It’s not easy being a Muslim Australian; through absolutely no fault of their own this vibrant and enriching community has become a target for evil bigots who unfairly associate them with the crimes of their co-religionists.
When you listen to our media and academia you could come to no other conclusion that Australia is a highly dangerous place for Muslims to live.
The Islamophobia Register has collected 280 reports in the past 12 months of people being abused, discriminated against, spat on and marginalised in Australia because of their Muslim heritage. The Muslim community are already the first to act with forgiveness and compassion even as they face constant harassment and direct threats of violence. Bangladesh’s representative said Australia’s response to migrant arrivals had “set a poor benchmark”, calling for the repeal of mandatory detention for asylum seekers – and she was also concerned by “first-hand reports of discrimination and racism, particularly associated with Islamophobia”. The University of South Australia had found about 10 per cent of Australians were highly Islamophobic… “It is clear [Muslims] are frequently, almost constantly, exposed to discrimination, vilification and targeted offensive behaviour.”
In an environment of “increasing anti-Muslim abuse and political rhetoric, including a sharp increase in anti-Muslim online abuse,” even a “counter-terrorism expert” states that “we have to do something about people that are ostracising Muslims.”
Even Waleed Aly, the favourite pet Muslim of the middle class left, has not escaped this horrific trend.
After all, there can be no question that Waleed Aly has lived the life of an oppressed minority in a racist, hate-filled country brimming with evil white supremacists.
After all, here is a man so excluded and discriminated against that, after overcoming the no doubt poisonous bigotry of the Uniting Church to be educated at Wesley College, he also courageously overcame the Apartheid-like atmosphere of Australian academia to attend Melbourne University.
Later, despite the considerable handicap of being a member of the religious group that commits most modern acts of terror, Waleed again overcame the bias of the evil bigots at Monash University to become a lecturer in politics at working in their Global Terrorism Research Centre, where he courageously teaches the next generation of social workers and political staffers that the problems with Islam are the result of evil Westerners.
Poor Waleed had to fight upstream against the tide of bigotry at that bastion of the racist establishment, the ABC, in order to host its show Big Ideas on television, the Drive and Breakfast shows on Radio National (with occasional spots on the Conversation hour with Jon Faine) and in between fighting his way into the studio to co-host News Breakfast and panel spots on Q&A, managed to get his own Muslim focused show Salam Café produced by the no doubt Islamophobic SBS.
Waleed inspirationally and triumphantly struggled against the small-minded hatred of the evil white Christian male conspiracy that controls Australia to get columns published in small, underground, out-of-the-way periodicals such as The Guardian, The Australian, The Australian Financial Review, The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald.
Finally, after a lifetime of tireless struggle against immense odds, on the portentous date of Invasion Day 2015, while the racist rednecked bogans of the Australian suburbs were no doubt lying in a drunken stupor wrapped in a flag at their local anti-aboriginal hate rally, Waleed managed to break into mainstream commercial television by becoming the first Muslim co-host of The Project on Channel 10.
This exposure finally broke through the mindless hatred of the stupid proles of Australia that had held him back for so long; Waleed had triumphed against all the odds! He now had a weekly prime time spot on mainstream media to sooth the savage reactions of the evil racists who dare to link the latest terror attack to the peaceful, respectful and tolerant faith that is Islam.
All the magical White Privilege of the racist conspiracy that keeps Muslims and Aborigines down in Australia (but somehow misses Asians) couldn’t stop him!
A Gold Logie followed, as well as Liberty Victoria’s Voltaire prize for free speech.
The latter is particularly gratifying, that an award named after a notorious Islamophobe like Voltaire, whose wrote a play about Mohammed so full of hate that it can no longer be shown in France without the threat of righteous violence, would be given to a staunch defender of the Australian Muslim community today, shows just how far we have come in this the current year.
I can think of no more deserving candidate for the award of Australian of the Year. How could there be?
Photo by cedarsx 