Consultations Homepage || Meeting Notes: 10 June 2003
Consultation hosted by the Australian Arabic Communities Council at their offices in Bankstown NSW, 10 June 2003
The meeting was facilitated by Ms Randa Kattan, Executive Director of the AACC. The meeting was introduced with brief presentations by Mr Hassan Moussa, AACC chair, Dr Bill Jonas, Acting Race Discrimination Commissioner, and Ms Omeima Sukkarieh, Community Liaison Officer, HREOC. It was attended by some 27 invited participants. Also attending were Ms Meredith Wilkie (notes), Dr Susanna Iuliano and Mr Paul Oliver from HREOC.
1. What are your experiences of discrimination and vilification?
The point was made early in the discussion that discrimination against Arab and Muslim Australians had started well before 11 September 2001. It was certainly occurring during the first Gulf War. The people who discriminated or vilified then have got away with it.
At work
A Sheikh described the case of a trainee nurse who wears the hijab who
had been unable to find a hospital willing to let her do her work experience.
Someone had suggested to her she would have more success if she removed
her hijab. He had pointed out that the Quran recognises that people’s
survival sometimes imposes the need for compromise and he told her that
God may forgive her for removing her hijab until she had finished her
work experience. This was just one case of several similar cases.
“But we shouldn’t have to do that to get a job. No-one with a hijab is working in a bank in Lakemba, Punchbowl, Bankstown. Or in most jobs. We don’t need statistics – we can see it with our own eyes.”
At school
The meeting was told that at one high school, 44 boys had been expelled
in the space of one year.
“44 young men lost their future. Two chances were given by the principal and then they were expelled. Without their certificate they will not work.”
At another high school where 70% of the students are Muslim girls, parents at first refused permission for their children to participate in an excursion which would involve camping overnight. Fortunately the Sheikh intervened in time and was able to negotiate with the parents so that the issue could be resolved. It was resolved when the school assured the parents that only female teachers would be with the students and it would pay for three parents to accompany them.
While the Department of Education and Training is said to have excellent policies which are expected to be implemented, the staff are only human “made from feelings, prejudice, understanding or hatred, the same as any one of us, and from many different backgrounds”.
“So what happens sometimes in the schools is not school policy for that thing to happen. It is an individual act by someone who is acting according to their emotions. We should be concentrating on the under-current discrimination where a student is not learning properly.”
It was suggested that many teachers believe unwillingness or unreadiness to learn is culturally based. That stereotype precluded teachers from tapping into the existing resources to assist students at risk. That is more damaging to that student than individual incidents.
At home
Individuals in the community have received hate mail at home as have the
AACC office. The Sheikh reported having received more than five death
threats after the Bali bombings which he reported to the police.
In the street or public transport
The meeting was told that women in hijab are targeted on the streets.
It was felt that women of other cultures wearing traditional dress, such
as Indian women in saris, are not targeted. It is clear that specifically
religious dress is targeted.
In
the media
“I know of 20 letters from students written to the Daily Telegraph and the Bankstown Torch newspapers. Not one was published in the Telegraph and only 3 in the Torch. We have the same experience with radio shock jocks. Our own Arabic radio station is spending time dividing groups and playing songs – not promoting the image of the community.”
“The media is punishing the whole community and giving us a bad image. They never talk about the good things that are happening in the community. They stir things up. The media play a big role in pushing members of the society against a section of the community by drawing a bad picture so that neighbours and other people look at you as if they are frightened.”
“The stereotypes come – 99% of them – from commercial media. They have their own lawyers and know how to avoid legal redress.”
Police
One participant complained that police had taken 2 hours to respond to
five calls about fighting between Arab neighbours. The matter was taken
up with the local commander who denied the slow response time was due
to discrimination. He suggested there may have been no car available to
attend. Another said,
“If the police or the judge are not fair, what can you do? The police should look after everybody regardless of their religion.”
Other
The responsibility of governments themselves for creating an environment
of prejudice against Australian Arabs and Muslims was noted.
“The fair go motto we always believed in has been replaced with the fear go where the individual sees themselves above the rest of society. When fear is embraced, we all cling to what we have and society is tilted in a direction where the majority rules without the slightest regard or respect for the rest of society. The culture of the dominant group becomes mainstream to the exclusion of all others. Minorities are being made to feel grateful for the right to practice their own culture; for being tolerated. Equity and fairness are rights; they are not privileges. Governments were created to provide equity and fairness, not to take it away. There has been a campaign to disenfranchise large sections of our society, especially in the last 2 years. This campaign is very short-sighted and could have long-term undesirable ramifications. The Australia which was the kind of society everyone would want to live in is slipping away from us.”
“The Australian community is showing its true colours. When an ordinary person comes up to me and tells me to go back to my own country, I know where it comes from. From the leader of the country – the government. We are in fear of being branded as a terrorist or a sympathiser. There’s no longer any ‘political correctness’ – it’s now them and us.”
“It is wrong to impose – by policy – that we are to adopt Anglo culture. The extent to which individuals retain their own culture should be a matter of personal choice.”
The silencing of the whole community was identified as a current phenomenon of racism.
“We should have stood up about the rape gangs and said it is not a community problem, it is an individual problem of teenage boys running amok. We have to make ourselves understood that what’s happening is not us – we’re not terrorists. But we are in fear of saying what we think because at work places, on the street, everywhere, when you say your opinion or talk about how you see things you are asked to be quiet. That is discrimination. That is racism and it is more damaging than taking the scarf off my head.”
