Australia

Religious minorities: Down and under

           IN the wake of the 11 September attacks on the United States and the more recent Bali bombing, Australian Muslims have suffered increasingly due to misplaced anti-Muslim sentiment. Their alienation results from a combination of societal prejudices, fear of terrorism, and government policies that are at best misguided, at worst malicious. 

Nineteen-year-old Zak Mallah is a case in point. Since June 2002, Zak Mallah, an Australian of Lebanese origin, has been contesting the Federal Government's decision not to grant him a passport to Lebanon. Though the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) has acknowledged that Mr Mallah has no criminal conviction, no known record of violence and has talked of returning to Australia after visiting Lebanon, Zak continues to be seen as a "security risk" and as capable of conducting acts of "politically motivated violence" against Australian and Western interests if allowed to travel.

According to the UN Special Rapporteur on Racism, Racial discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance, Mr Doudou Diene, "Since the attack of 12 October 2002 in Bali, Muslim associations have observed an increase in racist threats and abuse" . Islamic clerics have been spat on, mosques and schools vandalised and Muslim women and girls have had their headscarves ripped off. Several Islamic leaders believe that anti-Muslim sentiment has been encouraged by the Australian Government's decision to conduct a series of high-profile raids on the homes of more than 12 Indonesian-born Muslims without verifiable evidence. In the state of New South Wales (NSW) alone, 40 attacks on Muslims were reported in the fortnight after the Bali bombing.

On 30 October 2002, heavily-armed ASIO and Australian Federal Police officers carried out violent raids on at least seven homes in Sydney and Perth. In some of the raids, ASIO officers arrived at dawn and broke down the doors of the suspects' homes while family members, including children, were sleeping. No arrests or charges were made. The ASOI did not provide evidence -either before or after the raid-to justify the operation.

It appears that ASIO targeted people who were involved in Islamic cleric Abu Bakar Bashir's visits to Australia in the 1990s. Bashir, allegedly the head of banned terrorist group Jemaah Islamiyah, is suspected to have masterminded the Bali bombing. Australian authorities fear that Bashir may have used his Australian visits to establish a terrorist network in Australia. According to Cameron Murphy, President of the New South Wales Council of Civil Liberties, "The raids looked like a campaign of harassment. The fact that there have been so many raids and that no one has been charged suggests that there is no evidence. It suggests that it is a fishing exercise or a publicity stunt".

A majority of ASIO's targets were interrogated merely because they attended Bashir's lectures. One of those targeted, Muchsen Thalib, stated that he contacted ASIO prior to the raids and offered to be interviewed. However, two days later ASIO agents raided his home at dawn. Islamic leaders claim that the Australian government was targeting Muslims and fear that the raids will fuel anti-Muslim sentiment. Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad went so far as to say that Australia was no longer safe for Muslims.

The Australian Government strongly defended its actions in conducting the raids. Prime Minister John Howard said that he was "hundred percent" behind ASIO's actions, and denied that the government was targeting Muslims or Indonesians. 

The ASIO raids came at a time when Australian politicians were facing criticism for exploiting fear of Muslims to gain political points with a sensitive Australian electorate. In August 2002, 14 Muslim Lebanese-Australians were convicted for committing a series of gang rapes in Sydney. The leader of the rapes was sentenced to a 55 year jail term. The trial came under intense media scrutiny, partly due to the horrific nature of the crimes, but also due to the question of race. Press reports of the trial alleged that the victims were chosen because they were 'Australian'. Right-wing talk-back radio host Alan Jones described the attacks as "the first signs of an Islamic hatred towards the community that welcomed them." The Premier of New South Wales, Bob Carr, responded to the trial with a combination of law and order rhetoric and racist scapegoating linking ethnicity with crime. In an earlier statement made in 2001 Mr Carr had stated that "we should be unembarrassed to use information including ethnic origins, if it is going to help police identify people and produce an arrest." Ethnic groups have since argued that Mr Carr's comments about criminal ethnic gangs has further stigmatised their communities.

