HREOC Website: Isma - Listen: National consultations on eliminating prejudice against Arab and Muslim Australias
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|| Meeting Notes: 17 June 2003
Consultation with Islamic
Women's Association of Queensland Senior Women's Respite Group, Brisbane,
17 June 2003
The meeting was chaired
by Ms Galila Abdelsalam, Aged Care Coordinator of the
Islamic Women's Association of Queensland (IWAQ), and facilitated by Omeima
Sukkarieh (notes) from HREOC. It was attended by 81 invited participants
from diverse ethnic backgrounds. Ms Hasnija Junuzovic interpreted the
Bosnian and Omeima interpreted the Arabic.
IWAQ is the largest
Muslim women's organisation in Queensland and has been active in advocating
the rights of Muslim women. It currently has an ethnically diverse membership
of over 280 families throughout Queensland and other states. IWAQ caters
for the needs of Muslim women and their families encompassing welfare,
culture, social and religious issues.
The Respite Group
is an informal group of older Muslim women who meet weekly to form support
networks, socialise and meet new people. In addition, group activities
include English conversation classes, basic computer skills and regular
information sessions on topics such as discrimination, Centrelink, role
of police, and so on.
1. What are your experiences
of discrimination and vilification?
All of the participants
had either directly experienced discrimination or knew of someone who
had. As Ms Abdelsalam said:
"Everyone here
has been through an experience or heard about an experience somehow,
and we can go on for days and days ... we all have that experience of
feeling that people look at us as terrorists. As a Muslim woman, we
are more a victim than any other."It was difficult
to cover all of the participants' experiences within the scheduled consultation
time. However most of the experiences felt by the participants occurred
in public spaces such as shopping centres and while driving. Other experiences
described included attacks against mosques, by neighbours at home and
direct and indirect discrimination based on misconceptions about the
diversity of Muslims in Australia and about Muslim women.
Experiences in public places
including shopping centres
One woman shared
her experience of being prevented from shopping at her local fruit market,
and spoke of how the police responded to her call for assistance.
"Two
or three weeks ago, [I] went to [the local fruit market]. You know how
you pay money to get in? Well the security didn't let [me] in the market,
and [I] said 'Why?' And they said 'Because people wearing like you, they
steal from the market and maybe you're going to do the same thing'. [I]
said 'But I would never do it'. But he still refused to let [me] get in.
So [my] son, he got very angry and called the police, and when the police
came he tried to convince the man to let [me] in and asked why he wouldn't.
And the man at the door, the security man, I'm not sure who he was, said
that 'That's my market and I can let in whoever I want, and I don't want
her to be here because she's wearing the hijab and people wearing the
hijab steal.' The police didn't even say anything, he just left. [My son
reported it to the appropriate agency]. At the end, [I] didn't even get
in the market. They told [me] that [my] name was listed as someone who
steals there. [I] was stressed out and for one week [I] couldn't eat."
This story prompted
the following response from another participant.
"If
a Christian stole something from the supermarket, are they going to not
let all the Christians come to the shop?"
Another incident
at the same fruit market several years ago was also described.
"The
sister was talking about [that fruit market]. I went there about six years
ago, before September 11, but I had an experience. Somebody there threw
something at me, and they were saying 'Do you want bananas, do you want
bananas?' while they were throwing them at me. It was the people who were
selling. It was humiliating."
Verbal abuse was
a very common experience for participants.
"After
September 11, I went to the shopping centre and the man came so fast at
me and he shouted at me and abused me and put his finger up at me. Since
then, I have always had people screaming at me and this is very common."
A recent convert
shared a threatening experience where speaking back to the perpetrator
provoked even more anger. A shop assistant came to her aid.
"I 'alhamdulalla'
[ie thank God] have been a Muslim for three years. I've lost count of
how many times I have been hurled abused at, not treated the same in supermarkets,
or people try and stay in front of you with the trolleys, and I don't
know it's just a lot of little things. I wear a black hijab and one particular
incident where I was actually threatened with violence when this man.
