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

Consultations
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|| Meeting Notes: 7 April 2003

Youth Reference Group, Youth
Partnership with Arabic Speaking Communities, NSW Premier’s Department

Department’s Bankstown
office, Monday 7 April 2003

The meeting was chaired
by Ms Mia Zahra, Project Officer, Youth Partnership with Arabic
Speaking Communities
and facilitated by Omeima Sukkarieh, Community
Liaison Officer, HREOC. It was attended by 10 invited participants.


1. What are your experiences
of discrimination and vilification?

Has the community experienced
discrimination and vilification?

Both the Arabic and
Muslim community are affected by discrimination and vilification. One
participant said that her experience, especially through working with
the community, is that a lot of people assume that Arabs are Muslims and
vice versa. Personally and professionally she has seen the community being
discriminated against. The challenge is how to deal with this discrimination.

Another participant,
a tertiary student, referred to a serious misconception that all Arabs
are Muslims. For example, CNN continuously refers to Muslims and Arabs
as the same, interchangeably.

Another participant
said he knew of many Muslim girls coming under attack, especially in public
spaces, as a result of their religion. Other male participants confirmed
that they personally had not been on the receiving end but knew of others,
including family members, who had.

“It
is obvious that it does happen so we can’t just ignore it”.

Another female tertiary
student also reported that she had not personally experienced direct discrimination,
however believes that it does exist and affects the entire community.
She felt such attitudes offer an opportunity to educate and inform.

Another participant
said she believes the people most affected are young women wearing scarfs.
This is due to their visibility whereby the scarf is considered a trademark
of Islam. Although she has heard of many stories, especially after 11
Sept. of racial attacks on public transport and on the street, she has
never been personally attacked. However, she did have a few hostile comments
directed towards her before 11 Sept., after the incidents in Telopea Street.
She also recognises that young people can have short tempers.

Where is it happening?
At work

One participant reported
she had been asked her religion and nationality during a recent job interview.
She didn’t raise any objection as she is “not willing to kill
her career with these people”.

Another reported
that one of her friends was fired because she is a Muslim. She is taking
unlawful dismissal action.

At school

There is a problem
at schools “where teachers let go of racist comments indirectly
at students.”

In the street or public transport

One participant reported
having heard and seen a lot of incidents happening to friends, especially
on public transport. On one occasion, an Egyptian station worker started
questioning her identity and mocked her for being Lebanese, in addition
to targeting friends and accusing them of littering. She believes that
the more you are around areas of non-Arabs, the worse it gets, because
they don’t know any better.

Another told of her
experience buying a ticket. The officer said “You’re going
to court, are you?”. She felt he had assumed that because she looked
Arabic she was a criminal. As she paid for her ticket, having just enough
change, he said to her “looks like you’ll be having a lean
lunch”. She called State Rail to complain and after investigating
the complaint, this officer was ordered to seek counselling and was given
a warning.

Another participant
also reported experiencing discrimination on the train, not because she
looks Arabic but because she was overheard speaking Arabic on the train
to a friend. Another passenger had approached her telling her that “she
was bad for the Australian population”. She stood up for herself
and tried to make the lady understand a little more about the issue and
her culture and, although the lady was very ignorant, she did calm down
eventually.

Another participant
reported an incident from just the previous week. He was walking in the
street in Auburn with a friend and saw an Anglo man abusing a Turkish
man who looked Arab. The Turkish man clearly did not understand much English
so he didn’t know what was being said. The Anglo man was being very
racist.

People could be walking
home and others would be blowing their horn, yelling abuse at them.

Other

The example was given
of a club bouncer refusing entry to a Lebanese youth. This was said to
be a common problem.

At an anti-war protest,
a friend of one participant had her scarf pulled off by the police. As
a result of this, she pushed the officer and this led to scuffle. The
resulting media coverage portrayed the community in a bad light.

Another participant
said she had witnessed the scuffle from her office together with some
colleagues. They could see that the riot police agitated the crowd.

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

Government strategies and
projects

The Youth Partnership
is a positive strategy bringing together amazing young people of Arabic
speaking background achieving things on both a personal and professional
level. At least once a week, the Premier’s Department receives a
request for a young Arabic-speaking person to sit on a board or committee
or to facilitate a project, etc. This in turn promotes positive images
of Arabic young people. The Partnership also informs young people of their
rights and equips them with skills to deal with such issues.

The Community Relations
Commission’s annual conference had a small section about youth issues,
and more should be encouraged in the future.

The counter terrorism
media campaign was not well received.

Through the Community
Solutions Project, the Premier’s Department has also funded the
Muslim Women’s Association to establish a service educating Muslim
women on accessing information and about their rights.

There is a concern
that a great deal of emphasis has been directed towards healing of the
Muslims and others are falling through the gaps, as they are also being
targeted and their experiences almost forgotten.

Existing strategies
are now considered to be a waste of money as they are not targeting or
reaching the masses of people, therefore, evaluations and carefully thought
out strategies are needed.

There is also a concern
and consensus that politicians are spending money on the issue without
understanding it.

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

School / Education
  • The Department
    of Education and Training should introduce Islam, Christianity, etc.
    as part of the curriculum. Possibly require that at least the last half
    hour or so of every scripture class be about other religions, possibly
    using guest speakers.


  • Education strategies
    need to be not just in schools but on a broader scale, such as in mosques,
    churches, etc.


  • Establish more
    links between Christian and Muslim schools.


  • As attitudes are
    initiated in the household, this is where the issue needs to be dealt
    with. Schools could encourage parents to come along to training and
    information sessions.
Media
  • Target radio stations
    for effective media campaigns, ethnic and otherwise, so as to reach
    those who don’t understand English well enough to access mainstream
    media.
Isma Objectives

The meeting proposed
the following strategies for achieving the six objectives identified by
Isma.

Challenging stereotypes
  • There is a problem
    with some Arab youth behaving badly. “They don’t know that
    complaining is better than throwing chairs.” The community, especially
    youth, needs to be more organised and there is a “need to educate
    youth to fight for their rights calmly.”


  • “If we
    can eliminate stereotypes, then we can eliminate racism.”
Strengthening relationships
between communities
  • Education of
    Arabs and non-Arabs is the key. Educating ourselves about each other.


  • One problem is
    that racism exists between our own communities. For example, Muslims
    drive past churches music blaring and swearing about Christians. This
    further divides the community.


  • There appears
    to be a pressing need for community and religious leaders to make young
    people who do this understand and become aware of other groups and the
    importance of tolerance and acceptance of other religions.


  • Education and
    awareness campaigns should start on a small scale and then get larger,
    using public relations officers, e.g. within schools.


  • It helps when
    the workplace is encouraging, and where colleagues and others who are
    non-Arabs or non-Muslims stand up for Muslims.
Informing communities about
their rights
  • There is a need
    to be more proactive in the steps we take to eliminate prejudice. People
    need to be informed about their rights as well as following through
    with complaints. This includes taking a positive approach and responding
    in a more respectful manner, e.g. don’t abuse back.
Ensuring complaints are taken
seriously
  • State Rail should
    introduce cultural awareness training and education about the anti-discrimination
    laws.

4. Other issues and suggestions

“Before
we can change the world, you need to change yourself, and don’t
expect immediate results.”

Reduce the number
of police patrolling areas where there are high numbers of Arabic young
people such as Bankstown. This is provocative.