Consultations Homepage || Meeting Notes: 1 June 2003
Consultation hosted by the Canberra Islamic Centre, 1 June 2003, Canberra
The meeting was facilitated by Omeima Sukkarieh and Susanna Iuliano from HREOC and attended by 13 invited participants from the Canberra Islamic Centre. The Centre was founded in 1993 to: raise the profile of Islam amongst Muslims and non-Muslims in Canberra; promote and celebrate the culturally and socially diverse identity of the Canberran Muslims; build and maintain a social, cultural and an educational centre primarily for the Muslims of Canberra; foster co-operation and communication between different ethnic groups of Muslims through newsletters, social functions and celebration of festivals; be a catalyst for social contact and co-operation amongst Muslims and other social groups and communities of Canberra and provide a platform to establish a cohesive identity of Muslims of Canberra. The Centre has an estimated membership of 1,500 people from a range of ethnic backgrounds including Indonesian, Swiss, Pakistani, Egyptian, Lebanese, Iraqi and Albanian. Membership is not limited to Muslims in the ACT and includes people in other states and territories. The self-funded organisation established a community centre in the Canberra suburb of Monash which houses the Australian National Islamic Library. The Centre offers a variety of language classes and cultural activities for Muslims and non-Muslims.
1. What are your experiences of discrimination and vilification?
General
Participants felt that discrimination against Muslims is less of a problem in the ACT due in part to Canberra’s unique social composition. As the seat of federal government and the centre of foreign embassies and consulates in Australia, Canberra is home to a comparatively well-educated population accustomed to cultural diversity.
“I think you’ll find Canberrans are a bit more accepting because of the make-up of the city itself…all the embassies are here – over a period of time that impacts on the psychology of the city…”
“Generally speaking in the ACT we have a fortunate situation where we are not targeted as a separate group all together. I think in my 32 years in Australia I have never experienced any discrimination as such.”
“The highest concentration of educated people lives in Canberra ... that plays a part in the way the city operates. So I think in that respect we are lucky but there are still pockets of problems…”
There was a general consensus that these problems seem to impact more on clearly identifiable targets, such as Muslim women who wear the hijab.
“I think most of the time that when people are discriminated against openly it is usually the women as they are vulnerable…there are not many women like us who would yell right back – a lot of women are intimidated”
“Men are not as identifiable…”
“I personally can walk through society and no-one would have a clue what my background is. I could be anything and I am often asked if I am Italian, or Greek, or Spanish or whatever (they never think about Lebanese)…but certainly if you are wearing hijab it is a dead giveaway…”
One participant felt that wearing the hijab attracts respect and positive attention rather than discrimination or vilification from others.
“I find that the treatment of the people is different if you do not wear the hijab…For many years when I was living in Europe, I did not wear the hijab. Then when I came to Australia [and wore the hijab] it was so different - the people showed a lot of respect ... What a difference just a piece of cloth makes! I think it is important that elderly women like me wear it to give an example to the young ones - if the old girls do not wear it then the young ones will probably not do it either. I have had all positive experiences. I have never experienced any discrimination in any shop or anywhere.”
Participants not readily identifiable as Muslim encounter frequent misconceptions from other Australians about how Muslims look, act or speak.
“What I get quite often is ‘You really you don’t look like a Muslim’ and I’m like, ‘What does a Muslim look like?’ Do we have an extra arm or a couple of horns coming out of our head?”
“I had [someone say to me], ‘You don’t sound like a Muslim’ over the phone. What does that mean when they say that?”
At work
Participants were keen to discuss their experiences in the workplace, some of which were positive, some negative. Those with negative experiences were very reluctant to claim they had faced clear racial or religious discrimination from employers or colleagues. However, many suspected that their ethnic and religious backgrounds had some effect on their employment opportunities.
Determining whether discrimination was a factor in securing employment or promotion was particularly difficult. One participant, a pharmacist, told how his application for a job in which he had been working on a voluntary basis at a Sydney hospital was rejected. He suspected that part of the reason his application was rejected was that he prayed at work and attended Friday afternoon prayers with several colleagues. Within three months, he successfully got another position with a federal government department in Canberra. In taking up the new position, he was careful not to distinguish himself as a Muslim by asking for a prayer area at work (as he had done in his previous workplace) fearing it would have an adverse effect on his career.