He was with his family as well and probably middle-aged, and he said 'Why
don't you go back to Iraq?' And it was just because I was wearing a black
hijab. I said to him 'Are you having a go at me?' If anyone abuses me
I answer them back. I don't abuse them but I speak to them and they get
a shock. I said 'You shouldn't be talking like that to anybody'. And he
proceeded to scream and I felt threatened for my safety. I had to run
into a supermarket ...I had to run into a supermarket and go to a staff member
and say 'Can you just stand here with me because otherwise I fear that
this gentleman will hit me', because he was getting very angry and aggressive.
The woman from the shopping centre was very good. And that's one incident
of many."
This story prompted
the following response from another participant referring to the perpetrator.
"That's
no gentleman honey. That's evil."
Other experiences
shared included.
"I remember
a Somali lady being abused in the shop and people accuse them of not
being clean. This is also common.""I have been
in a shopping centre with my son, sitting down and we were eating oranges
and the lady next to me was sitting down and I felt a bit shy so I gave
her some, and in the conversation, the lady asked me 'Where do you come
from?', and I said 'Bosnia'. And the lady said, 'Oh, there's so many
Muslim fundamentalists living in Bosnia'. And my son looked at the lady
and said 'Are you sure? We are from Bosnia and we are Muslim'. And the
lady says 'Sorry', and [she] didn't feel comfortable and stood up and
walked away."
Experiences while driving
The discussion around
experiences of discrimination and road rage while driving or passengers
in cars was heated as over half of the participants agreed that road rage
incidents were common and frightening as they could be potentially dangerous.
The experiences took place often and mostly it involved the women being
yelled abuse such as being called 'Osama' amongst other things.
One woman who had
recently moved to Brisbane from Townsville said she had felt 'very
safe in Townsville' and never directly experienced discrimination
there. However, since moving to Brisbane she has had many experiences.
"I'm
from Townsville. When I moved here I got abuse on the road while I'm driving,
when I wear hijab where one group of teenagers scream and scream and scream,
and this was at night and I was so nervous. I just kept quiet. Now I'm
scared to drive."
Other experiences shared
included.
"My experiences
have been that I am often shouted at when I'm driving the car and it's
not my poor driving either. I've actually sat in my car waiting to go
onto a main road and had people shout at me as they go across.""Just the other
day I was driving to my son's house and I had this man swear at me so
badly, using the f ...word a lot and swearing at my hijab, and I was in
my car. Lucky I could lock the door."
A few women had experienced
other drivers trying to run them off the road.
"This happens
so often, all the time. Like one time I was driving back from the city
with a friend and these young boys, they were driving and they swerved
on purpose towards us. They wanted to run us off the road. Lots of things
happen while we're driving.""They always
beep the horn, or try and run you off the road and into the gutter or
footpath, verbal abuse, and that's dangerous. And the fear is that people
would leave you for dead."
Another participant
had moved from Cairns to Brisbane and described three experiences in the
space of a couple of weeks.
"I've
just moved down here from Cairns and I've just started to wear the hijab.
I think I'm the youngest here today. I get a lot of abuse from older people
and younger people. In the last couple of weeks I have a few stories that
come to mind, like in a shopping centre I have accidentally hit another
car and she'd just sworn at me. Driving on the freeway last weekend, coming
back from the Gold Coast, I had a man in a car driving next to me doing
the most disgusting gestures to me that were really obscene. But walking
to work the other day someone yelled out 'Go back to your country'. I
was born in Australia. But my ancestors are South African."
One of the younger
participants spoke of how, after an experience she and her sister had
while driving to TAFE, her sister cannot walk to TAFE which is only two
minutes away from her home for fear of being abused by men working on
road works.
"It
was just last week, and it was just me and my sister and we were in the
car and we both wear hijab. I was taking her to TAFE and there's a lot
of road construction and I think they were Council workers. We're driving
and the man had stopped the traffic, and there was a lot of guys and you
know how we stereotype workers to be rude to women, and quickly I thought
they're not going to say anything because we're two girls in hijab. But
all of a sudden, we're driving up slowly and they started to do really
rude gestures and yell remarks and me and my sister were shocked. And
when we're driving back, we were quite scared that they were going to
do the same thing. I got really annoyed and thought, 'Do I go back and
say something, or do I just keep driving?' Then my sister yesterday, dad
asked her 'Why didn't you come walking home from TAFE?' because we live
very close to TAFE, just a two minute walk, and she said to him 'I don't
want to, I'm scared'. He asked why and she said 'There was men' and then
I told him that there were stupid idiots standing there and it was quite
dangerous, so she couldn't even walk from TAFE to our house because of
those stupid men".
