HREOC Website: Isma - Listen: National consultations on eliminating prejudice against Arab and Muslim Australias
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|| Meeting Notes: 10 June 2003
Consultation hosted by the
Islamic Council of NSW, Lakemba, 10 June 2003
The meeting was chaired by Mr Ali Roude, chairperson
of the Islamic Council of NSW, and attended by 16 invited participants.
Mr Roude and Dr Bill Jonas, Acting Race Discrimination Commissioner, HREOC
made brief opening presentations. Also attending from HREOC were Susanna
Iuliano, Omeima Sukkarieh and Meredith Wilkie (notes).
1. What are your experiences
of discrimination and vilification?
At work
One participant told of a friend with substantial expertise
who was offered an interview for a position under the name Alex. When
he attended the interview, however, they found that his name was Ali and
he was not successful in getting the job.
At school
Derogatory graffiti targeting Lebanese boys at a high
school where they are a large proportion of the school population was
referred to. It was allegedly done by boys from the adjacent Catholic
school.
“Teachers
are not immune from the racism they hear on talkback radio. Students
say that every time there’s another international event, their
teachers look at them as another rapist in the making, another terrorist
in the making. The fair go hasn’t filtered down to the schools.”
In public places
Participants felt racist abuse is more likely to occur
in suburbs with high Arab and Muslim populations. And it was generally
agreed that, “It does seem to be happening more to women wearing
hijab. They see women as easy prey.”
“Usually
it will be a man or woman from an Anglo-Saxon background who will mutter
certain things: ‘Go home you wog’, ‘Terrorist’
and stuff like this and then just walk off. When you hear that once
or twice you probably ignore it. But when you hear it consistently then
it does emotionally disturb you. Where Muslims congregate, it’s
happening a lot more. If they want to abuse a Muslim, they know exactly
where to go.”“I
feel embarrassed and upset walking in the street with my wife. How do
I explain it to my son that we are being treated like this? Even I’m
confused at my age. One minute I’m Australian, next I’m
an Arab and a Muslim. It’s very upsetting trying to explain to
my son why all these things are happening ... Even the kids feel there’s
no help provided by the government.”
On public transport
Railway station guards are also perceived to target Muslim
and Middle Eastern youth for ticket checks unfairly. Buses have failed
to stop for Muslim women or have closed the doors on them.
The insensitivity of the Australian Federal Police spokesperson
in announcing the recent attempted hijacking of a Qantas jet en route
to Launceston was also criticised. The steward who intervened was a Muslim;
he saved the lives of 54 people but his religion was not mentioned. Rather
the public was reassured about the hijacker.
“The
first thing they said was, ‘It’s okay. He wasn’t a
terrorist. He wasn’t a Muslim’. It had nothing to do with
Islam but they still managed to mention it.”
Participants said they now fear travelling within Australia
and internationally.
“We’re
not taking holidays. We can’t go anywhere. We feel out of place
at the beach.”
In the media
“Talkback
radio makes more people afraid of Muslims even though most listeners
will not lash out and discriminate.”
Other
The role of government was criticised.
“Politicians
are using Muslims as an easy target.”“There
is a lack of leadership among government departments and politicians
when it comes to confronting discrimination against Muslims. There is
a lack of anything Islamic on the part of the federal government. The
government projects fear and there is a lack of understanding. It is
not projecting an image of acceptance and inclusiveness. This reinforces
negative difference and otherness.“It
is unacceptable that the Prime Minister should attend only two community
events in his term. The community needs his physical presence to say
‘I understand your problem. I’m with you and I hear your
concerns’. Failure to participate sends a message of marginalisation.”
On the other hand it was suggested:
“He
[ie the PM] won the previous election on a race card. If he mixes with
Muslims and he reverses that, he’ll lose the next election and
he knows that. He limits as much as possible his presence with Muslims
so that the majority of Australians don’t start disliking him.
He doesn’t want to be seen as a Prime Minister who likes Muslims.”
2. What is being done to fight
anti-Arab and anti-Muslim prejudice and discrimination?