“I didn’t think about asking for a private area for praying. I may have been wrong, but at the time I was new in the culture and I wanted to see what was going on. I had no problems in being promoted in that area three times within two and a half years. Then I started to go to Friday prayers at lunchtime… At the time I was working on higher duties at an executive level for about four months when they advertised the job I was in. I was knocked back twice. It was given to someone from outside who had no public service experience… I’m not saying that I was discriminated against – but about three or four weeks before I resigned they transferred the guy who got my job to another place and asked me to go back in and act in the position again… I resigned and I have been working in the private sector…”
Another participant recounted a similar story of being rejected for promotion in a job she had been acting in. While she felt that there was an element of discrimination in the decision, she knew it was extremely difficult to prove her ‘hunch’. Her response was to quit her job and move to Canberra where she had more positive work experiences. Working for a major federal government agency in Canberra, she attracted the curiosity of workmates when she began to wear the hijab in 1998.
“I was away a couple of months and then suddenly I come back with this head cover. I heard later that they were asking each other, ‘Is she married?’ ‘Did her husband force her to do this?’ After six weeks I think one person dared to ask me ‘Why are you covering yourself? That’s when I started to explain things to them…’”
Praying at work also attracted the interest of colleagues who were curious to know the details of her daily prayer ritual. While she felt supported by colleagues and management, she still feared that differentiating herself as Muslim could harm her long-term career prospects.
“I think you can talk to your boss and say, ‘look I want a private area to pray in’. In these times, your boss would say ‘yes’ to you – but there is a big BUT there - that it would be a barrier for any development or promotion in your career. You know what I mean?”
However, another participant felt more secure about praying at work, partly because her managers were extremely supportive.
“I used to do the mad rush home every lunch hour to pray…one of my bosses said to me one day ‘come and have lunch’ and I said ‘no I’ve got to go home to pray.’ He said, ‘What do you do when you pray? Do it here - go in the conference room. If anyone says anything tell them to come and see me.’…About a week later the big boss came and saw me and asked, ‘Have you had any problems? If you do you come to me and I’ll sort it out because it’s not on!’ So I have had really positive responses.”
Another workplace issue raised by participants was public holidays. Generally people explained how they are able to get the time-off by working on other religious holidays (such as Christmas) and applying for personal leave to celebrate Muslim holidays like Eid. However, participants felt that they had no right to religious holidays and were therefore reliant on the goodwill of employers when asking for religious holidays.
“I think Australian law as such hasn’t accepted that there are other people who would like a holiday other than Christmas and Easter.”
Dietary requirements require Muslims to avoid consumption of harmful products including drugs and alcohol. The impact of alcohol restrictions on Muslim employees’ ability to network and socialise with workmates was another topic of interest among participants. Several participants stressed that the act of socialising was more important than the drinking itself and that they made a point of attending functions and were not ostracised by fellow workers because they did not drink alcohol.
“I think that most of the Muslims take this view that if there is drinking I will not go and that is a lost opportunity of socialising which is equally important… I think that when it comes to a personal level, social integration is very important whether you drink or eat pork is not important - socialising itself is important.”
“I find that they actually cater for it. If it’s Friday afternoon drinks we will have soft drinks or we will have orange juice…”
At school
One participant recounted the difficulties and discrimination experienced by her son in primary school. After several years of living in Lebanon, she returned to Australia and placed her then seven year old son in a Canberra primary school.
“I can tell you now for the first year of school he learned nothing because a he did not understand the language. In Canberra, I don’t believe that we have a proper ESL program that is sufficient for children of ethnic backgrounds ... My son suffered a lot for those first two years. Children are cruel - we all know that - but I think what I learned from this experience is that children are like parrots and they repeat what their parents say. A lot of children were coming to school with political ideas. They would say, ‘You dirty wog!’ ‘My dad reckons you people are dirty’… He had that a lot…What basically happened was that my son thought, ‘What happened to me, I am going to do to them’ and he did it very well…he became a menace at school…”
Several other participants identified issues in schools. However, in keeping with the general tone of the consultation, rather than focus on the problems, participants described their proactive responses to specific tensions or misunderstandings involving school children of Muslim or Arabic background. Following violent events in Jenin (Palestine) in 2002, some boys of Arabic background became angry and aggressive at a Canberra high school prompting the school to ask members of the Canberra Islamic Centre to come and talk to the boys and teachers about their anger.
