Politicians and media let us down in fight to curb rising Islamophobia
Religious leaders have come together to promote community
harmony, but some political and media agendas have encouraged
Islamophobia.
AAP/Tracey Nearmy
Many incidents of violence and harassment directed at Australian Muslims have been reported recently. These are visible confirmation of fears expressed by their community,
that support for the government’s new security laws and military action
in Iraq would be rallied with “racist caricatures of Muslims as
backwards, prone to violence and inherently problematic”.
Policing and intelligence operations have focused exclusively on members of the Muslim community. This has contributed to a public backlash against Muslims and supposed Muslims. The immediacy and scale of this outbreak of Islamophobia is alarming.
Stereotypes do terrible damage
Australia has emerged as a fertile environment for Islamophobia.
Stereotypical representations of Muslims in the early years of the “War
on Terror” – which linked terrorism, violence and Islam – gained wide
currency by the mid-2000s.
Sections of the news media, politicians and social media
have re-activated these stereotypes. Muslim Australians are made to
feel they are targets - for everything from the everyday racism
encountered in schools and on the streets, to draconian
counter-terrorism legislation that restricts civil liberties, to war and
the preparations for war.
Social psychological research
has shown that when public figures and media endorse negative
stereotypes this legitimises prejudicial attitudes. This can influence
the translation of such attitudes into discriminatory actions, as we
have seen in the recent spate of attacks.
Australia now has several openly Islamophobic far-right social
movements and political parties. Until recently these were generally
small and operated largely in isolation. However, such groups have begun
to collaborate on campaigns.
These groups also appear to be attracting more support
from the wider community. The re-emergence of anti-Muslim rhetoric in
public discourse has provided legitimisation for their views.
Australians who are openly hostile to Muslims and their institutions
feel emboldened by anti-Islamic rhetoric in public discourse.
AAP/Tertius Pickard
Muslims suffer when Coalition dons khaki
The government also appears to be a political beneficiary of the
resurgence in Islamophobia. As national security concerns top the news
agenda, pressures on the government on a range of other fronts,
particularly the deeply unpopular May budget, have faded into the
background.
The increased “terror threat” was followed by rises in the approval rating of Prime Minister Tony Abbott and Coalition voting intentions.
The amplification of threats to national security has worked for
struggling conservative governments before. In 2001, the Howard
government was polling poorly, yet managed to snatch victory later that
year. The Coalition election campaign played on racial anxieties and
national security fears following the “children overboard” affair and
the September 11 terrorist attacks.
In 2010, with the Coalition again languishing in the polls, then
opposition immigration spokesman Scott Morrison sought to replicate this
strategy. He urged the shadow cabinet to “capitalise on the electorate’s growing concerns about “Muslim immigration” and Muslims’ “inability to integrate”.
AAP/Alan Porritt
The Prime Minister has not been nearly as forthright in condemning
acts of Islamophobia as he has been in denouncing Islamic extremists. He
even weighed into the debate to dismiss Muslim community concerns. And Abbott failed to condemn the inflammatory push from within his party for a “burqa ban”.
This is in contrast to the firm and admirable stance taken by Western Australian Premier Colin Barnett.
He emphasised that “Australia as a country has a history of respecting
different cultures and faiths”. The reported taunting and terrorising of
Muslim women and children in Perth was “unacceptable”.
Media reports that marginalise harm us all
The media is not blameless either, as some journalists have acknowledged. Australian Muslims have consistently identified the media as a central social institution that contributes to their marginalisation and exclusion.
Media reporting has frequently perpetuated stereotypes. It has also
failed to reflect the diversity of origins, outlooks and aspirations of
Muslim Australians. Journalism of this sort negatively affects other
Australians' perceptions of Islam and the Muslim community.
My research has shown that articles with lower levels of Islamophobia
feature the voices of “ordinary” Muslim men and women. They humanise
them. Such articles contextualise conflicts and avoid simplistic
frameworks such as “good versus evil” or “War on Terror”.
The media can do more to highlight positive efforts by individuals
and groups to resist and respond to oppression and conflict. More
balanced perspectives can reduce the reinforcing and perpetuation of
Islamophobia.
The “newsworthiness” of stories related to Islam and conflict, and
the concentration of negative reporting patterns, suggest that adoption
of conflict reporting standards could be another key way to curb
Islamophobia.
The mass media and our politicians will be central to either
exacerbating or stemming Islamophobia. Gestures of support and
solidarity from the non-Muslim community, and standing up to racism, are also important.
Combating Islamophobia is vital to the wellbeing of the Muslim
community, to wider community cohesion and to limiting recruitment for
groups such as Islamic State (ISIS)/Da’ish. To curb Islamophobia, we
must contest the political spectacle that gives rise to discriminatory
and violent treatment against Muslims by the state and some non-Muslim
Australians.
No comments:
Post a Comment