2. What is being done to fight anti-Arab and anti-Muslim prejudice and discrimination?
It was reported that community radio has broadcast community service ads alerting people to the NSW Anti-Discrimination Board complaints process as well as interviews with ADB staff and staff of other organisations.
A plethora of small scale local initiatives over two decades at least was briefly described such as a theatre project to engage Turkish girls. These initiatives – in community theatre, community education, cultural development – all have as their larger objective engaging their target groups in other programs and the society as a whole. However, they generally only receive short-term funding, are relatively undocumented and rarely evaluated. “The key is participation.”
“There’s currently a government fad to fund projects for youth in Bankstown. Some young people are starting to say now there’s too much to do!”
AACC established an Arabic Community Forum to devise strategies and a Racism Register after 11 September 2001 and has tried to engage with media and to work collaboratively with other organisations on a number of strategies. Cultural awareness seminars have been offered by several community and religious organisations.
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 key objectives identified by Isma.
Promoting positive public awareness
The importance of strategies which address the perpetrators directly was
raised. HREOC’s Isma project could be seen as preaching to the converted.
“The Muslim and Arabic communities are the recipients of discrimination. Seemingly the instigators of the discrimination are not involved with this discussion. You need to address the instigators – this is the missing link. Engage them to change their attitudes and lift their awareness. Exploit the novelty factor of ‘what is Islam?’. Most people are nice people and really want to know.”
“The challenge is to reach people who don’t accept they’re wrong or ignorant.”
“In cross-cultural training it is very important to distinguish between Arabic culture and Islamic culture. And also between international events and players and what is happening here in Australia.”
The meeting briefly debated the value of creating a new organ to present the Arabic and Muslim perspectives to mainstream Australians. The editor of an Arabic/English literary journal described the way in which his journal creates a link between the Arabic-speaking world and the English-speaking world.
“We should use the same weapons as mainstream Australia uses. We should lift our own profile. The official language in Australia is English. You really have to understand how to penetrate the system at its highest level. We believe that our journal has done so. The proof for this is that since September 11 the emails we receive are extremely supportive of Arabs and Muslims, although the journal is secular – it has nothing to do directly with the community at all. It has succeeded in lifting the profile of the community. A practical solution is to come forward and do something. If you are asking what will be a real solution for this community it will be to publish a newspaper in English at least once a week at the highest level possible to lift the profile of the community and to allow Australians to understand what Islam is, who Arabs are and what are the issues for us.”
“But who’d read a newspaper? They watch TV and radio which already exists.”
“Our cultural expression needs to take place in a public space instead of always being in a space identified as ‘migrant space’.”
Mosque open days were felt to be very successful. Getting involved in broader community issues shows a commitment to the local community and is well-received by other community members. The leadership shown by Mr Hassan Moussa in the campaign to save a local bank branch was favourably referred to in this context.
“We should emphasise we are Australian citizens first and foremost. Our priority should be Australia.”
“Fight negativeness with positiveness – the more positive our message, the better its reception will be.”
Challenging stereotypes
“Wrong information is widespread and comes from the media. The best way to overcome it is to correct that wrong information.”“Channel 10 and Channel 7 are especially at fault. Something needs to be done to stop them portraying these negative messages. Fines should be imposed for broadcasting such messages.”
“Ethnic media cover ethnic people. They can’t solve the problems in commercial media.”
“You can’t ban someone like John Laws in a democracy. So instead we should find someone to stand up to him.”
“Be prepared to accept blame when the community has done something wrong. We need to be open to communication. We also lack leadership in our community and publicly disagree with each other. We should just have one or two spokesmen.”
“We could try to form a United Arabic Front. We could argue behind the scenes but agree on one line publicly.”
Providing community support
The significance of coordinating efforts was emphasised.
“All organisations have done their bit but not cooperatively. Policies are good but that doesn’t necessarily mean everyone will comply.”
“Access and equity principles should be expanded so that government departments have to develop and then report on their anti-racism efforts.”
Strengthening relationships between communities
The impact of negative publicity on Arab and Muslim youth was identified
as a key issue.
“Multi-layered strategies are needed to rebuild self-confidence in young people for whom ‘Muslim’ and ‘Arab’ have become a dirty word.”
Ensuring complaints are taken seriously
The point was made that members of the community who experience discrimination
or vilification should be encouraged to submit formal complaints.
“We’re not very good at pursuing complaints but there is a need to [show it is happening] with that quantifiable element.”
The justifiable lack of trust in authorities and the paucity of the penalty for discrimination were referred to as reasons for not pursuing complaints, however.
“The only protection is at the level of a parking infringement.”
The ‘bureaucracy’ of complaint handling was also criticised.
“A student complained to HREOC about racist comments by a teacher and three months later it’s still not finished. The student has to be prepared to deal with call backs and is still facing recriminations and embarrassment at school. They might rather leave school rather than complain.”
4. Other issues and suggestions
“We need to acknowledge that the history of racism in Australia is part of the construction of Australia. I don’t think we can idealise that the Australia we live in now has soured or become aggressive towards Arabs or Muslims or any other migrant community just in the past few years. How Australia was made was based on genocide and colonisation. So we are addressing the big questions about who is Australian and what is Australia.”
The point was also made that anti-Arab and anti-Muslim
prejudice is currently a global phenomenon, influenced by global as well
as local issues.