The Muslim Women’s Association reported that a
lot of its work is calming people down on the phone. Following a racist
letterdrop in East Hills, Padstow and other suburbs just before the 2003
NSW State election, mothers were increasingly concerned about their children
travelling on public transport and in playgrounds at school. The Muslim
Women’s Association received a large increase in phone calls from
anxious mothers and advised them to call the hotline. But everyone refused
because of the fact that nothing is being done and they didn’t want
to cause more trouble.
“Mothers
are concerned about their sons and daughters; about how their sons have
been dealt with by some police; about the behaviour of some teachers.
The incidents are increasing. They’re not decreasing.”
The role of religious leaders was commended. The Imams
have provided education in the course of their sermons, projected positive
images of Islam opposed to what is presented in the media, and calmed
the community down.
“No
community organisations are receiving government funding to address
racism. Whatever planning and whatever vision or activities that we
have strategised to address the problems in the Muslim community –
that’s been put on the backburner. We are preoccupied with reacting
and are over-stretched. We are trying to assist the next generation
of young Muslims who feel terribly disconnected from the mainstream
of our society. That is not normal.”“There
are more of us than there are East Timorese. Yet we don’t get
the same funding or anywhere near it.”
3. What more could be done
to fight anti-Arab and anti-Muslim prejudice and discrimination?
Strategies should bear in mind that most Australians
are fair-minded according to one speaker. “Most are appalled
by any form of discrimination against our community.” For example,
about 50% of calls and letters to the Lebanese Moslem Association are
positive and supportive, including offers of help. Bunches of flowers
have also been left at the LMA office.
Strategies should also recognise that racism against
Muslims and Arabs is an international phenomenon, not just an Australian
phenomenon such as affected earlier migrant intakes.
“Whatever
happens at the international level impacts on the local community almost
immediately.”
According to one speaker:
“This
century is going to be a tough century for Muslims – not just
in Australia, but globally. In a previous century it was the communists.
This century it will be Islam. If we want to make our lives easier in
this country as Muslims there are three things I believe we need to
do. We need to become more vocal. We need to form a lobby regardless
of whatever national background we have. And thirdly we have to interact
more with the non-Muslim community. If we can do this for the next 10
to 20 years, the remaining perhaps 80 years will be easier for us. By
sitting on our backsides and not doing enough, I don’t think it’s
going to lead to a solution.”
On the other
hand, there was a feeling that “the community is exhausted”,
“the community is already under too much pressure” and “we
can’t be more vocal than we already are and the onus should not
be on us.”
Isma Objectives
The meeting proposed the following strategies for achieving
some of the key objectives identified by the Isma project.
Promoting positive public
awareness
The significance of political leadership was stressed.
Politicians should be saying to the public that Muslims are just like
us; they have a different belief system but they are not a threat; they
should be respected and treated like everyone else.
“We
need to encourage the Prime Minister to make more positive public statements
about Muslims.”
The school curriculum should cover the contributions
of Muslim scholars, scientists, philosophers have made to the understandings
within science, mathematics, astronomy etc that we are studying today.
The Muslim community in Australia could usefully emulate
the intellectual institutions that exist in Europe, the UK and the USA.
“Both
good and bad ideas emanate first from intellectual circles. The Muslim
community should establish a stronger link with the academic community.
We lack an intellectual institute or think tank ourselves to study Islam
and the role of religious minorities in the West. There are technical
skills and also funding for schools but the academic side is lacking.”
Challenging stereotypes
Mosque open days have proven successful in reversing
stereotypes. When people learn about Islam they commonly say how different
it is from what they had thought before.
Stereotypes remain prevalent, however.
“We
still need to explain that Muslim women do not pose a threat when the
media is constantly whipping up a lot of hysteria to do with Muslim
dress. And when we have Fred Nile leading the campaign linking terrorism
with Muslim dress. It’s very difficult for members of the public
not to see us with great suspicion and fear.”“The
problem lies a bit with us too. We’ve been here for the past 30
or 40 years. But we’ve only recently started these dialogues [explaining
Islam to non-Muslims in Australia]. If we had started when we first
came here – admittedly we faced a language barrier then ... But
perhaps this is the job of our children in future so that we have this
close relationship with the non-Muslim community. To tell people about
Muslims and tell them we are not people to be feared. We are human being
like you. We have our obligations to God but we also have our obligations
to our fellow human beings.”
