HREOC Website: Isma - Listen: National consultations on eliminating prejudice against Arab and Muslim Australias

Consultations
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|| Meeting Notes: 16 July 2003

Adelaide community consultation
hosted by the SA Equal Opportunity Commission, Adelaide, 16 July 2003

The meeting was chaired by the South Australian Equal
Opportunity Commissioner, Ms Linda Matthews. Ms Omeima Sukkarieh, Community
Liaison Officer, Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (notes)
facilitated the meeting. It was attended by 21 invited participants.

The consultation was introduced by Commission Matthews
whose presentation included the following comments.

What we’ve heard

The South Australian Equal Opportunity Commission does
not receive many enquiries about religious discrimination. Anecdotally,
however, we have heard of some instances which are cause for concern including:

1. A Muslim
member of the community was harassed whilst wearing a hijab and driving
her car, during the time of the war on Iraq.

2. An Iraqi
man claimed he was assaulted because of his nationality and was threatened
with further assault should he take the issue to the police.

3. A local
business which had previously advertised itself as a Middle Eastern
café made the decision to change its name because of harassment
calls to the proprietor.

4. Abusive
phone calls to the Islamic College.

5. We do
continue to hear examples of neighbour disputes involving racist comments.
Whilst the numbers may not be high here in South Australia, (probably
due to low numbers of people from Middle Eastern backgrounds in SA),
the examples listed above appear to be consistent with stories heard
by our counterpart Commissions interstate.

What we have done to date

The Commissioner has gone on the public record condemning
violence and discrimination towards Arab and Muslim Australians.

The Commission has also called for amendments to the
Equal Opportunity Act to include religious discrimination and
vilification.

The Commissioner is a member of the reference group for
the Isma project.

The Commissioner has played an active role in the establishment
of the Australian Council of Human Rights Agencies. ACHRA has developed
an anti-racism strategy for 2003 which focuses on Arab and Muslim communities.

Why is religion missing as a ground of unlawful
discrimination in the Equal Opportunity Act?

The reason religion is not included is largely historical.
The Act was proclaimed in 1984 at a time when discrimination on the ground
of religion was not seen as a significant problem in the State.

Why has the South Australian Government withdrawn
its proposal to include religion as a ground of discrimination in the
Equal Opportunity Act?

The proposal was withdrawn after a discussion paper on
the issue failed to attract support from mainstream religious groups.
The Government announced at the beginning of the process that unless there
was consensus to religion being included, the proposal would not proceed.

The meeting then opened up to general discussion on the
topics raised in the Isma flyer.

1. What are your experiences
of discrimination and vilification?

Despite the lack of legal protection from religious discrimination
and vilification in South Australia, the consultation heard evidence of
several incidents and concerns.

“There
was an incident where a woman from the Muslim community was being harassed
in the workplace by another woman and she was also watching the offender
be racist towards a Muslim man. She didn’t care about the racism
towards herself but more towards her colleague. I wrote to her and suggested
a course of action she could take to resolve the problem and after a
couple of weeks I called her to see how everything was. But she was
too scared to do anything about it. I encouraged her to go to the administrator
at work and then I would follow through but [when she did] the administrator
accused her of making it up. The administrator on another day called
a staff meeting. The harassed woman was there and the offender came
late and said ‘What’s that Muslim doing here?’ It
was then the administrator realised that he had problems. So he got
the offender and the harassed woman together and talked to them and
they left the meeting at a level of tolerance. The harassed woman ended
up inviting [the offender] home for tea with a couple of [Muslim] friends
present. By the time they finished, the offender realised that Muslim
women were human beings and the only thing separating them was their
origin. This is only the surface and there are many examples but we
first need to realise and accept that they are there.”

“In
the aftermath of September 11, our Mosque received several phone calls
that were abusive and negative and they were very hurtful. But my concern
is what motivates someone to do such a thing. I blame media 99.9%. In
our society we try and consider ourselves as Australians and have contributed
to this society and we are acknowledging the issues.”

“In
South Australia there have never been equal opportunities for Muslims
at all, for example, in jobs, education, accommodation. Even if you
complained to police or anybody: you can complain, but you watch your
back. For example, a Lebanese friend made a serious complaint about
an incident to the police and he was humiliated left, right and centre.
Nobody did anything and so he fled from here [ie he left Australia].
South Australia is peace loving [but] everything is swept under the
carpet. No Muslim ever got the proper justice they deserve. We live
in a strange and peculiar time.

“Another
thing: if any Muslim is sent to jail they are not sent to Adelaide jail
but to Mt Gambier jail, so nobody can visit them. Why?

“We
have meetings all the time but there has been no result from any meeting.
Discrimination of women because of their hijab, colour, their hair,
[happens] all the time in South Australia; in jobs, factories especially.
There is no understanding of diversity or rights of workers, either
Arabs or Muslims. We have the opportunity to pray in Meatworks and the
government allows us because they get financial gain. How many judges
are there that are Muslims, police officers, politicians? It is up to
the officers, government departments, police, schools, to say we don’t
know what’s happening but we want to know, we want to make things
better. But we have a law now where they can keep me for seven days
of interrogation without a lawyer. Where are the human rights?”

