Religious discrimination

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Derya Iner

My name is Derya Iner. I am associate professor at Charles Sturt University. We are producing Islamophobia in Australia reports here in collaboration with Islamophobia Register Australia. It’s a community platform which collects incidents from proxies, victims and bystanders. In my talk today, I will be giving some examples from this report.

Islamophobia is a form of racism. That’s why we call it anti-Muslim racism. It is very much similar to racism. The only difference is it is directed at Muslims because of their religious names, visibility or association with Islam. Also, people may have opinions about and biased opinions about Islam. That’s very normal it’s people’s personal opinions. But if these biased opinions are leading to assault, insults, belittle someone else or Muslims in general, we would call it Islamophobia as well.

Then it is not freedom of speech. It is freedom to hate. And that is not acceptable.

Open discrimination. It can be physical assault or harassment, but sometimes it comes in a very subtle way as well. It’s like as if kidding. It can be amongst children, name calling.

In the media rhetoric and political rhetoric, it is very commonly and openly made like Muslims associated directly with terrorism.

So it becomes the everyday usual language. Or when children are playing computer games, dark skin, Arab looking people are the ones – bombers, let’s say. So we can see that this kind of surrounding culture can easily be infused into everyday language of students and teachers as well.

Islamophobia can be experienced in the actual school premises, but it can be maybe on the way to school or from school to home. One parent was telling that one day her son came from school and asking about Pauline Hanson, Trump and who these persons are. And then the mother said, Where do you know them? How did you hear about them?

And the son said they told that they don’t like Muslims, they don’t like women with headscarves. I’m afraid that they will kick you out of this country. If you go, how who is going to look after us?

Again in the child’s world, it is a completely different story. It’s a fear story. What? They don’t want us? They don’t want my mum? What if they just send him, send her away? Another parent was reporting that then 8 year old children were playing hide and seek at the schoolyard. One of them, they had a dispute, I think, over the play over the game and one called the other terrorist. Children are a role modelling people around them, whether it be parents or adults around them.

Children are affected by media and political discourse and without knowing the meaning they’re using it. It is just a way of expressing their frustration in the earlier ages. That’s why they just call it without thinking, and I would call it mirroring in early age children. But when they become older and older, it becomes a very normal rhetoric. If you’re able to say someone when you are eight years old terrorists, why not then you’re 18?

Because that is a very regular rhetoric. By that time, you just hear it. You hear it here and there, again and again. We see a strong correlation between what is happening around the world or a political figure going and speaking against Muslims openly and the incidents happening at school or the rhetoric directed at children, at school.

During the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, a Palestinian child brought a flag with him to school and teacher said, “Why do you bring a terrorist flag? Put it back.” So the child felt really I think, ashamed in front of his friends and the parent was trying to address this matter. In another case, it was after the shooting by a student in a high school, and it was in the context of violent extremism and in a Sydney suburb and in that suburb some time later in a similar school, a teacher was very angry with the Muslim student and he was calling and shouting at him and calling him terrorist.

They’re in high school, so this self-esteem is developing and it is very hurtful if they feel like they are not wanted or their religious identity or who they are is diminished or belittled, that’s a problem. But also for a younger child as well, from the earlier stages, it can be a source of fear. But also being feeling that you are belonged is a very human innate nature and need.

And I remember another mum was saying I wanted to take leave for my daughter, for her for our religious celebration, Eid. She said, I’ll tell your teacher that it’s our religious celebration, so you shouldn’t go. And she said, “No, please, mama, don’t do it. Otherwise they will understand that I am Muslim.” And that child was in kindergarten when this happened. From kindergarten onwards it becomes a frequently heard or frequently experienced discrimination and abuse and that repeat victimisation in the long run has a bigger impact in terms of emotional well-being, social wellbeing, because we are reinforcing a “us and them” discourse and if that starts in an earlier age, that’s going to grow and that’s a concern.

Take racism, Islamophobia cases as an opportunity to tackle them and turn into a positive, informed action for students, but also for children who are in the receiving end Muslim children. We should really time to time a check with them. Are your okay everything going well at school, maybe? So my main point is really not silence it, not suppress it, take it as an opportunity to address it, to educate, and to direct it into a positive way.

Sharara Attai

We recommend that you implement the “Four Rs” in terms of becoming an upstander and those “Four Rs” are firstly to recognise what what you are seeing, recognise that this is, this is Islamophobia. It’s not just a harmless joke or, or banter and that it needs to be addressed. The second “R” is to respond to that situation. So, you know, call it out, say something if you feel that it’s safe to do so.

A response doesn’t have to be calling it out necessarily then and there, it could be just staying with the victim and checking in with them to make sure that they’re okay. Thirdly, to record key details of the incident so make a note of what was said. Who said what? What exactly happened? Where the incident took place? If it if it didn’t take place at school, if it took place on the way to school, for example, on public transport, the bus number or the train carriage number.

And fourthly, report. And that means report it to the teacher. Report it to your parents, if the teacher, for example, is dismisses it and report it to the Islamophobia Register Australia, because it’s really important for us to be able to capture that data. And in order for for us to be able to adequately address Islamophobia, we need to be able to communicate the scale of the problem. And so we heavily rely on reports for that.

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