meetings might not always be the best way. If the Muslim community could
come more consistently."

In addition to finding
ways to involve the Muslim communities and indeed grassroots members of
all faith communities, participants identified the need for more promotion
for the network and its activities as a current need, although "even
with the limited resources they are doing a good job".

The schools initiative,
which includes school tours to places of worship and the development of
a resource learning kit on different faiths for teachers, is well known
and "that is what people think should be a focus". Participants
felt this initiative could be expanded and it would benefit more schools
to be involved.

"It depends
upon the principal. There are a couple of school teachers actually who
really took the initiative and got enthusiastic."

The Interfaith Network
is also trying to produce a video "that will be a historical perspective
of City of Greater Dandenong. It will reflect the seven main faith groups,
which actually have been part of our interfaith group: Baha'i, Buddhism,
Sikh, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism and Christianity. It will be great as an
educational video."

The Network is also
considered to be "approachable and available" and members are "often
invited by other groups to speak at their forums or make presentations
about the interfaith and different faiths"
and have done so on several
occasions. However, the response has varied.

"Generally
talking in any community activity you will find some people they would
like to get involved and others so negative they are not even prepared
to listen. And when you ask them about anything - not just the Interfaith
- they have never heard about anything because they never get involved."

"The general
[response] from the community is that you speak to someone and you find
that person is well aware of what is happening on the local level. They
are prepared to read the local papers; they are prepared to get involved
in any local activities, and some people have not learned about that
particular issue and don't read the local paper and throw it straight
in the rubbish bin. They are not even interested to read the local paper."

This comment led
to discussion about the use of the media. The members all believe that
establishing a good relationship with both mainstream and local ethnic
media is important. However, members do acknowledge that although they
do have successful relationships with some local journalists, relationships
with others do not exist. With the exception of the Indian paper, relationships
with other ethnic media have not been strong for many reasons. Arabic
newspapers for example are not easily accessible in the Dandenong area
and "the Interfaith Network is not involved directly with the Arabic
community. Muslims are on the Interfaith but they are not from Arabic
background."

"In the communities
we use [local media] very well. We use about four or five different
newspapers. And very good circulation is distributed free of cost. I
think the main source of information to the wider community or the local
community is the local main media. But as I said we need the resources
more for an interstate newsletter."

The importance of
networking was also discussed. Members share information about various
initiatives they are involved in outside the Interfaith Network. The Victorian
Council of Churches for example has developed a set of guidelines for
various faith groups to bear in mind when planning events and to do so
with respect and sensitivity to other faith groups.

"From here
we network with groups we're involved in. So, I am on the Victorian
Council of Churches, which is a significant group. I am on the Living
Faiths Community and Dialogue Commission of the Victorian Council of
Churches, which is currently putting out guidelines for multi-faith
gatherings and going to distribute this across communities. We have
run it past some of the other faiths as well so that we are offering
these guidelines for multi-faith gatherings to our own member churches
and we don't pretend that some of our member churches don't agree with
the network. Some of them do and some don't. Some like interfaith and
some don't like interfaith dialogue. But we offer it to our own member
churches and to all people of good will and with respect to people of
other faith groups. I also have links with a group called Catholic Interfaith
Committee, which is a branch of the Melbourne Ecumenical and Interfaith
Commission. It is the Catholic Diocesan working group and we organise
events during the year which are involved in multi faith events in various
area. The Catholic Education Office invited a member of the Network
(Hindu) to give a presentation on occasion."

The members believe
that one of the strengths of the networks is their ability to conduct
their activities and "get the message across" despite their limited
resources, so "even though we have limited ourselves, we are called
upon because we are well known and we have got a bit of a database ourselves
so that we know each other well and have established great networks with
others".

The Equal Opportunity Commission
of Victoria (EOCV) Arabic-speaking Community Education Project

One participant mentioned
the EOCV Arabic-speaking community education project which involved the
employment of an Arabic-speaking worker to inform the Arabic-speaking
community about Victoria's new Racial and Religious Tolerance Act in
2002. It was a six month project.

