Security Worries Exacerbate Anti-Muslim Sentiment in Australia
Tensions between the Islamic Australian community and other members of the Australian populace appear to have hit a new high. Recent security threats concerning a homegrown ISIL terrorist plot, and the shooting of Shia leader Rasoul Al Hasawi outside a Sydney mosque in early November, have exacerbated the historically strained relationship between Muslims and other ethnic and religious groups in Australia. ‘Islamophobia’ is not a recent phenomenon in Australia. The country’s history is riddled with distrust and rejection of anything outside the realm of Christian (or more recently, secular) Anglo-Saxon society. But two specific events early in the millennium contributed to the particularly strong rebuff of Islam: the 9/11 attacks and the Bali bombings. Although Muslims make up only 2.2% of the Australian population, the community has expanded tenfold since 1971, when they only constituted 0.17% of the population. The combination of the abolition of the White Australia Policy in the 1970s and the instability in Islamic nations over the past 30-40 years that resulted in large refugee outflows, has contributed to the marked increase in the Muslim Australian population. Although the government also replaced its assimilationist policies with multiculturalism in the 1970s, there still remains much implicit discrimination against Muslims in immigration policy.
The issue of ‘boat people’, the name afforded refugees who reach Australia illegally by crossing the seas in often makeshift transportation, has been at the forefront of every federal election over the past 15-20 years. The reason anti-‘boat people’ legislation has contributed to a proliferation of specifically anti-Islamic sentiment is that the boats carry predominantly Muslim individuals. In the most recent election, contested by incumbent Labour Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and opposition leader (now Prime Minister) Tony Abbott, both parties made election promises regarding the so-called ‘boat people’ that were so extremely anti-immigration (the Labour Party’s platform included a mandate that even those immigrants proven to be genuine refugees would be refused entry) that they were actually tantamount to a violation of Australia’s obligations under the 1954 Convention on the Status of Refugees and resulted in the government being condemned by the UN. The intense focus on this issue is reflective of widespread concern within the Australian population regarding the acceptance of refugees, and the fact that the Labour Party (traditionally pro-immigration) incorporated illegal anti-immigration policies in their campaign platform speaks to the depth of the hostility of the current climate.
More explicit anti-Muslim comments, both from policy makers and everyday members of Australian society, also form a persistent element of public discourse. In a well-publicized incident in 2010, controversial former senator Pauline Hanson refused to sell her Queensland home to Muslims, openly stating that ‘I think we are going to have problems with them [Muslims] in this country down the track, so I have no intention of selling my house to a Muslim…I don’t believe they are compatible with our way of life, our culture.’ More recently, PM Abbott expressed support for a ban on the burqa due to it posing a security threat and commenting that he found it ‘confronting.’
The entanglement of Islam and security concerns has indeed reached a new high in Australia as an unprecedented threat on home soil heightens these pre-existing fears. In September, Australia put its terror alert on ‘high’ for the first time, and the largest raid in Australian history was conducted by over 800 police in Sydney and Brisbane on the morning of September 18th. These steps took place as a response to an alleged plot by homegrown ISIL fighters to orchestrate a public beheading. This episode has predictably pushed tensions over a tipping point, showcased by the attack on Mr. Hasawi. Reportedly, hate crimes against Muslim Australians in general have increased to an all-time high around the country.
The government is understandably concerned that a disturbing number of Australians are joining ISIL and becoming radicalized, which, if accurate, constitutes a legitimate security threat. Unfortunately, its policies, as well as outbursts from the general population, will more than likely only serve to fuel anti-Western feeling within the Muslim immigrant population, and by extension encourage fundamentalism. Muslims who feel isolated from the non-Muslim elements of their communities in Australia will be more likely to become radicalized and participate in terrorist acts against secular societies, when the secular society in which they live has proven itself unable to accommodate their religious beliefs. By acting out in a discriminatory and aggressive way, Australians are hence affirming ISIL’s ideology and propaganda. Hasawi’s attacker was, by his actions, in fact giving ISIL legitimacy.
If Australians genuinely believe in the threat of homegrown ISIL fighters, and really want to reinforce their security, the best place to start would in fact be attending the open mosque events recently put on throughout the country to repair interfaith relations. The indiscriminate victimization of Muslims is creating ‘a great sense of anxiety among the Muslims,’ and we have seen how fear and suspicion caused non-Muslim Australians to engage in violence against their Muslim counterparts. Therefore the exacerbation of anti-Muslim feeling and action in Australian society appears, sadly, to be a self-fulfilling prophecy.