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|| Meeting Notes: 18 June 2003

Consultation
with young Arab men’s group aged between 16 and 26, Brisbane, 18
June 2003

The meeting was facilitated
by Omeima Sukkarieh (notes) from HREOC and was attended by eight young
men. The consultation progressed very much as a group discussion and this
summary records some of the exchanges between the participants.

What are your experiences
of discrimination and vilification?

Racial abuse

Racial slurs reported
included:

  • Called ‘Osama’ by work colleagues.
  • Called ‘dirty wog’ and ‘you f…ing wog’
    by players on opposing sports teams.
  • “I
    was called a ‘dirty Lebbo’ in a soccer game recently, and
    by an Assyrian!”

    “There’s
    a lot of mucking around and comments about people’s race in
    sport and even though it’s mucking around, it’s still
    discrimination.”

In public places

“In
night clubs we are usually not let in because we are with girls and
because we look Arab.”

One participant described
his sister’s decision, not long after September 11, to remove her
hijab.

“She
found it very difficult to put a scarf on at school and she would come
home crying some days. Once she walked into a shopping centre and a
lady screamed out to her ‘Please don’t bomb the shopping
centre’. She was serious; she was almost in tears. My sister walked
up to her and said ‘What the hell is your problem? You’re
crazy. What’s wrong with you?’ Just for no reason - for
wearing the scarf, that’s it.”

“Sometimes
you think if I’m with my sister she won’t be targeted but
if she’s by herself then she will be.”

One participant mentioned
his mother’s anxiety that he might become violent if someone abused
her in his presence. Another noted that the tendency of services to treat
everyone as if they are Anglo-Australian Christians is alienating for
those who are not.

“Let
me tell you something about the Australian mentality. Every time you
go anywhere right, say to a hospital, a bank, a medical clinic, whatever,
you know what’s the first thing they ask you, ‘What’s
your Christian name?’ And the first thing I do, I just look at
them and many times I have said ‘My Muslim name is ….’
Why can’t they ask ‘What’s your first name?’
Why do they have to ask what your Christian name is? They have this
mentality where they think the whole world is just Christian and if
you’re not Christian then you’re not a human being.”

In the workplace

“My
old boss knew I was a Muslim and he told my colleagues as a joke that
I was with Al Qaeda. There’s no need to say things like that especially
when he holds such influence at work.”

“At
work another guy said ‘Were you born here or are you of another
background?’ You get questions like that all the time and, you
know, I don’t even look Arab. I look as much an Anglo as the next
person. He was trying to be funny but since September 11 these questions
just got worse.”

Barriers to obtaining
employment were discussed.

“If
your name is Mohammed I think it’s hard to get a job. Hardly anyone
employs someone with the name Mohammed anymore.”

“I’ve
actually known people who have tried to call for a job and when they
say ‘My name is Mohammed’ they say the job’s gone.
But then two minutes later, just to test them, they call back and they
say ‘My name’s Andrew or whatever’, and they say ‘Yeah,
mate the job’s still available. Do you want to come in for an
interview’.”

By police

Police scrutiny of
a group of the participants on a visit to Sydney was criticised.

“This
was just after the 55 year thing, the rape incidents and the sentencing.
Me, [and friends] were having a friendly chat with these girls, and
seriously it was just friendly chatting and it was out in the open in
the public eye as well and these police officers pulled up right beside
them.”

“Just
to put it into perspective, it was Parramatta Road, Friday night, 2
in the morning; everyone’s coming home from clubbing so it was
packed.”

“Anyway,
we were talking to these girls, they were ok with us and we were ok
with them. We were also standing at least two metres away from them
too. Anyway, cops pull up, park their car on the main road, they ask
‘Girls are you all right?’ The girls say ‘Yeah we’re
all right officer’. The cops ask ‘Are you sure?’ ‘Yeah,
we’re all right.’ They ask again ‘Are you sure?’
Something like six or seven times they asked them and then one of us
said ‘Yeah, they’re all right officer’. And one of
the cops said ‘You shut your mouth mate’. It was like they
were saying to the girls; just say the word and they’re gone.
They wanted to arrest us. They were waiting for the girls to say we
were harassing them.”

“I
don’t think I’ve spoken to a girl without hesitating since.”

“Yeah,
I don’t think I have too actually.”

We asked about the
attitudes of Queensland police by way of comparison.

“The
cops I know and know me, they’re pretty cool with me but the ones
I don’t know and don’t know me are a different story. I
don’t think in Queensland they’re that bad, I mean being
honest you get those bastards but I bet there are bastards everywhere.
Cops stop me and defect my car and it’s not because my car is
in bad condition but it’s a hotted up car and it’s a target
for cops…nice car with an Arab driving it.”

“I
think that the older generation police are more discriminatory, and
the new recruits are better.”

“There
aren’t enough Arabs in the police force anyway.”