"I remember
she distributed magnets and fliers and she gave a really good information
on how [the law] was and how like if anybody needed anything they could
call the EOCV. The purpose of [her] position at that time was to go
out and do advocacy work, so almost like training. So, [she] will train
[me] in the complaints process and the law and then hopefully [I] will
go out and tell the community about it. Like train-the-trainer."

Another recalled
attending one of the training sessions.

"I just remember
hearing about it many times. It was on the radio, the Islamic Voices
radio. A lot of people are discriminated against but don't know how
to follow it up. We were training and at the very beginning [the trainer]
said that because discrimination is when you feel, t does not matter
what the person does it is when you feel that you have been done wrong
by, so just showing the different definitions of discrimination and
things like that helped, so that people were more aware about things
like that and did something about it. The community still has a reluctance
to complain, but I believe that after that educational process it did
help a lot."

Reporting discrimination and
the law

Other members questioned
why the EOCV education campaign was targeted at Arabs and Muslims only.
They themselves had only minimal knowledge of the new legislation. The
Sikh member present was unaware that Sikhs are protected by the federal
Racial Discrimination Act. The Hindu member was surprised to learn
that the Racial Discrimination Act does not cover Hindus, but was
glad to know the new state legislation did.

One network member
felt that the law provides better protection than in the past.

"Years ago
when the first Gulf War started the government did do some things and
some laws came out to protect against these types of discrimination
[felt by the community] and from what I understand since the Gulf War
until now it has been taken out bit by bit. So a lot of the Muslims ...
feel that before the government was backing us up but now it is not.
One example is girls not being allowed to wear their hijab in State
schools ...they still wear it but there is no law to support these girls.
This is one of the things that a lot of the Muslims feel is of a concern."

The Sikh member recalled
an incident at his son's school regarding his school uniform and his religious
turban.

"We [the Sikhs]
are a very visible minority because of the way we are dressed. Quite
often we get parents [complaining about] my son and the school teacher
asks him to remove it. Your uniform says you must not have it [referring
to his bracelet, i.e. the 'kara']. It is not that. It is part of an
article of faith. They request a letter be written to the school to
say that it is an article of faith. We attend to this because it quite
often happens. I have personally written letters for parents. We need
to make a presentation to the school."

Experiences of discrimination
and vilification

One participant said
the period after September 11"was frightening, and people couldn't
even leave their houses because of the level of discrimination"
.

Experiences at the airport

The Sikh community
member described his community's experience, in particular after September
11.

"Sometimes
people will say something. It is quite common. Mainly Arabs and Muslims
wear the [Islamic dress] back in their own countries. They don't wear
it here. People think Sikhs are Arab people or Muslim people. So there
is some discrimination directed towards them. Like at airports. Personally
when I travel overseas the security officer comes to me and asks for
my passport. They want to have a double check.

" ...I remember
about two years or more ago I lived overseas for a year at that time.
I was coming back so I had a lot of luggage and my mum was with me to
help me through the stresses of moving from one city to another and
all my luggage went through the x-ray and opened up and searched and
searched to the extent it was getting extreme. A lot of people of course
go through that and I would consider that part of racism."

Experience at the hospital

One participant painfully
described in great detail her distressing experience with hospital staff
while her father was dying of cancer and spoke of the impact that had
on her family. The participant felt that the doctors lacked cultural and
religious sensitivity.

"My father
passed away a couple of weeks ago and he was [in hospital] at the time.
He was diagnosed with cancer only about 25 days before he died ...and someone
said [about him] 'these are the people that are written off and they
are just waiting to die'. One of the things in Islam is that before
someone dies there are prayers that they need to hear. In any religion,
any human, you would want to communicate with your loved one before
they go. One of the things [the doctors] do is they sedate them, so
[my father] was under morphine because of the extreme pain, but also
the extra sedation that was being given through the day. So when I realised
I told them 'I don't want you to be sedating him. He is not in pain.'
One of the things was they said 'We have to sedate him because part
of this illness is that they become aggressive so they have to sedate
them'.

