Let’s call hate-speech and intolerant attitudes towards Muslims for what they are: racist.
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A recent poll found 49 per cent of Australians favour a ban on Muslim immigrants. This poll did have its limitations, as it only surveyed 1000 respondents from a single online data-gathering site.
Despite this, the poll still indicates how a large number of Australians must feel.
Firstly, while Islam is a religion it has become associated with people of a Middle Eastern background.
In Australia it is particularly linked to asylum seekers, who are often fleeing their own war-torn regions in search of security and stability. Therefore, a ban on Muslim immigration would become a ban on a race of people, which is why intolerant attitudes towards Muslims can be labeled “racist”.
While concern about national security is reasonable, a line is crossed when the concern results in vilifying an entire race of people or type of religion.
It is hypocritical when that concern targets people from a different race moving to our shores – aside from the first Australians, all our ancestors have travelled here from other lands within the last three centuries.
But how did we end up in a situation where, according to a poll, a near-majority of people in Australia would willingly discriminate based on a person’s religion? The rise of One Nation’s Pauline Hanson – who claims Australia is “in danger of being swamped by Muslims” - is evidence this prejudicial movement has support.
In the Bega Valley, there are no mosques and the Muslim population is quite small. The number is absent from the Australian Bureau of Statistics’s data – there are more pagans and Hindus than Muslims .
As our exposure to a Muslim community is limited, we do not get the chance to become aware of the religion’s culture and practices and instead have to rely on what is reported through the media.
This is the same for many communities across the country, so it may be that the fear of the unknown is what drives many to form prejudicial thoughts.
As the Bega Valley has a small Muslim population, we do not see many incidents of related discrimination – although there is the occasional anti-Islam comment on the Bega District News’ Facebook page, especially in relation to how Bega Cheese is halal accredited. But let’s keep these events few and far between, and not let fear of the unknown make us develop prejudices.