Experiences with neighbours
One woman who lives
across the road from her local mosque felt she was forced to move house
because of constant harassment she experienced by a neighbour whom she
believed was clearly anti-Muslim.
" ...he
puts his stereo up and he does it on purpose so he distracts the people
so you can't even hear the Imam talking on the microphone inside, that's
how loud it is. We used to live next to him and we moved house because
of [him]. One lady came from the Council and he would abuse us and telling
her that all these Muslims shouldn't come here and he would always abuse
us and we lived next door. He told people they couldn't park on the road.
I think there are a lot of people moving houses because of these things."
One participant described
a positive experience with her neighbours.
"A lot of people, about 70% of people are
very kind and polite and when they talk to me they say 'ma'am'. For example
my neighbours are so nice, and they collect my washing when I am away."
At home
Some participants were also quite fearful of things happening
to them outside their homes or the homes of relatives because of their
clearly Muslim appearance.
"My brother's
house is on [a main road]. He looks like Osama Bin Laden and dresses
in Sunna (i.e. Islamic dress). All his little boys dress in Sunna. Whenever
we get off at his house, somebody shouts something at us. It happened
to me, it happened to my mother; it's something to do with that house
because they see people with this Sunna coming in and out of this house."
"One function
my sister had at her place, and I think someone died, and the people
parking in the street had come out after their visit and all their tyres
had been slashed, and she won't have any functions anymore."
Experiences at the mosque
After September 11,
Brisbane mosques were targets of violence and abuse, and participants
state that this abuse continues today.
"Holland Park
is the oldest mosque in Brisbane and the community around it is not
a lot of Muslims and it is not in a low socio-economic area. Several
women here are from there. So we all live around that area, but recently
there has been a problem. Because when the men park their cars at the
mosque, people just go around breaking the windows. Twice it's happened
to my brother alone. This hasn't happened before and recently just started."
"It still happens
at mosques. We go to Kuraby mosque and we still get people shouting
at us. After the Bali incidents Kuraby mosque had got molotov cocktails
thrown at it. And they break the windows of all the cars parked for
prayer there.""At the Logan
Mosque also, many times people have thrown beer bottles and glass through
the window while we were sitting inside."
Experiences using public transport
Although public transport
was not a common theme in the discussion around experiences, one participant
told of a conversation she had with a fellow passenger.
"The
other experience is I met someone in the train, a black, a Fijian woman
who asked us 'Where do you come from?', and I said 'From Bosnia'. And
she was saying how many people ask her where she is from and I was talking
and asked her if people ask her if she is black, if she is Muslim. And
she said 'No, I am not Muslim, I hate Muslim people'. I looked at her
and said 'Look, you are black, you are not Muslim and you hate Muslims,
but I am a Muslim and I am proud to be a Muslim'. And the lady said 'Sorry'.
And then I said to her 'what you are feeling is your problem, but I am
who I am and Muslim religion doesn't teach us anything wrong, it teaches
us to be a good person, an honest person, to be a good mother, and everything
good'."
Experiences with police
One participant recalled
her experience of being asked to take a breath test on return from prayers
at the mosque. She felt the policeman was abrupt in his dealing with her.
"I had
an experience where one policeman stopped me while I was driving the car.
Two other women were inside the car where we were coming back from Ramadan
time after prayer and as you could see Bosnian people are not much covered
because we were brought up like that, and when it is Ramadan time when
we coming back from prayer time we all cover. He stopped me for a breath
test, and I said to him 'Where have you seen a Muslim woman drinking in
a mosque?' And he said 'I didn't ask you anything, just do what I said
to you'."
Other experiences
Being heard speaking
another language was also mentioned as a reason people can be targeted.