In November 2002, the Reverend Fred Nile, a Christian Democrat member of the New South Wales Parliament, called for a ban on Muslim women wearing the chador in public places. He justified his demand on the claim that the clothing could be used to conceal bombs. While the New South Wales Government rejected the suggestion, conservative Prime Minister John Howard defended the proposal, stating: "I understand what [Reverend Nile] is getting at…..Fred speaks for the views of a lot of people." When pressed on whether security concerns could override the right to engage in religious practices, like wearing Islamic dress, Howard stated: "Sometimes you don't have a flat yes or no on something like this."

There is a very real concern some Australian politicians are manipulating existing fears of Islam and Muslims to gain support for the Government's package of anti-terrorism legislation. While much of the anti-terrorism package was passed by the federal Parliament in June 2002, the final element of the anti terrorism package, the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation Legislation Amendment (Terrorism) Bill 2002, remains deadlocked. The ASIO Bill if passed will give the intelligence organisation the power to detain people, including children as young as 14, for interrogation without charge - merely on the accusation that they might have information or documents relating to terrorism. Detainees can be held for two days without the knowledge of their families and without access to legal advice for those first 48 hours.

The proposed legislation has come under heavy criticism, particularly from Australia's legal community, on a number of grounds, including that it targets Muslims. At a Senate Committee inquiry into the proposed legislation, Australian President of the International Commission of Jurists, Supreme Court Justice John Dowd, said the fundamental rights of Australians were under attack from the legislation and that Muslims stood to become the first victims of the new laws. Justice Dowd stated that "it is patently clear that this [legislation] is aimed at Muslims… it is a thinly veiled weapon that is causing a great deal of concern amongst a lot of loyal Muslim Australians." On 10 December 2002, the Australian Government announced its intention to propose a number of amendments to the ASIO Bill.  However the ASIO Bill still failed to pass the Senate after a 27-hour debate. According to the spokeswoman for the Attorney-General, Daryl Williams, "The Government remains committed to passage of the ASIO bill and is settling the timing of reintroduction. However, we anticipate we would introduce it shortly".

There is a growing uneasiness among Australian Muslims. According to Hassan Moussa from the Australian Arabic Communities Council, "some people don't like to mention they are Muslims. They're fearful about the repercussions if they reveal they are Muslim, for their job, for their business, even in their local neighbourhood."

The recent arrest of Sheik Taj el-Din Al Hilaly has done little to assuage the fear. On 6 January 2003, Sheik Taj el-Din Al Hilaly, Mufti of Australia and Imam of the Lakemba Mosque in Sydney, was arrested on suspicion of carrying a gun. He has been charged with resisting arrest and assaulting a police officer, as well as three traffic charges. However, the sheik claimed that police acted like 'Rambo' during the arrest. According to his lawyer, Mr Chris Murphy, despite there being a number of civilian witnesses at the scene of the alleged altercation, police had taken statements only from the police officers involved.

A spokesman for the Greens Party of NSW, Jamal Daoud, said that Al Hilaly's arrest was part of a campaign to have the Mufti discredited and possibly deported. Though the sheik is no stranger to publicity and has been a controversial figure, the arrest has the potential to further damage relations between police and the Muslim community in Sydney.

According to Stephen Juan, anthropologist from Sydney University, the current mood in Australia is one of a "siege mentality", in which people develop an irrational fear. "It's what we in the business call paranoia." This is exemplified by an editorial from 21 November 2002 in The Australian, which stated that "tolerance-worshipping, selective civil libertarians" in Australia have displayed "a stubborn refusal to face the reality". The editorial asserted that Australia has become a target for "terrorists of the religio-fascist extreme Islamic persuasion".

Although it is unfortunate when such views, based on ignorance and fear, are temporarily afforded legitimacy through the printed word, one could argue that they merely represent an aspect of a pluralistic society. The problem occurs when-as in the cases described above-they cease to be easily distinguishable from official government policy.