The following incident
was described by one participant.

“Just
after September 11, one day I was driving on a main road. My car actually
makes small noises because of one of the bolts. So a cop pulls me over
and he parked right in front of me and started braking. It was the SWAT
team and the dog was barking from the back of the car and it was real
hectic. And another cop car comes up from behind. The cop ended up giving
me a $240 fine. But the point is he had no ticket book on him. I had
to wait half an hour while he called back-up to get him a ticket book
from the police station. I was fined for noise pollution. Someone could
fart and be louder. It was ridiculous.”

“What’s
that got to do with you being Muslim bro?”

“It
doesn’t but all three of us in the car were Arab looking and there
was another car in the next lane that was clearly speeding. He could
have stopped him. He asked me very weird questions. He asked ‘Where
are you from?’ and I go ‘I’m Australian’. And
he asked me again ‘Where are you from?’ and I go ‘I
was born here’. And so he asked ‘Where are your mum and
dad from?’”

At airport security checks

“When
I was on a Virgin flight, the lady at the check–in on the plane
told me to take off my chain with the sword on it and give it to the
flight attendant because she said it was a sharp object. [The sword
is a small charm commonly worn on a chain as a religious symbol by Shiite
Muslims.] I mean it was so small and that was just stupid.”

“When
me and my mum came back from Lebanon in August 2001, we were pulled
aside for extra checking of our bags even though we had declared everything.
The customs officer made me take my bumbag, shoes, socks and jacket
off. She didn’t find anything. She said ‘I was hoping to
find drugs on you’. That’s exactly what they want.”

“In
December 2002 we came back from Jordan and on our return to Brisbane
we were checked and believe it or not we were the only ones who were
checked. They made us go through the X-ray and they found nothing. People
would say that it’s their job and that they just wanted to double
check everything. But they don’t do that with everyone, do they?”

In the media

“What
about that point about whenever a Muslim does something, in the media
they highlight their name and the fact of their religion but whenever
someone else does it they never ever barely mention their name or their
religion. Why only when it’s a Muslim or an Arab they have to
mention where they’re from? This is the same sort of racism that
has been happening to the Aborigines throughout the last well who knows
how many years; that they have been crying out for. Why do they have
to mention he’s of Aboriginal appearance? I don’t understand.”

Sources and causes of racism

Participants described
their perceptions about the underlying causes of prejudice against Australian
Arabs and Muslims. They felt that most groups in Australia can be racist,
not only Anglo-Australians. As one commented “It’s multicultural
racism”.

Divisions within
the Arab community were noted.

“I
think actually that the Arab Christians these days want to separate
themselves from the Arab Muslims. I think that there’s even racism
within the Arab community. The Christians want to separate themselves
from the Muslims and actually want to be known as Westerners and not
as Arabs. They don’t want to be known as Arabs anymore.”

Ignorance and a lack
of interaction with Muslims were mentioned as common causes of anti-Muslim
prejudice.

“When
people say ‘terrorist’ or whatever, they don’t say
‘Arab terrorist’, they say ‘Muslim terrorist’.
They say Islamic fundamentalism and some people don’t even know
what a fundamentalist is so they just think that it means Muslim.”

“The
fact of the matter is that the word ‘terrorism’ means ‘Muslims’.
I can give you a couple of examples. The IRA, they are one of the biggest
terrorist groups in the world, they are never ever claimed as terrorists.
On television they had that bomb the other day. They said the IRA organisation
left a bomb in the truck and that they were going to do it because they
don’t believe in protestant beliefs. And they never used the word
‘terrorists’. … There are serious issues with the
media.”

“I
think it’s just a lack of knowledge that people have about the
Muslim religion and they just see their views from the media. People
are educated through their interaction with Muslim people and basically
getting a better understanding of who they are and how they live.”

“No,
it’s ignorance of people. That’s human civilisation and
you can’t change it. You’ve got the less smart people and
you’ve got the smarter people and the smarter people don’t
believe everything they hear.”

One participant was
concerned about the way the aggressive behaviour and comments of some
influence the public’s perceptions of all.

“Whether
[Muslims in Australia] are doing the right thing by Islam or not doing
the right thing by Islam they’re still Muslims and they’re
still representing us. [Other] people only know what they see and what
they hear. They’re not going to know how we are as people because
they’ve never met us before. It’s going to be very hard
for people to just click their fingers and change their minds and attitudes
about Muslims for no reason.”

“You
get every culture doing bad things, like the Jews do bad things as well
and so do Christians.”

“But
the Jews aren’t against the people here. They think we are. Why?
Because the people, all the media and everything basically, people don’t
know whether we are with them or against them.”

Are existing legal protections
adequate and effective?

We asked whether
participants were aware that Queensland anti-discrimination laws have
recently been amended to include religious vilification. None of them
was aware of it.