"One lady that
is not here that's been abused and discriminated against badly by one
Australian man, telling her very bad things like 'shut your mouth',
knocking on her door, screaming [because he heard her once speak a language
other than English]. And I was personally abused by an Australian because
I was talking another language and he said 'Why don't you talk bloody
English?' and things like that. My husband was abused because he had
a radio on playing in another language, not the English language, and
that was in [our] own home, which is very scary."" ...my aunty
and I were together, we were at a car park in Woolworths Mt Gravatt
and we had an Australian child with us. I was saying to my Aunty in
Urdu 'Put the child here'. And this man said to me 'Can't you speak
in English, you're in Australia?' and I heard him even though he didn't
say it loudly. I heard him and I said 'What are you talking about?'
and he said 'Go back home!' and I said 'You go back home'. He looked
at me and he said 'Where are you from?' and I said 'Arnhem Land!' As
soon as you say an Aborigine they run away."
The misconceptions
and stereotypes of what it is to be a Muslim were also discussed.
"People
think Muslim women are stupid, and when we go to comment and they hear
our English accents, they're shocked and they're surprised. It kills them."
Two women from Zimbabwe
talked about their two very different experiences of what people think
a Zimbabwean looks like. One woman believes that the discrimination she
felt in Zimbabwe based on her colour was not unlike that she has experienced
in Australia.
"I'm very unfortunate.
When I was in Zimbabwe, I was always spoken about my colour and I come
to Australia it's the same thing. People ask 'What's your name?' and
I say 'Sharifa', and they say 'Oh, that's a Muslim name, how come you're
black because the Muslims we know are white?' I get that nearly every
day and even if I wear hijab or scarf or anything they ask 'Are you
trying to be one of those?' Even in Melbourne I got this.""I come from
Zimbabwe too and people ask me 'Where do you come from?' I say 'Zimbabwe'
and they say 'How come you're not black?' It's always an issue of colour
and it's all about lack of awareness."
Another woman recalled
her experience waiting to be served at a bank.
"I had
a negative experience where after September 11 I was in the bank in the
queue, and a man came from the back [of the queue] and told me 'Why do
Muslim men abuse their women and treat them very bad?' I looked at him
and I said 'Do you know how many Christians all over the world get abused
by their men, their husbands, their brother, their father?' Then he looked
at me and he couldn't answer and he went right back. This is common to
be asked questions about this and also about polygamy."
Other impacts
There was a general
feeling in the group that the biggest impact their experiences have had
on them has been their overwhelming sense of feeling unsafe, leaving them
with a sense of insecurity and fear as a result. The group has many unanswered
questions as to why this is happening to them and who is to be held responsible.
Participants have different ways of dealing with this fear and the experiences
they encounter.
" ...me
and my sister we have this thing when we walk, we don't look left or right.
Like I think how the Bosnian woman was saying, they're always under fear,
where we are in fear but we walk to shopping centres with our head up
high, but we don't look left or right in order not to catch someone's
eye so not to give them an opportunity to talk to us. So we're not going
to let them undermine us or limit us but we are under fear because we
are looked at and we are the minority ..."
When asked if they
go out more with male relatives to feel safer, one young participant responded.
" ...we don't
go walking with our brothers. Because our brothers are like guards and
if anyone goes to look at us they're going to look back at them and
say something and we don't want trouble. They are very protective, even
more now.""This is the
feeling of young women who were born or grew up in this country, and
women who come as refugees also, there is always fear. They are not
different like this."
Last year Brisbane
City Council approved a development application for IWAQ's new premises,
an old scout house refurbished into their new offices. However due to
direct threats and graffiti on the new premises, the Open Day was cancelled
and they took extra precautions in the future because the new premises
are located deep in a park.
"It
was a former Scout house and it was in a park and it was reconstructed
into offices for us. It was in a park but you had to walk some distance
from where we would park the car. Now we had an open day and we invited
people down and everything was ok. There was an announcement put in the
paper and at the very end it talked about that the Islamic Women's Association,
and that would be our offices. The next day, we went there and there was
graffiti on the cement, the wall of the building. It was very threatening.
And we have the photos to prove it."
One participant thought
that September 11 had an affect on Australia's immigration policies and
spoke of how this has impacted on her directly.
"I have put in an application to bring my
husband here to Australia from Pakistan. It has been four years since
I lodged the application and they haven't approved it yet because they
said it was due to security reasons but there is nothing wrong, They are
just delaying it without purpose."