Ensuring complaints are taken
seriously
There was interest at this meeting in increasing legislative
protection against religious discrimination and vilification. “It’s
a preventative measure.” “You’ve got to start somewhere.”
“It
doesn’t mean that you’re going to get a lot of complaints.
But people will know that if they behave in such a manner people can
take them to court and say, look, what you did was wrong.”
Australia’s failure to incorporate the 1981 UN
Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Intolerance and of
Discrimination Based on Religion or Belief was criticised. [However,
note that HREOC has some, albeit limited, jurisdiction with respect to
this Declaration since it was declared to be a relevant international
instrument for the purposes of HREOC’s human rights jurisdiction
in February 1993.] Article 4 was quoted:
1. All
States shall take effective measures to prevent and eliminate discrimination
on the grounds of religion or belief in the recognition, exercise and
enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms in all fields of
civil, economic, political, social and cultural life.2. All
States shall make all efforts to enact or rescind legislation where
necessary to prohibit any such discrimination, and to take all appropriate
measures to combat intolerance on the grounds of religion or other beliefs
in this matter.“Unfortunately
both the federal legislation and NSW legislation do not cover religion
which makes it difficult for our community to lodge any complaint regarding
harassment or attacks. We lodged many complaints, especially regarding
the media which has created disharmony in the community, but the President
of the NSW Anti-Discrimination Board was not in a position to act on
them because the Act does not give him the power to do so.”“The
Racial Discrimination Act should be amended to make it unlawful to discriminate
on the ground of religious belief and practice. When the Act is amended
to include religion as a ground, the definition of discrimination should
cover not only direct and indirect discrimination but also state that
a person discriminates against another person if he or she does not
reasonably accommodate the religious practice of that person, unless
to do so would cause undue hardship. We are optimistic in the current
circumstances that the Act will be changed, especially knowing that
the Australian Constitution provides some kind of guarantee for the
practice of religion. The Prime Minister mentioned in his speech to
a community organisation recently that he will ensure that the law is
changed to accommodate discrimination on the basis of religion. He said
so in response to the previous speaker who raised this issue.”
Further, if a factor inhibiting extension of legal protection
is a wish not to include cult practices, it was argued that “it
should be possible to quarantine genuine religions”. Moreover, much
discrimination against Muslims is at least partially race discrimination.
“There
are so many acts of discrimination that start off targeting a religious
group that directly or indirectly end up flowing on to target people
from a variety of different backgrounds. So there is an effect on people
who are covered by the legislation. If someone says ‘Muslims’
it covers Arabs but also non-Arabs and targets Indians, Pakistanis,
Indonesians etc.”
Another speaker said that no existing definition of racism
can capture the Muslim experience. Internationally the world is entering
a new phase. “‘Racism’ is the wrong term to try to use
to define these problems.”
“Our
biggest issue will have to be around how we deal with the media. The
hostility to us is fuelled by the media. It seems that no laws, regardless
of the way the government has promoted cultural and religious diversity
as an asset to this nation, the issue of religion remains one of the
most neglected areas in terms of ensuring that people are actually recognised
as having rights in terms of the core religion that they have.”
Reliance on discrimination complaints as a strategy for
eliminating discrimination was criticised.
“Generally
HREOC and similar agencies respond to complaints. That’s reactive
rather than proactive. Part of HREOC’s role is to identify incidents
of discrimination. HREOC should not just wait for someone to raise a
complaint. For example, it doesn’t take much effort to monitor
some of the rubbish that you hear on talkback radio.”
Other agencies were also criticised.
“Police
and security are not taking discrimination complaints seriously. Rather
they are putting a lot of effort into making them disappear. It’s
obvious enough but they don’t want others to believe it’s
happening.”
