The Persecution Of Muslims In Australia
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Courtesy Of: Axis Of Logic
By Ghali Hassan
Nov 14, 2006



The situation has become so bad for Australian Muslims; it forced the Federal Police Commissioner to intervene and speak out against the persecution and alienating of the Muslim community, and the policing tactic of Muslims racial profiling and victimisation.

“As I travel around the country and speak to different Islamic communities, I hear more and more stories of treatment of the Islamic community that really is substandard by members of our own wider community, such as vilification or picking them out of the crowd because they dress or speak differently”, said Mick Keelty. However, Keelty should be more concern with the government policy-institutionalised racism and the new laws that specifically targeted Muslims.

Racism is not an attribute solely of Australians or of whites. Racism is a worldwide phenomenon. But racism has deep roots in Anglo Australia. Its roots are nurtured and propagated by politicians, and the inherently racist media. As the domination of Australia by white Anglo settlers over the native and nonwhites prevailed, racist notions emerged as justification for white privilege and power. The arrival in Australia of Muslim immigrants from the Middle East resulted in racial confrontations with the Anglo settlers, promoting discrimination against Muslims. The violent attacks against Muslim Australians form Middle Eastern origin in the Sydney beach-side suburb of Cronulla was one recent example of Australia’s underlying racism.

Viewing Muslims as different and inhumane, Anglo Australians thereby rationalised policy-institutionalised racism patronised by the elites in the government, the education system and the justice system, which they feed to the media.

Muslims are vilified and demonised in order to justify greater violence and destruction against Muslims in Iraq, Palestine and Afghanistan. The slaughter of hundreds of thousands of innocent Muslim women and children in Iraq, Afghanistan and Palestine has not shaken anyone’s conscience.

Whether it is the Murdoch press (led by the warmongering, The Australian), the ABC, the mainstream TV Channels, the Sydney Morning Herald or the more jingoist, The West Australian, they are all promoting a racist ideology reminiscent to Fascism and “anti-Semitism”.

The media have also enlisted native informers to confirm it for Australians that attacks on Muslims and Islam are justified. The recent clone of native informers is Tanveer Ahmed; an anti-Arabs vulgar from Bangladesh has become a permanent household in Australian media. His distorted comparison of Islam with Communism won him many anti-Muslim fascist friends, including those in the Catholic Church’s hierarchy. Ahmed is telling the media what the media want to propagate against Muslims. He is blaming the Muslims for their own suffering and removes the government’s responsibility. It is like telling members of the Jewish community that “anti-Semitism” is your problem and you should do something about it.

Likewise Andrew Robb, the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs, reiterated on 16 September 2006, the government’s official line of holding the Muslim community solely responsible for a set of conditions generated as a consequence of a brutal and oppressive Western ideology. He stated: “And, because it is your faith that is being invoked as justification for these evil acts, it is your problem”, ignoring that the illegal invasion of Iraq was the most violent act of terrorism on a defenceless Muslim nation.

Meanwhile, the Prime Minister John Howard always refers to Muslim Australians in the third person as “they” and “them”, suggests incitement to hatred against Muslims and an appeal to prejudice and racism against Muslim Australians who are portrayed as “aliens”. Every time Muslims and Islam are attacked, the Australian Prime Minister barked in support of these racist attacks. Talking on the violently racist talkback Radio like 2GB, Howard uses racism to manipulate the public and divert attention from important domestic issues. He was able to convert his prejudices into political tools and advance his right-wing ideology.

A recent Saulwick Poll found that 55 per cent thought the Prime Minister is a divisive leader. Howard succeeded in making Australians more individualistic, prejudice and obsessed with material possessions. In ten years, the Howard’s Government has succeeded in replacing every progressive step that has been achieved in the last quarter century with two steps backwards.

Howard’s attacks on Muslims sit very well with Western hypocrites who are addicted to bias against Muslims. We al know how the US-led occupation forces, including Australians, treated women in Iraq. Anyone with basic education knows how women are treated in Australia. Howard should know better how Dianne Brimble was treated by a gang of Australian men and left dead on Cruise Liner. Even women with disabilities are not spared the horror, promoted by Howard as “Australian values” and “respect for women”. “When Mr Howard says migrants’ must be fully prepared to embrace Australian attitudes towards women’, that is the dog whistle he is blowing”, said Senator John Faulkner (Labor, NSW).

Senator Faulkner reminded Howard that; “There are workplaces, as we all know, where women have been harassed, underpaid and ignored for promotion. There are community organisations where women's participation is limited to an auxiliary role. There are religious institutions where women are relegated to subservience. Women's total wages average just 66 per cent of male total earnings. Sixty per cent of minimum wage workers in Australia are women although less than 45 per cent of the workforce are women. Women in our defence forces continue to be victimised, bullied or harassed … Should we blame the 1 per cent of the Australian population who are Muslim? Or should we look at ourselves, our workplaces, our streets, our homes? Perhaps senators might even care to look at our Parliament. It is easy to find scapegoats in members of our community who look different”.