The influence of the media
There was strong agreement among the group that media
has played a significant role in the negative portrayal of Muslims. They
questioned the use of terms such as 'fundamentalist' and 'terrorist' and
the media's linking of these terms with 'Muslims'. There was a general
feeling in the group that they felt most helpless when it came to media
vilification, mostly because of the powerful impact of the media.
"If something happens in Ireland, they will
never say a Catholic terrorist, they would say Irish, but when it comes
to Muslims, they would say a fundamentalist group, or terrorists or whatever.
And they say Islamic terror."
We asked how participants feel about the media.
"The media
is doing us more harm than good.""We have the
discrimination every day from the TV. Media is the worst perpetrator
of discrimination."
One participant believed
that the media was partly responsible for the fear of abuse that she feels
even though she never experienced abuse while wearing the hijab.
"I came as a refugee from Bosnia and [my
neighbour] said to me 'Go back to Bosnia, why are you here?' Since I covered,
I didn't have any abuse but I feel inside that at any moment someone will
abuse me or say something to me because every day, every time on TV, it's
Muslim fundamentalist, or Muslim Terrorists. Why are they looking at us
as fundamentalist and terrorism? Do they really think that we are like
that or if they do something, [the media] say all Muslims in the world
are like?"
The influence of the government
One participant was critical of the government's stand
on refugees at the time of the Tampa incident.
"My daughter
had an experience inside a shop and this man said to her 'Go home you
illegal immigrant!' She was in tears because this was the time when
the government was trying to win that election and they were cashing
in on the boat crisis at that time. So the government is also responsible
in certain ways for our experiences.""Someone said
to my mum, 'Go home you terrorist, go home you illegal immigrant!' and
she said 'Well, you go home you escaped convict!'"
This led to a discussion
about the existing divisions within the Muslim community and how the government
and the community play a role in creating these divisions.
"What
do the government expect when they are all day saying terrorist, Muslim,
terrorist, etc, etc, and then on TV. Even those that have nothing to do
with Muslims people think they are. So now you have Muslims who wear the
hijab sticking with Muslims who wear the hijab and that sort of thing
instead of standing united."
One woman compared
the community's experience in Sydney to that of Brisbane.
"I've
lived in Brisbane and I've lived in Sydney. I was born and raised here
and I found with living in Brisbane, 'alhamdulallah', if you go to the
mosques, you have Pakistanis, Indians, Fijians, Lebanese, the majority
will all pray together and will all go to school together. We'll all socialise
together and we live in harmony. However you go to Sydney and what I saw
was quite disappointing. The Lebanese community stick together and they
won't like anyone else. I know like they say 'Fijian Indian, oh no I don't
like them'. So you'll notice that they've got like sects of different
nationalities, which is really sad because they're all Muslim. They don't
recognise themselves as Muslim but they recognise themselves by their
nationalities, different nationalities. [Whereas] in Brisbane ... we do
not have that and we've all got the same mentality and we've got the one
common thing which binds us together which is the [religion]."
One participant agreed
but commented:
"Just to add
one point to that. We have few people here, they have been here for
40, 50 years and it was only one mosque and they all prayed together
and they never had that problem. But now unfortunately what you don't
see I see, there is a mosque for Bosnian, South African, Arabs, and
this will lead us to what happened in Sydney unfortunately. But there
is no discrimination.""I'm sorry
I have to bring this up, but the Dharra mosque at one stage had a rule
that you couldn't become a member unless you were Fiji born. Now it's
cancelled and it's fine but can I just say that this is one of the reasons
why we have tried so hard to promote the unity of different nationalities
within this group and this is where we have a strength. In this group
we are Muslims first and whatever else after; but Muslims first."
Causes of discrimination
Most of the participants
have come to Australia either as migrants or refugees, escaping war and
conflict in their own countries. Several members of the group believe
that the conflict in their countries of origin has had a direct affect
on the discrimination experienced by them in Australia.
One Iraqi woman said
about the recent war on Iraq:
"The
war has had an affect on us too and it has been really bad for us here
and there. The missiles affect people in many ways, not just blood or
death. What is happening here to us is because of what is happening there."
A Bosnian woman reaffirmed
solidarity with the women in the room who feel fear and unsafe and likened
their experience of fear with the fear felt in Bosnia. The participant
also appreciated that in Australia even if you feel fear, you still have
rights.