“These boys were just angry and were venting out their anger at school and being a nuisance and getting aggressive at the school. I think they were looking at ways on helping these boys vent out their anger in a positive way.”
“Teachers will pick up issues and try and deal with it if you bring it to their attention and if they are aware of it, generally speaking.”
Another participant described how becoming active at her son’s school helped break down barriers with fellow parents and children in the school. When her son first began school, other parents and children were not at all friendly. She felt that the fact she wore the hijab played a part in her social isolation. Her relationships with students and parents improved after she ran a craft class at the school during which she answered the children’s questions about her dress and religion.
“That one afternoon broke the ice – after that the kids would come up and start talking and the Mums would come up to me and say ‘Hi how you going?’... So I think you need to start it young because they are just very accepting”
Encouraging dialogue between children at school and between their parents outside of the school yard was seen as an effective strategy against bullying by another participant.
“We had a little incident with my son. It was last year. He was in year one at school. He came home and said, ‘Matthew said you and Mum are stupid - your mum is stupid because she is putting this thing on her head’. We sat with him and started to talk with him then we sent him to school to go and talk to Matthew about these things. He went and talked and they were very bad friends, they couldn’t tolerate each other at that stage…then they started to talk and now they are best friends. Just yesterday he was at our place and they were playing games together. His Mum and Dad came along and they sat inside. It starts from the kids not from adults. We have the responsibility to show ourselves and try to teach other people who we are to be accepted…”
In shopping centres, banks, government offices etc
Relatively few participants had personally experienced discrimination in shopping centres or more generally in public places.
“After Bali I was approached in shopping centres and I had words like ‘Why are you dressed like that?’”
“Not long after September 11, a relative of mine was at the supermarket and a guy purposely ran his trolley into her…She was graceful about it and said ‘You did not mean to do that!’ then he felt really bad and meekly put his head down and walked away.”
“It is not my experience, but actually that of a friend of mine who is from Sri Lanka so she is quite dark. I think this was just the next day after September 11 and she was in Kaleen early in the morning buying some bread and she told me this story when she got to work. She said that this man came up to her, pointed to her chest and said, ‘If you weren’t wearing that cross [crucifix], I would punch you!’”
At home
Participants described only a few incidents where they had experienced tensions in their homes or neighbourhoods.
“I like my music loud and it’s my house, it’s my area - I can do whatever I want and it happens to be Arabic music. I’m doing the housework and dancing round the house and these kids are walking past laughing and pointing…”
Another participant explained that because her pre-existing relations with her neighbours were good, tensions with neighbours did not arise after September 11.
“I found that after the eleventh of September two of my neighbours heard the news at ten o’clock or eleven o’clock at night and I heard this banging sound and bustle at the door… [My neighbour] said… ‘You know some Muslims have hit the Americans’ …He said, ‘Are they a different kind of Muslim, it’s not one of your mob is it, what kind of mob are they?’…The next day my neighbour on the other side came and said, ‘Are Arabs and Muslims like you? Can you explain to us something about what they are?’ …They had this really confused idea - they were thinking, ‘there are these other people who do these things but they can’t be like you because you are nice’.”
In the media
“The minute you say Muslim it is like terrorist …What the politicians are saying and what the media is saying is totally wrong…”
Participants felt that media portrayals of Muslims are generally negative. When crimes are committed by Muslims, they felt the media exaggerate the perpetrator’s religious background. However, in reporting crimes committed by people of other denominations religion is never mentioned as a factor. The example cited by several participants was reporting of the attempted hijacking of a domestic Qantas flight to Tasmania on May 30 2003 by an ‘unemployed 40 year old Australian man’.
One participant argued that there was a clear connection between incidents of discrimination against Muslims and negative media reports about Muslims.
“These things usually crop up after the media frenzy…the people who listen to the media and radio talkback then express their anger and frustration…”
Participants were eager to detail their attempts to engage the media or create their own alternative ways of communicating than blame media for fostering discrimination or vilification against Muslims.
It was use of the media by some politicians, not the media itself, which came in for sustained criticism from participants. One participant argued that linking together reporting on the alleged ‘children overboard’ incident, the issue of ‘boat people’ from the Middle East and the terrorist attacks in New York was a deliberate strategy to win electoral support. The participant felt that both major political parties had manipulated these stories in the media for electoral gain.
