Commending Community Action: Non-Muslims Supporting Muslims
Can Communities Combat ISIL Youth Radicalisation Via Social Media?
September 26, 2014The Financial Advice Industry? Exercise Care..
September 28, 2014Amid today’s plethora of media thoughts on terrorism in Australia and the world, The Saturday Age reports social researcher Hugh Mackay rejecting the view of some commentators that youth radicalisation here is something dark that we’ve been overlooking. He believes it’s a ‘a tip-of-the-iceberg situation’ not ‘a bad-apple situation’.
Minimise Risk – Engage
Hugh says:
“This should be a call to re-double our commitment to making our communities function the way we want them to, and the way to do that is to be inclusive..
Whether it’s for reason of religion, or race, or culture or poverty, if people feel they are pushed to the margins, that’s trouble. The challenge for all of us is to pull people back from the margins.”
Yarrawonga Grandmother: ‘Non-Muslims Supporting Muslims’
Anne Peters, from Yarrawonga, in northern Victoria, has set up a Facebook page with the message that many non-muslims support muslims in the wider community. She expected to attract maybe a couple of dozen members but has over 6000! One comment:
“I’m not a Muslim, and I don’t necessarily agree with Islam as a religion, but in the face of oppression, discrimination, vilification and bigotry I will proudly stand with all of you in order to make safe our community.”
Other Factors
The Age article cites other factors that encourage radicalisation.
- Australian Muslims in comparison to the general public have higher education but there is more unemployment, especially in the youth segment
- The rise of youth gangs and concern about the suffering of Muslims around the world
- Discrimination in the workforce – one of the main reasons for the high unemployment rate for Muslim youth
Some Positive Approaches
A starting point will be to understand exactly what did happen at Endeavour Hills and to acknowledge that we do have an essentially tolerant and harmonious society. Ahmet Polat, executive director of the Australian Intercultural Society says effective solutions could involve:
- Encouraging businesses and non-government organisations to employ Muslims
- Build on work already done:
– the training and nurturing of local imams
– encouraging good role models
– developing and transmitting faith-based messages to counter those from IS
– addressing Islamphobia in the wider community
– identifying earlier those at risk of radicalisation
Community Safety Starts With All Of Us
The former head of International Counter Terrorism in Special Branch at New Scotland Yard, Nick O’Brien, has written in The Conversation saying:
“It’s in the interests of Islamic State for Muslims in Australia to be attacked or for their mosques to be attacked, because doing so would help divide the Australian community … it’s only a tiny minority of the Muslim community that are ever involved in any kind of extreme action. The vast majority are decent, ordinary people.”
Well done Anne Peters and her Facebook supporters
1 Comment
First of all I am a non Muslim who will not be supporting Muslims.
Secondly, why on earth should we as be reaching out to them. What the muslim apologists seem to fail to understand is that the muslim way of life is completely alien to the vast majority of people living in Australia. We believe in equality of the sexes. Do they? We don’t believe in arranged marriages. Do they? We don’t condone girls as young as 14 being forced into marriage with older men. Do they? We are tolerant of other peoples religions and beliefs. Are they? We accept peoples sexual orientation. Do they?
And so the list goes on. It is high time that instead of always being politically correct, some awkward questions need to be asked of muslims. And the main one is “As a community, what is their net contribution to Australia in making Australia a better place to live for all”? At present, taking into consideration the cost of appeasment etc, I would suggest that it is on the debit side of the ledger. So instead of us being accused of pushing muslims to the margins, how about them start being accepting of our culture, or doesn’t that count. So for all you non-muslim muslim supporters, instead of feeling sorry for them, understand what is the root cause of the problem, which is as I have mentioned earlier in this post is their non Australian way of life which is completely alien to our way of life.And the only way to rectify that is for them to change their ways, which for mine is something that they will never do.