Prejudice unveiled

By Trudy Harris

WHILE driving to work last week, Maha Abdo broke one of the golden rules for Muslim women. It’s not a rule really, more of a community code. Still, Abdo and her sisters in southwestern Sydney understand through bitter experience the importance of sticking to it.

On this particular day, however, the mother and respected community leader had forgotten to wind up her window. While Abdo was stopped at an intersection, a woman with three children in her car leaned out her own window and screamed abuse.

"She started yelling these words that I will never repeat. It was so alarming. She was yelling about my hijab and you so and so, go back to where you came from," says Abdo, who moved to Australia from Lebanon with her parents when she was 11 years old.

"It’s on an almost daily basis. People stop at the traffic lights and they stick their fingers up at you or yell stuff or they throw their cigarette butts into your lap. That’s why we always drive with our windows up. We’ve learnt to adapt."

Since September 11 and the Bali bombings, Australia’s 300,000 Muslims have been living with ever-increasing victimisation. In shopping centres, schools and on streets, strangers have accused them of being terrorists or at least supporting their cause. Muslim men and particularly women, many identifiable by their hijabs or headscarves, have been verbally and even physically attacked.

A Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission report released yesterday reveals just how deep the discrimination against Muslims runs.

HREOC held 69 consultations with 1400 Muslims and non-Muslim Arabs in towns and cities around the country last year. Its resulting 214-page report is a slap in the face for an Australian society that prides itself on multiculturalism and tolerance.

"What we heard was often disturbing," race discrimination commissioner William Jonas says. "Drivers have been run off the road and pedestrians run down on footpaths and in car parks. People reported being fired from their jobs or refused employment or promotion because of their race or religion.

"When it does happen, it leaves a lasting impression that contributes to a sense of alienation, distrust and fear of future discrimination and attacks."

Kuranda Seyit says dispelling this distrust on both sides is proving difficult. Seyit teaches the basic principles of Islam to parking inspectors, garbage collectors and other workers from local councils with large numbers of Muslims in their Sydney municipalities.

It is an attempt to correct misconceptions of Islam as a violent, intolerant religion. But his efforts are being hampered by the federal Government’s ongoing war on terrorism.

"It’s still pretty bad out there. Certainly many people have this ingrained hatred or suspicion of Muslims and it’s stronger than ever," says Seyit, who also edits an Islamic newspaper called Australia Fair. "This continual reporting about Islamic terrorism, this demonises all Muslims and plays on people’s fears about Muslims. It’s slowly grinding away at people’s fears that Islam clashes with your values, clashes with democracy."

For Muslims themselves, the distrust is coupled with frustration. After September 11 three years ago, most were bewildered at being blamed. In Australia, terror suspects, who themselves are allegedly spreading hatred and violence against the West, are fuelling the divide.

As war against terrorism intensifies, this divide and bewilderment has given way to anti-Muslim conspiracies. And they are sick of justifying their religion and identity whenever terrorism hits the news.

"If you talk to the average Muslim on the street, they believe the media and the federal Government are involved in an anti-Muslim conspiracy and they directly blame the media for spreading this anti-Muslim conspiracy," Seyit says.

A potentially dangerous consequence of such distrust is that some communities will shun mainstream Australia. Rather than risk further discrimination and prejudice, they will isolate themselves instead of integrate – thereby existing only on the fringes of society.

Australian Arabic Council chairman Roland Jabbour says community leaders need to work hard to ensure this does not happen.

"I think the Arabic communities have a responsibility to integrate more effectively into mainstream society, because otherwise we run the risk of becoming a nation of tribes," Jabbour says. "There needs to be a focus on education about Islam, ignorance breeds racism after all, but it’s really a two-way process."

And Muslims have to stop thinking of themselves as victims, says Abdo. As manager of Sydney’s United Muslim Women Association, she teaches young women that they should take the initiative and educate non-Muslims about the facts of their faith. "I can’t just continuously cry out victim, although that’s what’s happening at the moment," Abdo says. "The Muslim community is on a platform. We are all on show no matter what group we belong to. But I have to take the first step. I tell the girls that if someone sitting on the bus gives you a filthy look then you smile back."

But that’s not easy – especially for newly arrived migrant women. Some stay inside rather than venture to the shops alone. Anniversaries for the Bali bombings and September 11 are the worst times, says Joumanah El Matrah, manager of the Islamic Women’s Welfare Council in Melbourne. Women will not leave the house for several days for fear of being spat on or abused, she says.

The council works hard to convince women as well as their husbands and fathers from harsh, war-ravaged countries such as Afghanistan that women in Australia can move freely and easily access social services. But this overriding fear of victimisation is holding them back.

"This [discrimination and fear of discrimination] is disadvantaging the already disadvantaged," says El Matrah.

"They [the women] were of the view that part of their life was over, that they’d left that behind to start a safe life in Australia. But that is not the case."

Reporting of assaults or prejudice to police and anti-discrimination authorities is low. Many Muslims fear further discrimination, while others distrust authority or lack knowledge of laws and complaint processes.

Yesterday’s HREOC report recommends closer community ties with police. Politicians also need to make clear and regular statements about the importance of multiculturalism. Already hundreds of grassroots community groups promote harmony and forge closer ties with other religions. But more funding is urgently needed to continue this work.

"Currently, many community organisations are struggling to meet their core social welfare or religious functions while helping their communities cope with the extra burden of discrimination and vilification," the report says.

At the University of Queensland, students regularly have stalls on campus with books and information about Islam. A pro-Islam forum or "propaganda campaign" held in the days after September 11 drew between 500 and 600 students and Muslims patiently answered questions about their faith for hours. Consequently harmony and tolerance is thriving, says Amjid Muhammed from the university’s Muslim Students’ Group.

"It helped a lot of people to understand that we aren’t the baddies," Muhammed says. "There are so many people who follow this religion. The ideologies that most Muslims follow are completely different to the ideology that a handful of these people [terrorists] follow."

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,9864117^28737,00.html