"We
are always Muslim and sisters in Islam. What we have experienced in our
life, being in our country ... without even having hijab, we understand how
you feel and how you have a fear inside your heart. We have that fear
here and still now in our country there are people who have fear and are
abused and still day by day so many things happen. But down there they
don't have rights like here where there are organisations like anti-discrimination
places to say 'look, such and such happened to me, could you protect me?'.
Still now it's happening that Muslim people are being abused and victims
in Europe."
One woman believes
that the government needs to recognise the community's political differences
as these differences and experiences encountered overseas have a direct
affect on their experiences in Australia.
"Does
this government recognise the difference between Serbs and Bosnian Muslim
people? I have been abused by Serb people here in the shopping centre,
and they actually forced us to come out of our country and we suffered
a lot. I lost my husband and my son and like all of us, I have so much
fear from them here too, especially after September 11. I just want to
know if people and the government know anything about the communities,
who they are and who we are?"
"Of course there is. There is discrimination within
the Muslim communities themselves. For example you have Bosnian Muslims
under pressure from people around them as well as issues between Bosnians
and Serbs. Some of us are not recognised as being innocent parties in
the war. The communities are separate because of what happens overseas.
It carries on here."
One participant held
strong opinions about what she believed was the reason for the overwhelming
attacks and experiences encountered by the community in Brisbane and compared
this to Sydney and Melbourne.
"After
September 11, what I noticed from the media and what was going on, which
really caught my eye, is that most of the backlash came on Brisbane. Our
Brisbane people, the community, the Australians, feared more than Sydney
and Melbourne and what I thought about that was that in Sydney, Lebanese
have already terrorised the community down there, that's just a known
fact, where in Brisbane, we've always stayed quiet. So when this happened,
they feared and thought 'They're quiet now but they're going to come up'.
That's why our Holland Park mosque got attacked, our Kuraby mosque got
attacked, the Islamic school, the Islamic bus with students, even myself
I got attacked and I had never been attacked before. The community got
scared because we've always been quiet and we've always lived in harmony
with the non-Muslims. When this happened they thought 'Oh, no, something
is going to happen', whereas in Sydney and Melbourne [the community was
already afraid]."
Reporting discrimination and
the law
Many of the participants
had some knowledge and level of understanding of the new anti-discrimination
law in Queensland regarding religious vilification and had obtained this
knowledge through an information session organised specifically by IWAQ
for the group. After the state and federal law was explained briefly,
a discussion took place about the importance of the new law in Queensland.
"The law should
cover me based on me being a woman, so when you discriminate against
me I should complain based on me being a woman not Muslim if Islam is
not protected.""Of course
it makes a difference for us."
Other participants
believe that fear should not prevent people from using the law to protect
them.
"Law
is not protecting us enough. Unless we use that law, we will never be
protected. Like if someone breaks in and you're not calling the police,
then how will the law protect you?"
Another participant
believed that if the law could not protect them as Muslims then it should
at the very least protect them based on other anti-discrimination laws,
notably sex discrimination, saying "I think [the law] will protect
us as women".
2. What is being done to fight
anti-Muslim prejudice and discrimination?
IWAQ was funded to do
a research project in partnership with Brisbane City Council (BCC) however
the research was not completed due to limited resources.
"I was on a project as a Bilingual Facilitator
with IWAQ after September 11, and I went to down to Milperra School, Brisbane
Islamic School, the kebab shops, all Muslim organisations and businesses
and personal people too in the area and I got a questionnaire as to what
they are doing after September 11, have they been attacked or abused or
whatever. Unfortunately the project stopped half way as I was just getting
into it. IWAQ did do that but it stopped because BCC stopped resources
half way because of the lack of resources, so this was being done in partnership
with BCC."
'Celebrating Muslim Women' Day
One week after September 11, IWAQ organised a day called
'Celebrating Muslim Women' where people from mainstream and community
organisations across Queensland were invited. The event was held at the
Brisbane Showground and was entirely self-funded.
" ...we just wanted them to understand that
Muslim women were just like them. It was a great day and was very successful
and the newspapers had all our photos in it ...and we had people come from
the Gold Coast, all the way from North Coast, Toowoomba, all came to support
us. More than 500 people attended."
