Jonathan Glenning, Islamaphobia Kills

Islamaphobia Kills

By Jonathan Glenning

Immigration and its accompanying ethnic, religious, and cultural heterogeneity are the building blocks of modern Australian society. Australia’s democratic political system has provided the vital and enduring framework for its development as a prosperous, politically inclusive and socially cohesive society which leads the world on many aspects of social development. For this reason, many choose Australia as their final destination when seeking a better life, one often free from oppression and ostracisation. In the past two decades, the Muslim population has increased significantly due to immigration and natural increase. According to the 2011 census, there were 476,290 Muslims in Australia – of whom about 40% were born here, with the rest coming from 183 different countries, making them one of the most ethically and nationally heterogeneous religious communities. With 2.2% of the Australian population, Islam is now the third largest religion in Australia. However, they face increasing adversity and disadvantage due to the widespread fear and vitriol that has become a large part of the modern discourse on their place in society. This Islamophobia has reached a new high in the aftermath of the Christchurch Massacre, despite the fact that the Massacre was perpetrated by a Caucasian Australian man against unarmed Muslims as they prayed. What has led our society to this point where we increasingly shun an ever-prominent subsection of our community?

Since the terror attacks that felled the twin towers of the World Trade Centre in New York City on 11 September 2001, the idea of ‘Islamic terrorists’ has become a mainstream concept in both the media and in national politics. This term has been used to smear the majority of Muslims and associate them and their way of life with murder, suicide bombings and other outrageous atrocities in various parts of the world. Despite the widespread condemnation by Islamic organisations, they are still widely held complicit in these acts that they have no connection with. This extensive coverage has been a large driving factor in the increased activity of far-right, ‘white supremacist’ terrorists committing foul acts of violence against innocent Muslim communities to seed and spread fear and chaos. The atrocity that occurred in Christchurch on 15 March high-

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lights the danger that these white supremacists present to the Muslim community. Despite the fact that the actions of these individuals meet the very definition of the term ‘terrorist act’ according to Australian law – that is, “an act, or a threat to commit an act, that is done with the intention to coerce or influence the public or any government by intimidation to advance a political, religious or ideological cause and the act causes serious harm” – there is a reluctance to label them as terrorists by both those of the political class, but more shockingly, by the Australian authorities.

This blind spot is quite apparent when considering two other senseless acts of killing. On 20 January 2017, James Gargasoulas drove up the footpath of the Bourke Street Mall and killed six people, with a further 27 injured. When on trial for these crimes in November 2018, he told the jury he had a premonition from God before driving to Bourke Street. This evidence confirms what was already known, that his rampage was based on a religious intention which falls squarely within the definition of a terrorist act, however, the police were very quick to assure the public that the rampage was not a terrorist act. At the time, the Neos Kosmos, a Greek community newspaper here in Melbourne commented that although the killer was of Greek heritage: “Luckily, we were spared the kind of generalisations that the public sphere inflicts on other communities, the rhetoric that Muslims around the world are used to being the target of every time a deranged extremist goes through with an act of terrorism.” As the Gargasoulas murder trial was continuing, another atrocity occurred in Bourke Street. On 9 November 2018 one man was killed and two others injured after being stabbed by a 30-year- old man of Somali origin. In the case of this attack, the Chief Commissioner of Victoria Police, Graham Ashton said: “We are treating this as a terrorism incident.” This criminal, from a Muslim background, was very quickly identified as a terrorist. In the eyes of the authorities, the Somali man was a terrorist, but the Greek Orthodox killer was not.

This is, however, not only found in Australia. The Anti-Defamation League Centre on Extremism found in a new report that every extremist killing in the United States in 2018 has a link to some variety of right-wing extremism. This finding might come as a surprise to some, but for many Muslims, it is merely a confirmation of reality. For young Muslims live in a world where they do not know of a life where they were not public enemy No. 1; where politicians and the media have constantly targeted the Muslim community, bolstered their campaigns with incensing rhetoric, and made them the subject of front-cover sensationalist headlines. In 2017 alone, the Murdoch press on average published eight articles a day that referenced Muslims in association with words such as “violence, extremism, terrorism or radical”. Appropriately highlighting this blatant bias, the satirical comic strip First Dog on the Moon published a comic portraying a News Corp columnist on the so-called Sky News ‘After Dark’, talking about the Christchurch shooting. Within the comic, one panel had the statement: “Who do they think they are, suggesting that just because Murdoch papers in one year alone published almost 3000 anti-Muslim stories including 180 front-pages, that our organisation bears any responsibility for the febrile atmosphere of hatred and violence?” Another source of often intolerant views, Andrew Bolt, on his show Bolt Report, outlined his ‘natural’ and ‘understandable’ response to the idea that we shouldn’t brand Islam as a ‘warlike religion’: “if our politicians will not speak frankly and protect us from Islam, watch out for a civil war.” It’s no wonder that there is growing Islamophobia in Australia based on the barrage of anti-Muslim statements being published in the mainstream media. Politicians are not much better in this regard. Events like 9/11, and closer to home, the Tampa Crisis, have been used very effectively by politicians to stoke Islamophobia

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and fear of immigration for political means.

In the wake of the Christchurch massacre, however, many, though notably not the most far right leaning politicians, are now backing away from their populist posturing. Prime Minister Scott Morrison threatened defamation proceedings against The Project’s Waleed Aly for his explanation of why he was not shocked by the massacre, given the anti-Muslim rhetoric of many of our politicians, especially the Prime Minister, when alluding to a Shadow Cabinet meeting in 2011 when Scott Morrison tried to place anti-Muslim policies into the upcoming election campaign. This insincerity on the part of the Prime Minister was confirmed for many viewers by the trainwreck interview between the Prime Minister and Waleed Aly on 22 March. But this is only one example. Another was by Tony Abbott, who has now distanced himself from a claim that “Islamophobia hasn’t killed anyone”. It remains, however, that in reality these and the many other comments made by both the media and politicians have served to ostracise and marginalise the Muslim community. This is especially apparent when you consider comments made by Senator Fraser Anning the day after the Christchurch Massacre on an Australian Senate letterhead: “The real cause of bloodshed on New Zealand streets today is the immigration program which allowed Muslim fanatics to migrate to New Zealand in the first place.” Despite the fact that the attack was perpetrated by a white supremacist, Caucasian Australian against Muslims, the Muslims are still to blame in his mind. And due to the sensationalist nature of his views, the Australian media took his comments and plastered them across every headline in the country. And even though they were rallying against him, the headlines directly quoted his vitriol, allowing more people to see it than would ever have from merely his press release.

The danger these white supremacist terrorists, and these unjust, vitriolic comments from both the media and politicians present to both the Muslim community, and indeed the wider community, has been very starkly demonstrated before the world. It is now down to us to somehow mend the rift within the public discourse that caused such malice to take hold. As an imam who spoke at Christchurch after the massacre put simply: “Islamophobia kills.” My question to us all now is: What are we going to do about it?

“As an imam who spoke at Christchurch after the massacre put simply: “Islamophobia kills.” My question to us all now is: What are we going to do about it?”