I know a couple of people who are activists for Palestine and more
broadly for the acceptance of Arabic people within Australian
society. They operate on secular, political lines, working in
various ways to establish dialogue and dissolve misunderstanding
between the various groups; and most especially against a kind
traditional Western prejudice of Orientalism - the cliche of the
untrustworthy, violent, oily Arab, etc etc etc.
You can imagine how much more difficult their job is now, with all
Middle Eastern-appearing people smeared as a potential "fifth column".
The problem with this is not the fact - I have no trouble believing
that some people are attracted to fundamentalist purities, nor that a
minority within Western societies might be part of them. Just as
there are others who are attracted to the Right Wing neo Nazi
anti-Government extremists in the US and elsewhere. It's the extra
frisson of racism, which creates black front pages of hysteria in the
tabloid press here and generates an atmosphere of fear which
sanctions firstly, the inhumane treatment of those people who want
nothing more than a better life for themselves and their families,
and secondly disgusting prejudicial treatment of people who look
different, eg, are wearing hijabs or observing Ramadan, (Jewish
people, ironically, are experiencing the same treatment because of
their Semitic appearance) no matter who they are. The lie in that is
that all Islams are the same, and that it is a religion predisposed
towards this kind of violence, unlike Christianity. This is simply
not accurate of either religion, both of which are complexly
problematic.
These things are going on in Australia and certainly in the US, where
Muslim students are saying they daren't go out at night and are
experiencing the kinds of prejudices which make everyday life
difficult. It used to be called racism, and once was considered an
undesirable thing.
If we are really fighting for values and freedom (let's accept the
cover story for a second) then surely justice matters. Justice is
commonly supposed to be blind, and weighs the scales impartially. If
so, then racism can't be countenanced, and neither can double
standards nor deception. If they are, then of course these values
mean nothing.
My highly strung nine yo niece wakes up at 5am, when the jets from
Point Cook airbase scream over our heads, screaming that "we're all
going to die!". She has extreme reactions to the news stories she
can't escape, because of her own insecurities. This is understood in
her family, which does its best to dampen them, but I don't think
she's alone. I live underneath a flight path, and every time a jet
comes low, I duck. I've figured out the distances from the Coode
Island chemical dump and the local petrol storage facilities (two km
down the road and less than a km from the primary school my children
attend) in case some madman drives a truck in there or decided to
incinerate a light plane. It's not as if I speak from any immunity
against irrational fear.
I'd rather try to understand why I'm living with this fear. It
strikes me that the reactions against to attempts to understand it
are often not counter-argument, but abuse.
Which is a shame.
Best
Alison
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Alison Croggon
Home page
http://www.users.bigpond.com/acroggon/
Masthead
http://au.geocities.com/masthead_2/
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