As well as being involved in interfaith dialogues "where
we Muslim groups visit church groups", IWAQ also forged relationships
with other religious and community groups which participants believed
was very successful.
"Centenary Seniors invited us. It's a mixed
organisation or social group and a church group and we all went. They
welcomed us and they gave us lunch and we told them we're not having meat,
and they were really surprised and you know what the comment was? 'You
women are exactly like us'. Also, they did a very good article on us and
another thing they didn't realise there was they thought that only Arabs
were Muslims and I said 'No, not all Muslims are Arabs and not all Arabs
are Muslims, there are also Christian Arabs'."
Information sessions and workshops
It was felt that it was important for IWAQ to continue
to foster relationships between organisations such as police and the community
and therefore to build trust between both.
"We had the police, Anti-Discrimination
Commission and the federal police came and talked to us about what to
do if you are ever caught in an incident, how to identify the person so
that you will be able to get something done and the importance of recognising
and learning the number plates on cars, so that if someone does anything,
look at the number plate and you can do something. So we tried to be a
bit proactive in that regard through education." "Going on that line,
I think IWAQ getting together; we start with a small group of five or
ten and then the group now we have at least an average of thirty people
every week. And that number is not coming and having a cup of coffee only
and coming together and having lunch. It is to empower each other, and
to open dialogue between each other so when we have problem we know where
to go. We share information, and it's about having an opportunity to talk
to [the workers] here as well, where one of the workers will encourage
them to learn some English, getting a speaker every week just to give
women an awareness of what is available to [them] and the federal police,
the police, the Crime Stoppers, the Anti-Discrimination Commission. When
they come here they have that relationship with [the community]. You have
that small card which you know how to call people when you really need
help (referring to 'Know Your Rights Cards')."
Working with police
"And 'alhamdalallah', there was a young
man who was a Bosnian police officer here in Logan. They gave out his
number so people who were Bosnian and would have a problem with language,
at least had someone they could call directly ...He was a Cross Cultural
Liaison Officer I think. They were going to send him out west, but this
is the thing with some of the police organisations; they waste good resources.
He is a resource for them and they wanted to send him out where there
were no Bosnians. But we lobbied to keep him here and now it has helped
tremendously."
3. What more could be done to fight anti-Muslim prejudice and discrimination?
Public education and education for service providers
Participants suggested that the general public and especially
service providers need to be educated about Islam and about anti-discrimination
laws. Promoting positive public awareness and the need for greater cross-cultural
awareness between Muslims and the mainstream community were also mentioned.
Other responses include:
"We need some
education through the media about the laws and about what is happening
in the community.""No more propaganda
on TV or other media about Muslims. Less propaganda and more friendship
and love between people.""The people
who do this are a minority and it is this minority we need to put in
the right spot and educate. When we talk about our negative experiences
it doesn't mean we are not appreciated."
One participant talked
about what she was going to do.
"I am
a supervisor in a managing capacity at Woolworths, and I guess people
do get shocked when they know I'm Aussie and Muslim. I see staff get shocked
and react differently to customers who are Muslim. I will go back and
recommend that staff be trained in anti-discrimination law and about the
community they are serving, and I think that should be extended across
all places."
School education
Better education
for students at all levels was also mentioned.
"When
we talk about education, I think we need to look at education in the schools,
primary and high school, universities, because they're feeding them a
lot of orientalist rubbish at the university level. So we need to have
scanning of the curriculum at all levels."
Education in the Muslim community
Participants were
also self-reflective about the Muslim community itself with a few suggestions
for change.
"I think the
solution is also in our hands. We blame the government, and they are
to blame partly, but we have to take a step back, educate ourselves
and be able to educate the community. Because I know from myself, I
wore the hijab as a representative, as a Muslim and you have to be strong
in your heart. There are people who avoid the problems as a mechanism
of protection and there's nothing wrong with that.""There is a
saying that goes 'there is no smoke without fire', so we have to start
with ourselves and our flaws. We have to respect our religion, behave
well and demand respect back.""The best way
is to say that I'm from Australia. If you say from Australia, they will
never ask anymore questions."