The influence of government

“The
federal government is doing the most vilifying of people. You just look
in workplaces and see how stuck in their minds about how great an impact
the refugee stuff has had on them.”

The influence of the media

“The
media itself is there to sell papers and it doesn’t matter how
much we try and how many media releases are sent out, it doesn’t
get far and if it does, it’s small. We tried for years but we
did not give up.”

Police response

There was considerable
discussion about the response of South Australian police to reported incidents.
The major theme was that the lack of responsiveness dissuades or discourages
people from reporting incidents. One participant related the following
experience of an Iranian Kurdish friend.

“[He]
was racially abused from patrons. He called the police and the police
assistance received was not appropriate to the extent that my friend
was arrested instead. This has had an impact on police and police are
dealing with it. My friend telephoned me privately later and he was
lucky to have a contact, most people don’t have that. So police
did attend the scene and acted as though he was the person that was
[doing the] targeting, and so he was arrested and this is a common problem.
Police should be more informed and educated. He is not the only client
that has been targeted because of his looks, accent or nationality without
statements being taken.”

“The
problem here is that multiculturalism is not reflected within the police.
For example a young person I know was stopped by police and they said
“Why are you speeding? This is not the law here and you’re
not in your country anymore.” This is a delicate issue for young
people because they see that people who are supposed to help them discriminate
against them.”

A police service staff member told the consultation that
the service is aware of community reluctance and lack of trust in police.

“We
are also aware that people are reluctant to talk to the police... It
is important that the appropriate police authority is made aware of
this [ie such incidents] otherwise nothing will happen to stop it and
unfortunately that police officer may do it again. The Police Complaints
Authority is independent and there will be no recourse and [people]
are given there word that they will not be discriminated against if
they did make a complaint.”

2. What is being done to fight
anti-Arab and anti-Muslim prejudice and discrimination?

In school education

“I
do volunteer work for the Muslim Women’s Association to educate
schools about Islam and this is very good.”

In tertiary education

“After
September 11 in lecture theatres at University, I know a young man who
is a Muslim and born in Australia and the lecturer was attacking him
and saying things about Arabs and Muslims. The Vice Chancellor’s
response was to send a letter to all staff to say that this is not to
happen and disciplinary action was taken. This sort of leadership is
necessary.”

3. What more could be done
to fight anti-Arab and anti-Muslim prejudice and discrimination?

Several suggestions were made for additional strategies
and approaches to achieve some of the objectives identified by the Isma
project.

Promoting positive public
awareness

A focus on children and youth through school education
was favoured by participants.

“I
think it’s important to focus more on children and young people
more so than on adults. Sometimes children and young people can teach
the adults not the other way around.”

“At
[my school] not only are [students] taught the significance of Christmas
and they sing carols but they also taught the significance of other
religious festivals such as Islamic feasts and Buddhist and Hindu holy
days. This should be at every school.”

“There
needs to be more implementation with education, for example the government
to employ people full time to go to schools, both public and private,
and to educate students and teachers about different faiths and cultures.”

“I
don’t agree with government employing people to go to schools
to educate them about different faiths, I think this should be done
without pay. It is should be a service not a job.”

Challenging stereotypes

Media training was felt to be necessary.

“Muslims
and others need to get together, to know how to talk to the media and
know the culture of the media; to get a fair and unreactionary hearing.
Funding needs to come from state and federal governments if they are
serious about addressing these issues.”

Providing community support

The role of government and of other community groups
in supporting the Arab and Muslim communities was raised.

“Local,
State and Federal government should have a more prominent and visual
presence like attending religious festivals and speaking out against
acts of discrimination on a consistent basis.”

“There
is a greater need for Muslims and non-Muslims to work together on community
projects. This will increase the community spirits.”

Strengthening relationships
between communities

Community activities suggested included the following:

“I
think that multicultural communities should promote their festivals
more and expand on their ideas and the Migrant Resources Centres should
assist them in doing this. They should hold them in public parks that
are accessible to non-Arabs and non-Muslims. They need to expand on
this and should include [marking of] religious and national days.”

Ensuring complaints are taken seriously

The participants were supportive of reform of anti-discrimination
law to cover religious discrimination and vilification.

“With
any law, people will violate the law no matter what the law is, and
people will discriminate against religion no matter what the law says,
but it should still exist. But the key is awareness. One of the problems
is that there is little awareness and knowledge of the Equal Opportunity
Commission and the law, even at a federal level. Most people think that
with everything that happens the police are there to help you. People
don’t think about the Equal Opportunity Commission when things
happen.”

“I
am a local and work as a trainer in areas of education and development.
I train people around good recruitment practices and have been made
aware that people do not want to employ Muslims, Arabs or Jews. So I
believe that it is helpful to have a law as a basis. One example is
that women would not be where they are if it wasn’t for the law.
The bottom line is if the law is there we can use it but if it’s
not there we can’t.”

In the workplace

A final suggestion was to increase the presence of Arabs
and Muslims in influential occupations.

“One
way to go is promoting career paths into occupations where people can
make a difference. There is a strong need for police for example for
more NESB officers and recruiters are currently working towards that.”