" Of course
the pain of losing someone and also all of this also having to fight
with the doctors to tell them. I told them that according to Islamic
tradition we don't sedate people before they die. I was fighting with
them and they're fighting with me back to say 'We are under oath and
we have to do what is right by our patient'. But I was trying to get
across to them that I teach Islam so I know what I am talking about
and that this is how we do it in Islam. And I told them 'I would like
you to respect it'. It didn't happen. I just kept fighting with the
doctors to take the sedation off ...When I said to [the doctor] that there
was a Professor I was communicating with in Syria and that I would like
you to speak to this doctor so that you would understand the same philosophy,
she said to me 'Look, if he is not a doctor of western medicine I am
not talking to him'. I am telling her that he is a Professor. I said
to her 'Am I going to pass you onto a witch doctor. Or is this magical?'
Can you understand that your heart is already being torn out, but the
difficulty that me and my family had to go through was beyond anything
I had to go through in my life?

"As soon as
they found out he has only got a short time [to live] they said if we
would like them to organise Imam, they would. It was clear to me that
they understood some of the things and I know a friend of mine who is
a cross cultural trainer tells me that things have been done through
the hospital, through schools ...so for them to be so ignorant when I am
getting information across ...and if I had not noticed I would not have
known. My mother was going into breakdown. She broke down more than
one time. We had our Imam coming all the time ... and what was being said
to me [by the doctors] was 'look basically what you are doing is cruel.
Don't prolong his life or suffering. Put him to sleep and let him sleep.'
They want me to let him sleep through this most important time of his
life. This was really excruciating.

"This is the
first time I have had to deal with hospitals. We have never had this
problem. Nobody that I know of who has died has had this problem. Nobody
has gone through this. I am realising now it was only through chance
to realise this was happening. They knew about Judaism and that if someone
dies straight away they have to call someone and no-one is allowed to
come in and all that kind of stuff. When I was saying to them 'please
leave the room' it was taken as an offence. When my dad died, I asked
them to leave but it was taken as an offence and that you are cruel.
There needs to be an education program. I vowed to myself I would get
out and educate. This is euthanasia. You have to respect people's beliefs.
This is legal euthanasia. I wasn't going to accept it. It was religiously
wrong."

The participant was
reassured of the support the Interfaith Network would give her and believed
that the push for education for hospital staff should be a community effort
not an individual one. She was not aware of the complaints mechanisms
in place, with the exception of the EOCV. However, after the grieving
process she intends to make a formal complaint.

Another participant
talked about his experience which happened after the 'fridge magnet campaign'
of travelling through an electricity plant to get to the mosque he attends
every Fridays about 100 kms from Dandenong.

"I have to
pass through the electricity plant. So someone complained about me but
that is the rule. I have to pass through it to get [to the mosque].
The issue came to my home and I have a property in the area also. The
man that questioned me was very embarrassed. They said that I was going
around the building and was a suspicious character. They must have seen
my beard but I don't wear a turban or [sunna hat]. I think maybe [it
happened] the beginning of this year when they were putting adds on
the TV saying that if something suspicious happens report it. The magnet
campaign..."

Other
participants also expressed concerns about the so-called 'fridge magnet'
campaign and its impacts on the community.

"That was ridiculous.
Does that mean if you see any Muslim walking around anywhere then they're
terrorists? What does it mean?"

"The Interfaith
Network did not do anything about it at the time. I remember it was
discussed in one of our meetings only."

"We have had
people reply about thirteen months ago to that campaign and my friends
wrote articles and letters to the government and in newspapers about
this campaign. I don't know if they got printed or not. I remember [the
campaign] was disgusting. Who do you watch? You would understand that.
Does it mean that you are watched in your street? What does it mean?
It got to a stage where you were at the supermarket and people would
look in your bags more. If you were carrying a big bag because you have
got nappies in them they were being looked at. And really aggressively
searching through your bags and I don't know, being a mother and having
a child you would think the mother and child would be the vulnerable
and gentlest ones. It was an embarrassment of course. So they are the
people being picked on and being under pressure. I am very outspoken
so I don't have a problem and I will say things back, but why should
I have to and why should other people that have the courage that I do
have to be able to say something back. That was just so difficult for
a lot of people. And for it to come from the government was very bad
as well."

