The AIM Network

It hasn’t happened yet

As I try to understand why my fellow citizens have elected people like Pauline Hanson and George Christensen, it seems fear is a common component.

Sonia Kruger and Pauline say they want to feel safe walking down the street and call for a moratorium/ban on Muslim immigration, but what is the basis of their fear?

”One-punch” assaults have cost 90 Australian lives since 2000, most in booze-fuelled bashings.

Domestic violence data in Australia shows that one in six women and one in 20 men have experienced at least one incidence of violence from a current or former partner since the age of 15.

People point to the Lindt café siege as a reason for us to be afraid.  This was an act committed by a man who had sent all the warning signals, including a letter to our Attorney-General, a paranoid man who had been diagnosed with schizophrenia and obsessive compulsive disorder.

He was marginalised by Australian Muslim religious authorities and mosques for his extremist views and problematic personal and criminal history.  He tried to join the Rebels Motorcycle Club some time in 2012 or 2013 but even they thought he was weird, kicked him out, and took his motorcycle.

At the time of the siege, Monis was on bail and facing a lengthy jail sentence.  He claimed he had been previously assaulted in jail and was frustrated that nothing had been done about it.

The tragic deaths that occurred in the Lindt café were, in part, due to the failure of our mental health and legal systems.  Monis had no connection with any terrorist organisation and, up until a week before the siege, had been a Shiite, the very people that IS are trying to exterminate.

Monis murdered one person that day.  The next, a woman in Cairns killed her 8 children who were aged between 18 months and 14 years.

There was also the case of the 18 year old young man who stabbed two police officers.  He had been asked to come to the police station to discuss behaviour “which had been causing some concern”.  Perhaps if his family had been asked to accompany him, or if he had been met by a Muslim youth worker, or if the meeting had happened at his home, the result may have been different.  Early intervention is crucial but it must be done in a non-threatening way if it is to be successful.

The Parramatta shooting of Curtis Cheng was a tragic incident where a young boy of 15 was used by some slightly older young men as a patsy.  These cowards incited and then armed him, taking advantage of a boy who was described by his classmates as “quiet, often upset-looking, solitary, obedient, humble, occasionally bullied.”

I often wonder how much the religious belief in life after death plays a part in these children’s willingness to forfeit their own lives at the instruction of others.

One of the world’s experts on reporting terror, Dr Michael Jetter from the University of WA, said all the screaming headlines and attention just encourages terrorists.

“The more coverage you give to terrorist attacks, the more terrorist attacks you see … The way these guys operate is that they stage some kind of attack and then they get the press for free … Normally if you wanted to get that kind of attention, you’d have to buy advertising space.”

The Australian Federal Police agree.

“Emotive headlines and the use of simplistic news grabs can help extremists amplify their deliberate strategy to incite fear and hate.”

And here we have naïve people like Pauline Hanson falling into exactly the trap that is being set by those who would seek to intimidate us.

Australia is a peaceful country.  Yes there are still murders, but many fewer than in most countries.  As for the comparative threat of terrorism, in 2014 alone, there were 95 victims of family and domestic violence-related homicide.

When I ask opponents of Islam how it has affected their lives, they invariably launch into descriptions of things that happen in other places.  When I ask how our lives in Australia have been affected, I am usually told “It hasn’t happened yet, but it will.”

Well I guess that is up to us.  We have the opportunity to have an inclusive tolerant cohesive society, where all people are treated with respect and encouraged to make positive contributions to our multicultural society.

We should not ask people to assimilate, to abandon who they are.  Instead we should aim to integrate all members of our society, enjoying and benefitting from the best of all cultures, growing in knowledge and celebrating our diversity.

Or we can be manipulated by those who seek to divide us, to weaken us with hatred and suspicion of our fellow Australians.  Come on Australia, we are better than that.  We do not have to live in fear.

As John Farnham said:

This time, we know we all can stand together

With the power to be powerful

Believing we can make it better

 

We’re all someone’s daughter

We’re all someone’s son

How long can we look at each other

Down the barrel of a gun?

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