Australia has always been a racist nation. Between 1901 and 1973 it even had a blatantly racist policy, generally known as the White Australia Policy, of excluding non-whites from coming to Australia. White Australia’s history of ill-treating its indigenous peoples is also well-known, and continues covertly even today. The racism of blood and biology has always been a part of white Australia’s past and it continues into the present.
But this last decade has seen the introduction of a new kind or racism; the racism of religion and culture, a racism that was first framed for the benefit of the public by Australian historian Robert Manne. Manne wrote his article, ‘Beware the new racism’, a year after 9/11. He observed how, soon after 9/11, the phenomenon of Islamaphobia had emerged within Australian society.
It wasn’t long before the two racisms merged. The so-called ‘war on terrorism’ has provided new grist for the Australian racist’s mill; an excuse to continue their racist rhetoric disguised as ‘anti-terrorist opinion’. The recent arrests of a so-called ‘terrorist cell’ in Melbourne have been heaven sent for Australia’s racists. It has provided them with the cover they need to voice their blatant and outrageous racist views.
Leading the racists on their new-found crusade against non-white and Islamic Australians are the likes of Murdoch propagandists Andrew Bolt of Melbourne’s ‘Herald-Sun’ newspaper, and Tim Blair of Sydney’s ‘Daily Telegraph’.
Bolt’s column has featured a number of pieces about the arrests of the so-called terrorists in Melbourne. One, for example, is titled ‘Importing Trouble’ and another is titled ‘Time to talk about Islam’. No prizes for guessing where Bolt is going with these two pieces. The thing is with Bolt is, he’s not quite dumb enough to be directly racist; he does it, instead, by inference and then allows those bloggies that comment on his blog to do the rest for him. In doing so Bolt exposes his own racism and, of course, his bloggies don’t hold back expose their own racism which Bolt revels in.
Let’s take a look at a few of Bolt’s Bloggies comments. You can see these and others via the links above.
‘Kerry of Brisbane’ responds to ‘Time to talk about Islam with:
Good points Andrew, especially point 5. Why do we bring people into the country who by culture and religious conviction are incapable of integrating with us. Islam is totally theocratic and has no teaching of “render to Caesar the things that are Caesars, and to God the things that are God’s” as we find in Christianity. And how many of them will submit themselves to civil authorities as “ministers of God for the common good”? And even so called “good Muslims” still carry the book that says they must fight (make jihad) until Islam is the only religion. It just cannot work.
Then there is ‘Neville’ who reckons:
Absolute crock of crap, they don’t fit in with a Christian country, piss ’em off! When they start to out these militants themselves, and kicking them out of the country, I will start listening to apologies. Till then, I believe they know about these Jihadists in their midst but choose to turn a blind eye. If you knew you had a murderer living next door would you turn a blind eye?
Habibi of Melbourne writes:
Fantastic column Andrew. The regular occurrence of Islamic violence happens somewhere on the globe daily, it’s only a matter of time until everyone gets their share. Islamic fundamentalism is on the rise as nationalism loses currency with the newer generations and people turn to religion for identity. Even if only 10% of Muslims hold fundamentalist views we’re dealing with over 100 million fundamentalist’s world wide. There is indeed an elephant in the room.
In his ‘Importing trouble’ piece Bolt writes: “…while jihadist ideology flourishes, there are fundamentally two options before us. One is to “drain the pool” - or slash Muslim immigration.”
‘Maggie of Childers’ responds with this nonsense:
If this behaviour and lack of respect is not enough to have alarm bells ringing in the ears and minds of do-gooders and apologists I do not know what will, perhaps that the alleged terrorists could have been martyrs having massacred our men and women who fight for the freedom of all people.
Maggie thinks that ‘our men and women’ are fighting ‘for the freedom of all people’, forgetting entirely that our men and women are doing no such thing. They are actually over there in Islamic lands killing thousands of Muslims – which, of course, is why they are over here trying to kill Westerners.
‘Upto of Brisbane’ says:
Sally Neighbour suggests that simply screening Muslim refugees more carefully is not the answer: I’d agree. Stopping their emigration altogether to Australia makes a lot more sense. If they are not here, we have less problems to deal with.
Meanwhile, at Tim Blair’s blog, ‘Lefroy’ comes out with this gem:
To even hint that Australians - the fairest, least racist, most welcoming people in the world, who have unconditionally thrown open their doors to these wretchedly poor people - to even hint that Australians have “overreacted” or “behaved unjustly”, is beneath contempt; and to say so in “the Age” is just guilt-mongering and race hustling.
‘Most welcoming people in the world’? After John Howard sent in Australian commandos on to a Norwegian ship at sea to send a message that the asylum seekers definitely weren’t welcome in Australia?
‘Lefroy’ is the quintessential Australian racist.
See for yourselves exactly how racist Australia is.
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It is indeed true that we have remained a racist society.
ReplyDeleteToday, in the 21st Century, would you believe, attacks against Jews in Australia are higher than ever since records were kept.