The group discussed
ways of limiting the impacts that such campaigns have on the community.
The representative from the Ethnic Communities Council of the South East
said, for example, "the first thing I did early in the morning I went
to every staff and I told everyone if you see anything out of place or
anything that is going to create some problem please come and report it."

Another participant
wasn't too hopeful about counteracting the effects of such a campaign
and believed branding an entire community for the actions of a few was
not going to help, especially when "one Muslim does something bad,
it is always said Lebanese Muslim or Turkish Muslim, it is never said
the Lebanese Christian."

The members of the
network did not feel, however, that they are 'fighting a losing battle'.
Rather, with agreement from other members, one participant said:

" ...Because we
are people of faith it does enlighten our justice and sharpen our commitment
to respect and to equality. I think it sharpens our focus. I rang the
radio the other day and complained about the language used about these
boat people. I said they are not allegedly asylum seekers. They are
asylum seekers. They are not alleged anything. They are asylum seekers.
The language that is used is used to confuse and to keep the public
in the dark. As an Interfaith Network we are not really a political
force. So when I rang there it was not as any particular person, but
I think it is because of our faith that we are committed and we really
want to stand up for other people that we stand beside. And we want
to be seen to be standing beside them. That is one thing about our network.
We always wanted to be visible. To be seen to be standing beside everybody
else equally. That is something we have learnt, is equality in our network.
Nobody dominates in our network. There is respect for each faith and
tradition. Equal respect."

The importance of
religious education in schools and the community was also felt to be important,
as one participant believed that one problem is that "society is becoming
faithless."

"One of the
things that is of concern to our community is that [religious education]
is being taken out of schools and that is why our society is going the
other way. All religions. It is out of the curriculum. When I was at
school it was there."

Understanding of
other faiths was also felt to be imperative.

"That is one
thing about our network, it is about community relations and it is also
about understanding other faiths because that is part of the community
relations. It is about understanding other faiths because ignorance
breeds fear and that is what keeps people suspicious of others. [The
government] are ignorant and fearful and society then becomes like that.
It is a prey to misinterpretation and misinformation and this breeds
more difficulty."

"We are not
here to convert people, but we are here basically to understand each
other much better and look at diversity and diversity is good. It is
quite phenomenal and it would be difficult for us to comprehend and
listen so we know about that and respect that."

"I believe
that the Interfaith Network is an icon of what the whole City of Greater
Dandenong should be on about. It cuts across all cultures, all creeds,
and all social barriers. There are groups of all sorts; ethnic groups
that are spanned by all sorts of working groups in the whole city. This
is why when we applied for the Living in Harmony grant I got really
upset when they gave it to more culturally specific rather than our
multicultural/multi-faith group. I can remember the very first time
the Living in Harmony thing came in ...we were saying this was fantastic
because this was just designed for us. But, we didn't get it because
we were too successful. It was a Catch-22."

What more could be done?

The importance of
faith leaders in the Network extending their knowledge of other faiths
and of the Network back to their own faith communities was stressed as
Network members felt it was an effective method of encouraging community
members to attend events, "so they can all rub shoulders." To help
bring different faith communities together, one member "started writing
in the monthly column about the Interfaith Network and interfaith issues
in [his local ethnic] newspaper."

Members also believed
it is important for faith leaders not just to talk about interfaith issues
but to attend meetings and events as meeting people from diverse faiths
is more important than just talking about them.

"I really think
the faith leaders could do a lot more in getting the messages through
to their own communities and bringing them along to the meetings. I
can speak personally and I know over the years the [small] number of
people from my faith community who come to the annual gathering. A couple
of them recently said to me 'I didn't know it was on and I forget to
come' and I thought 'you and everyone else'. We had the two priests
there, but nobody else. That is a shame because there's nothing like
the experience at the [grassroots] level. It is coming along and being
part of and meeting others. It is putting faces on religions.

One idea, which the
entire Network considered to be a great idea:

"I was helping
the Buddhists design a sticker for their front doors and cars. It read
'We respect your faith, please respect ours!' That could be something
we could distribute to the whole Network."

For more information
on this Interfaith Network go to www.greaterdandenong.com.
(search keyword 'interfaith')