Howard is using Muslim women as a pretext to demonise and isolate the Muslim community, and to cover his deep-seated prejudices about Islam and Muslims. Australians image of Muslim women is distorted by the very small minority of Muslim women who chose to wear headscarf and Hijab. Why the dresses of few Muslim women considered “confronting”, while Westerners sporting Nazi uniforms and Swastika are not, remain a mystery.

There is no hard evidence that Muslims living in the West pose any threat to Westerners. It is poisonous fearmongering designed to manipulate the public by blaming the victims for the crimes perpetuated against them. The vast majority of Muslims whom were detained – by Australia, Britain and the U.S. – have been released, convicted of minor crimes unrelated to terrorism or remained in prisons without charges. The first and probably only Australian convicted of terrorist act is Jack Roche, a Christian Australian. History has shown that Muslims like to live in peace and coexistent.

Yet, while Western leaders – Pope Benedict, George Bush, John Howard, Tony Blair Cardinal George Bell of Sydney and Jack Straw are recent examples – can claim to promote “debate” by deliberately attacking Muslims and Islamic values, Muslims who criticised Western society are castigated, abused and portrayed as “intolerant”. The recent comment by Sheikh Taj al-din al-Hilaly of Sydney’s Lakemba Mosque is a case in point. The imam’s comment about modesty and abstinence was deliberately taken out of context, mistranslated and ceased upon by hypocrites and bigots to mean immodestly dressed women are "uncovered meat". Anti-Muslims politicians, the media and pundits have seized upon al-Hilaly’s remarks, citing them as proof that attacks on Muslims and Islam by politicians and the media are justified.

Sheikh al-Hilaly has given anti-Muslims Australians and the racist media ammunition in time when the Muslim Community is under siege and every Muslim Australian is trying to prove the bigots wrong. His attacks on the Iraqi Resistance while on a “mission” to “rescue” an Australian conman (Douglas Wood) allegedly taken hostage by unknown group have contributed to the distortion of the image of the Resistance and Islam. He proved to be unsophisticated and a liability on the Muslim community, a convenient tool for Islamophobic Australia.

Furthermore, the justice system – portrayed as “independent” – is rotten with corruption, miscarriage of justice and biased against Australian Muslims. Courts are used for the sole purpose of criminalization of Muslims allegedly accused of committing crimes in what became known to many people as an automatic convictions based on fabricated evidence obtained by coercion and bullying. Australian police backed by new ASIO laws and the increase in police powers – selectively applied and biased against Muslims – are arresting Muslim Australians simply to ascertain their identity, reminiscent to the Nazis’ policing to ascertain the identities of people from minorities. In most cases, Muslims are arrested and charged for minor incidents. Muslim offenders who committed minor crimes were given much harsher penalties than non-Muslim Australians who committed far more serious crimes. The aim is to criminalise Muslims and make it difficult for them to find employment and be part of the community.

As a result of the Howard’s Government policy, racial abuses and violent attacks directed against Muslim Australians have increased dramatically. Muslim women and girls have been spat on in the street, assaulted on public buses and have had their scarves torn from them in Sydney and Perth. Many of them have become hostages in their own homes, afraid to venture out. Mosques and schools have been vandalised and set a light.

Although Muslims constitute a small percentage (1.5 per cent) of the total Australian population, they are the nations most alienated and underprivileged in economic, social and political arenas. Unemployment among Muslim Australians – particularly among Muslim youth – is increasing dramatically to more than 30 per cent compared to 5 per cent the official national total. In addition, government figures show that 30-40 per cent of professional Muslims with PhD and MD are unemployed. Muslims, both female and male, have reported discrimination in the workplace, both in obtaining and retaining a job. It is almost impossible for Muslims to find employment, despite the large number of vacant professional positions, including academic positions. Muslim Australians and Australians with Muslim names are shut off from these positions.

Finally, Kerry Nettle (Greens, NSW), John Faulkner and a handful of others who have acknowledged that the persecution of Australian Muslims have to be addressed urgently stand as honourable exceptions in Australian politics. In September 2006, the Australian Senate debated a proposal by Senator Kerry Nettle on the increase in the persecution and alienation of Muslim Australians. At the end of an hour debate, the senate voted 36 to 32 votes to leave things as it is and do nothing.

“The Muslim community is no different from any other community. We see Muslims across the country making a great contribution to Australian society. The Prime Minister's claim he is raising honest concerns is simply not credible. What we have seen are all the hallmarks of cynical fear campaign to exploit community concerns about terrorism at the expense of the Muslim community”, said Senator Nettle.

Keelty’s concern for Australian Muslims is a good start, but it must be backed with action. Australia needs to abolish its policy-institutionalised racism and promote a climate for peaceful coexistence and mutual enlightenment.

Ghali Hassan lives in Perth, Western Australia.

© Copyright 2006 by AxisofLogic.com