Sonia Kruger went full Trump on morning television today.
A colleague of mine contacted Channel 9 and made a few points about her experience of Islam. Here are some of the points she made:
-As a refugee rights advocate, around half my friends came here by boat. Most of them are Muslim, or from a Muslim background.
-I have attended a Mosque, and worn a hijab by choice; I actually decided never to do it again because of the way I was treated in my local shopping centre when my head was covered because I was on my way to the Mosque. I did not feel safe, and I’m not a person who scares easily.
-Never have I been disrespected by any of my Islamic friends for not being of Islamic faith, or for engaging in practices considered ‘Haram’ ie forbidden and unholy. (Trust me, I am the worst. Nobody has ever said a word about this.)
-Never have I heard anything other than condemnation from them about terror attacks practised in the name of Islam.
-Every single time somebody is given a platform to condemn the Islamic faith on national television in Australia, it has an impact on my friends, because then Aussies think it’s a good idea to racially abuse women wearing hijabs on trains-in the street-in the shops, for some reason. This is a problem we as a friendship group have almost exclusively with the 9 network.
-I am perfectly safe in Parramatta and Blacktown, where a large proportion of the population is Muslim, but I had to quit my job in my (extremely Caucasian) hometown due to sexual harassment on the way to and from work from Aussies in utes – men who are visibly not from Islamic backgrounds. I wish I was joking. Sadly, I’m not. I also had to quit jogging with my daughter when she was in her pram for the same reason. Again, a huge proportion of the people (including men) I associate with, and spend time around, are of Islamic faith. Never once have I had even a moment where I felt unsafe around any of them.
So there you have it: most Muslims are polite and respectful. Many Aussies are not. A tiny percentage of Muslims are extremists: and a tiny percentage of Christians, Hindus, Sikhs, Bhuddists etc are extremists. It is extremists we should fear.
And hate-mongers like Sonya Kruger and Pauline Hanson.
Julian Burnside, who is this colleague who lives in terror? Where does she live? How appalling that she is exposed to aggression night and day, by men in utes. Apparently it is sexual aggression, not just anti-hijab. And the poor little daughter in her stroller!(Show me any Muslim mother wielding a pram.)
And every time anyone in the media says anything critical of Islam, she and her friends and family are subjected to appalling persecution.
What utter twaddle. Where are the white vans ploughing into Muslims, the bombs, knives, axes and guns? As a woman I have been shouted at by drunken men in utes, but I don’t rush to the Islamophobia register.
This colleague apparently feels safe around Muslim men (presumably because she wears a hijab and acts submissive). May I point out that I have a number of female colleagues in public service departments in Canberra who feel disrespected and aggressed by Muslim men who refuse to shake hands, refuse to give way in doors and inform them they should be at home with their children, not in the workplace. They feel unsafe but are afraid to complain because they will be labelled as racist.
Sorry, Julian, if I was your undergraduate student and submitted this so-called colleague’s rant as academic fact, you would have failed me. and rightly so.
Wake up, please. Australia does not need Quislings.