“Shouldn’t
that already be taken as a given, why does it sound like it’s
a privilege to be protected in this country?”

“I’ve
never heard of it. Why don’t they give it more exposure?”

We
then asked about their attitude towards making a formal complaint.

“Is
the risk worth it? How successful will the complaint be if you can’t
even complain informally.”

“What
can you get out of complaining other than money? Taking money for your
religion is wrong.”

“You
can stop it from happening again.”

“But
it’s not going to stop it from happening again.”

“If
you take a case up and it does end up in court then it might end up
with more bad publicity for the Muslims. And let’s say you take
up a complaint against your employer, they might not victimise you but
there’s a high chance the other workers will.”

What
more could be done to fight anti-Arab and anti-Muslim prejudice and discrimination?

Improving public awareness
of Muslims

The participants
made several recommendations for improving public awareness and acceptance
of Muslims. One participant felt the awareness-raising should start within
Muslim families, to teach moderation and balance.

“How
about we educate our youth especially better about proper Islam not
the sort of Islam that is either too left or too right and too extreme?
How about a balance? You see, if the Muslim people had a better knowledge
about the proper Islam which is not too extreme and not too light -
which is the balance because in the proper Islam there should be a balance
in life - and if that was taught to the Muslim people, then the non-Muslim
people would learn more about the proper Islam itself. The only Islam
that is being portrayed which is obviously through the media and whatever
else, is the extreme Islam.

“Every
family should start working on themselves. Every Muslim parent should
teach their children the proper Islam and live the proper morals of
Islam which are the highest of all morals. If every family started within
themselves and they taught their kids the right way then their kids
would start acting better towards people because the best morals and
the best actions are taught in the proper Islam. If everyone followed
it there would be no problems because the Muslims would treat people
better than what people treated them no matter what because that’s
what we believe. And then against their will the people will start to
believe that Muslims are good people because that’s what we are
supposed to be and that’s what proper Islam is.”

We asked whether
interfaith dialogues would be effective. The comment was made that ‘It’s
a start’.

“But
the leaders already respect each other in a sense. It’s the people
that you need to be concerned about.”

“At
Kuraby mosque the other day I was driving past and I saw a big Catholic
school bus full of males and females and they were being shown the Kuraby
mosque. So things are already in process. I’m pretty sure that
the view those kids had before they went into the mosque was different
and then they think ‘wait a minute, this is not a place that harbours
terrorism; this is a peaceful place’. It breaks down the barriers.”

“It’s
like that dialogue between schools in Sydney - Wiley Park Girls High
School and St. Patrick’s College - you know how they swap their
school students. But in a way that’s shallow because it was obvious
that was a one day thing only, an event made for TV. Obviously it wasn’t
something they did off the cuff. How else are you going to have publicity?
It was a made-for-TV event. If you do that thing informally without
the cameras, I think you are more likely to get some decent responses
from the kids and the interaction is more genuine. I understand the
idea of it, where they want to foster a better image in the media, but
…it’s got to be mainstream.”

“But
if that’s the first step then it’s worthwhile but at the
same time I think that program was good because my boss actually told
me about it, he said he watched it and he said it was good.”

The importance of
Muslim role models was discussed. Hazem El-Masri’s contribution
in this respect was acknowledged.

“He’s
always out there as much as he can, speaking at and going to whatever
he can to help the community. Who else do you know who does that?”

“I
think he’s a real good role model.”

“They
had this article once about him and how he prays before the game and
he fasts during the games and stuff and they showed a picture of him
reading the Qur’an and that was good. When he first started playing,
his team mates called him ‘Allah’ but he asked them politely
to not call him that.”

“I
think he has been the best Muslim role model in Australia, particularly
for Arab Muslims. I really do.”

School education on other
religions and cultures

“I
think we need to educate our school kids a bit more. You get to pick
up a language to learn for example and in learning the language you
learn about the culture. With religion classes they always had Christianity
and nothing else, so how are these kids supposed to learn about the
culture and the religion? In school when they teach languages they usually
have Japanese or Italian and that’s it, never anything else outside
of that.”

“I
think before religion you’ve got to teach a person about other
cultures.”

Overcoming media bias

To
conclude a very brief discussion as to whether it would be possible to
influence the media or place positive stories about Muslims, one participant
commented:

“I
actually think that it’s not pointless but it will come to no
avail, because there is that much bad press about us already that a
few shows here and there trying to give us a good name still won’t
help. The majority of the media is bad and it still won’t help.”

Improving Arab youth relations
with police

We asked how police
might work with more effectively with young people from Arabic speaking
backgrounds

“More
community work, I mean I’d like to hang out with cops more.”

“I
think there should be more Arab cops, because if there was more Arab
cops that would break down the wall between the Arabs and the cops and
the system.”

“But
that could backfire because just say some Lebanese Muslim did something
really bad then other cops are gonna say just because this cop is Muslim
that he let them off.”