“There are people out there who have this concept that what John Howard is saying is protecting them because he is pedalling fear - he is making everyone feel insecure and he is going to be the one to save us all from the baddies…”
“The two major parties have failed and immigration issues are so bad it has exposed them completely…”
Access to services
One participant raised the issue of inadequate access to social and health services for Temporary Protection Visa (TPV) holders, many of whom are Albanian Muslims.
“I work with TPV holders and I think it is in the economic area where discrimination is mainly felt. They walk into a doctor’s surgery or to get pharmaceuticals and people think that they are from the broader community. But as soon as they are required to provide some sort of identification or paperwork for whatever reason and they are identified as TPV holders…suddenly they feel things coming down.”
Reasons for discrimination
Participants also discussed their thoughts about some of the underlying causes for discrimination and its impacts. Several participants argued that discrimination or racism is by no means unique to Australia.
“It’s not just Australians - it’s in every tribe around the world. I mean I was in Pakistan for 20 years. We were the migrants from India - we were the ones who were not welcome there.”
“I was in Lebanon and you know they would say ‘Here comes the Australian’. I said to my husband ‘I’m an alien! Australians call me Wog, Lebanese call me Australian.’ I think that happens to everyone who leaves their country…”
Another participant saw Muslims as the latest in a long line of minority groups being targeted and made scapegoats in Australian society.
“See what you have gone through, the Italians have gone through, the Greeks have gone through, the Turks have gone through it. Now it is our turn, so we will just take it…when does it stop?”
Several participants expressed dismay that Australia has not moved forward and become a more tolerant place despite the hardships suffered by earlier minority groups and the policies and programs of multiculturalism.
“As a multicultural nation this country was built on the backs of migrants, you would think that we would have learned. Growing up in the late seventies early eighties in Sydney, I never suffered discrimination. Several years later for my child to be called an ‘Abo’, a ‘Wog’, a ‘Lebo’ - you know it frustrates me.”
“It only takes one politician to make an issue out of it and 30 years of education has gone out of the window…”
Impacts
While not all participants experienced discrimination directly, most felt a general sense of being under scrutiny or suspicion from the broader community. This climate is impacting on people in various ways:
“Why can’t I be accepted? Who cares how I worship God? What I call him? Which way I do it?”
“We are hurting!”
“We are suffering and not talking about it and not seeing - we are just leaving it inside.”
“We have to agree that the burden is on our shoulders…”
To cope with this burden, some are seeking the support of organisations like the Canberra Islamic Centre.
“What brought me to the CIC…is generally that feeling of being vulnerable in the community where you are the minority…”
2. What is being done to fight anti-Arab and anti-Muslim prejudice and discrimination?
Experiences of discrimination were the backdrop for the main focus of the consultation, describing current and future strategies for change. Participants engaged in enthusiastic and spirited discussion about strategies for overcoming discrimination and vilification against Muslim Australians. Participants were knowledgeable about a range of past and current activities and eager to share their thoughts on recommended strategies for the future.
Community organisation strategies and projects
The Canberra Islamic Centre has initiated and taken part in a range of different projects including the following.
An inter-faith dialogue with Muslim, Christian and Jewish community representatives. Every year, participants in the inter-faith dialogue hold a conference. At last year’s conference, a recommendation was made to encourage more interaction at a community grass-roots level, not just at a leadership level.
Seminars on Islam that disseminate information about Islamic law and culture.
“We as a group thought there was a need out there for some information about basic Islamic cultural values…so we decided to pilot the program of disseminating information about Islamic law and culture and compact it into a day…As a group that we don’t want to just sit here and expect people to understand us but we want it to be an interactive and mutual process. It’s not just aimed at the broader community but at Muslims too - I think there is as much racism within Muslim communities as from the outside.”
Commemoration Ceremonies
Following September 11, the Canberra Islamic Centre invited the
American Ambassador to the centre and invited people to come and express
their condolences for the people killed in the September 11 terrorist
attacks. The event received media coverage in the Canberra Times.
The Centre planned a similar event after the Bali bombing.
“We created the media event. We created the photo opportunity. If you do that - the press will cover it. We set it up in such a way that would be convenient for them.”