From intimidation to physical assaults and bashings, from graffiti and targetted vandalism to hate-mail and death threats, from continuance of racist Nazi canards such as Jews with unlimited power and that hoary old chestnut about Jews with limitless amounts of money (the Jewish state's economy is 15% the size of Australia's, with double the poverty levels), yes, the deep, dark underbelly of Australia's ingrained bigotry rises above the surface once more.
While 2002 initially recorded the highest level of attacks against Jews in this "tolerant" country for 25 years, it was quickly overtaken by the racist hatred of Jew-haters in 2006, who promptly set about creating a new record.
And now, in 2009, we stand aghast as even these numbers fast become eclipsed.
What is it that attracts the hate-mongers and vicious racists in our society to continually unveil their lack of compassion and fear of the outsider; The Jew.
The fire-bombing of synagogues, the cursing in the streets, the belittling within our society, and the attempt to strip him of respect.
And why, even amongst the community backlash, the politicians' angst and the police's hand-wringing, do the enablers and deep-seated approvers of this disgusting racism sometimes even brazenly deny its existence.
Why do those whose black hearts implicitly support the racist discrimination of a persecuted minority wish to carry on this oldest hatred for as log as they can?
Avner, I don't agree there is a culture of racism against Jewish people in Australia.There may be a lot of mis-understanding generated by the current conflict with the Palestinians, but ingrained racism no.
ReplyDeleteThis mis-understanding is whipped up by the right wing end of the spectrum of politics in Australia, for an agenda that is frankly more about trying to tie in anti Semitism with the left.This in my opinion is the fact they can't stand the thought that the holocaust was perpetrated by those of the extreme right.
It has only become a feature of recent times, it has always been an accepted dogma, that Nazi's were fascists of the extreme right, and of late there has been an attempt at revisionist history.
Having said that, this does not apply to our indigenous population who have been murdered, raped, and beaten since the first fleet dropped anchor in Botany Bay.
Of course people who deny this salient fact, in the main have never met an Aboriginal and most comments from hard are right wingers are just other peoples plagiarised comments.
Travelling around Australia in the sixties was akin to being in places like Soweto in South Africa.The only difference being we didn't shoot them wholesale.A few years earlier was a different matter however.
Oh yes racism is alive and well in Australia, but I really don't think the Jewish people have a lot to worry about.After all we have plenty of other foreigners to vent our spleen on.A strange twist of irony, we not only have killed thousands of people in Iraq and then persecute the innocent.Although to be fair our government is well aware of the ignorance that permeates society.
Strange times we live in indeed.
The demand for Muslim schools comes from parents who want their children a safe environment with an Islamic ethos.Parents see Muslim schools where children can develop their Islamic Identity where they won't feel stigmatised for being Muslims and they can feel confident about their faith.
ReplyDeleteMuslim schools are working to try to create a bridge between communities.
There is a belief among ethnic minority parens that the British schooling does not adequatly address their cultural needs. Failing to meet this need could result in feeling resentment among a group who already feel excluded. Setting up Muslim school is a defensive response.
State schools with monolingual teachers are not capable to teach English to bilingual Muslim children. Bilingual teachers are needed to teach English to such children along with their mother tongue. According to a number of studies, a child will not learn a second language if his first language is ignored.
Bilingual Muslim children need state funded Muslim schools with bilingual Muslim teachers as role models during their developmental periods. Muslims
have the right to educate their children in an environment that suits their culture. This notion of "integration", actually means "assimilation", by which people generally really mean "be more like me". That is not
multiculturalism. In Sydney, Muslims were refused to build a Muslim school, because of a protest by the residents. Yet a year later, permission was
given for the building of a Catholic school and no protests from the residents. This clrearly shows the blatant hypocrisy, double standards and racism. Christians oppose Muslim schools in western countries yet build
their own religious schools.
British schooling and the British society is the home of institutional racism. The result is that Muslim children are unable to develop self-confidence and self-esteem, therefore, majority of them leave schools with low grades. Racism is deeply rooted in British society. Every native child is born with a gene or virus of racism, therefore, no law could change the attitudes of racism towards those who are different. It is not only the common man, even member of the royal family is involved in racism. The
father of a Pakistani office cadet who was called a "***" by Prince Harry has profoundly condemned his actions. He had felt proud when he met the Queen and the Prince of Wales at his son's passing out parade at Sandhurst
in 2006 but now felt upset after learning about the Prince's comments. Queen Victoria invited an Imam from India to teach her Urdu language. He was highly respected by the Queen but other members of the royal family had no respect for him. He was forced to go back to India. His protrait is still in one of the royal places.
There are hundreds of state schools where Muslim pupils are in majority. In my opinion, all such schools may be designated as Muslim community schools with bilingual Muslim teachers. There is no place for a non-Muslim child or a teacher in a Muslim school.
Iftikhar Ahmad
London School of Islamics Trust
www.londonschoolofislamics.org.uk