Australian Political language has changed. 10 years ago, an Australian independent MP spoke about racial minorities who have “their own culture and religion, form ghettos and do not assimilate” (source: theage.com.au). She was banished from the political arena as a xenophobe (please explain) and was considered a blight on our accepting, multi-cultural, “fair go” soceity.
But that didn’t last. The very terminology that was previously considered unthinkable is now written into our politicians scripts. Does “If I can invite whom I want into my home, then I should have the right to have a say in who comes into my country” sound like someone short and bald that you know? Kim Beazley’s latest proposal to have anyone coming to Australia agree to abide by “Australian Values” is a very thinly disguised attempt at further marginalising muslims in Australia. Costello and Howard’s deliberate singling out of the muslim community is using racist attitudes in the Australian community to score cheap political points. The truth of the matter is that the muslim community in Australia, nationwide, has not acted differently in the past 10 years to the way they always have.
“Howard says local Muslim leaders must do more for the war on terror”. So far we’ve had a grand total of, um, one person convicted of terrorism related activities since we brought in new laws. And that was for accepting funds from a terrorist organisation. Local muslim leaders seem to be doing a pretty good job of discouraging muslims from getting involved in terrorism.
We used to have a soceity that didn’t assume someone to be a criminal because they follow a certain religion. This nation has been scarred by terrorism, but it has been hurt equally as severely by the politicians and commentators who have created such a climate of fear within our nation that we no longer believe in a “fair go”. And that is a tragedy.