Radio Ramadan
This is an Islamic radio program coordinated and run by women with
plans to train more women from the Canberra Islamic Centre to contribute
on air.
“I think the more people we get helping on the radio, working on the radio, it gives them the strength so that if anyone shoves the microphone in their face and asks a difficult question they are going to be a little more prepared on how best to answer the question without being intimidated and saying something that might go against them.”
Government strategies and projects
Australian Federal Police
A representative from the AFP talked about the role of community
liaison officers and community involvement in the Multicultural Advisory
Board as effective strategies to build trust with the Islamic communities
in the ACT. The representative argued the importance of being identifiable,
accessible and available to specific community groups who may need extra
support. This can be achieved through more regular contact and attendance
at cross-cultural awareness seminars.
“We are trying to build bridges so that we are not seen as something that is separate from the community, but as part of your community…That can only be done by having a lot more regular contact and for us to have a lot more knowledge.”
3. What more could be done to fight anti-Arab and anti-Muslim prejudice and discrimination?
The meeting proposed the following strategies for achieving some of the objectives identified by the Isma project.
Promoting positive public awareness
Educating people about Islam and making it accessible to a wider community is one of the main goals of the Canberra Islamic Centre’s seminar program. Several participants pointed out that the organisation has unsuccessfully applied for funding to expand the seminar series to the Department of Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs’ Living in Harmony Community Grants program. Participants felt they needed more support, individually and as an organisation to educate the broader public about Islam.
“I think educating the public is fantastic. I think it is a wonderful idea. People need to learn. What I am sick of is having to educate people about me.”
Another participant, a teacher, stressed the importance of educating teachers and people who are in key positions to disseminate information more widely.
“If we educate the educators, that will have much more of an influence. I will give you an example of this - if you look at Australia’s cases of AIDS and HIV and then look at the world’s cases of AIDS and HIV, the only thing we did good here is that we started right at training the teachers from 1984 from when the first cases came out. Then they started teaching it and you can see that the level has gone down because we started off in teaching about AIDS in primary school…”
The same participant also stressed the importance of educating others by example, not necessarily just through specific educations programs or projects.
“I think education is also very subconscious…we need to show that we are Muslims but we are also Australians as much as you are and we are no different than you are - this is an unwritten educational curriculum…”
Challenging stereotypes
“We cannot blame always the media - we cannot blame other things for the situation. We have to look at ourselves. The only way we can rectify the situation is if we get up and do something about it…”
The Canberra Islamic Centre has been active in ‘doing something about it’ by trying to create positive media stories through staging photo opportunities and media events and by setting up an alternative channel of media communication (Radio Ramadan) and training women to manage and perform on air.
Providing community support
Participants agreed that strong leadership was the key to challenging negative stereotypes about Muslims in the media and in the wider public. Participants felt that this leadership is lacking at a federal level, although not at a Territory level from the ACT Chief Minister.
“I told John Howard ‘We need support from your level’. Support is so important because, fortunately or unfortunately, people follow. There are some people in every community who will follow like sheep whatever the leader says…We are lucky we have got Jon Stanhope who has been very supportive.”
Strong and effective community leadership was also seen as essential to building the capacity of Muslim communities to respond to challenges. Participants were extremely critical of community organisations who are not open about their financial status or whose leaders are cut off from grass roots members, particularly women.
“I think among Muslim organisations there are very few where the members have got a voice. Fortunately, CIC has got the sort of set-up where members can voice their opinions – and it is a group of men and women. Women are probably the most outspoken too…”
Aside from the need for symbolic support and solidarity from political and community leaders, participants talked about the need for practical support to enable organisations like the Canberra Islamic Centre to survive and flourish.
“We have missed out on funding at a Federal level and at a State level. We work on the smell of an oily rag.”
“It really is a crucial thing that the government gives out money to community organisations to set up projects in order to create that sense of community…”
Participants felt that the fact the Centre is a multi-ethnic English speaking organisation works against them in competing for community grants against organisations that represent the specific interests of individual ethnic or linguistic groups.
“For us it does not matter from which country a Muslim comes while in other organisations you will find people from the same place or background tend to conglomerate together…”
Participants also urged Islamic community organisations to look beyond domestic or internal matters to plan strategically for larger issues like discrimination which are confronting communities.
“Different Islamic organisations are putting out the little fires when anything pops up…We want some real strategic planning…”
