Sally Neighbour From: The Australian February 18, 2011 12:00AM.
THE furious debate over the pros and cons of multiculturalism features a recurring theme. Immigration Minister Chris Bowen alluded to it in his speech to the Sydney Institute on Wednesday night when he noted it has become fashionable to blame multiculturalism for terrorism.
Conservative commentator Andrew Bolt underscored it by citing as evidence of the policy's failure the federal government's refusal in the 1980s to deport Muslim cleric Sheik Taj Din al-Hilali.
Liberal Senator Cory Bernardi summed it up in a nutshell, opining on his website: "Across the world there have been new waves of immigrants who have decided that their greatest allegiance is to the religious and political ideology of Islam rather than to their adopted land. This is the multiculturalism that an increasing number of leaders are prepared to declare has failed."
In short, according to the popular narrative, the problem with multiculturalism is Muslims. Or, to be more precise, the perceived failure of Muslim migrants to integrate and embrace the cultures and traditions of their adopted lands, which in turn allows Islamic extremism to thrive.
In his landmark speech, Bowen sought to reframe the debate, arguing that multiculturalism had strengthened and enriched Australia and had been a very different and more successful phenomenon than in Germany or Britain.
The comparisons were prompted by German Chancellor Angela Merkel's statement last October that multiculturalism in Germany "has utterly failed", and British Prime Minister David Cameron's comment this month that Britain's policy of encouraging different cultures to live separate lives had fuelled Muslim militancy.
The essential difference in Australia is that Muslim migrants, like previous waves of newcomers, have been embraced as citizens with the same rights and responsibilities as their compatriots; whereas in Germany they came as guest workers who were supposed to help rebuild the post-war economy and then leave but instead stayed; while in Britain they were treated as second-class citizens, left to live in ghettos where their grievances festered.
Bowen says the 13,000 immigrants who pledged last Australia Day to uphold this country's values symbolise the genius of multiculturalism practised here.
But for all his seemingly heartfelt intentions, two uncomfortable truths remain. The first is that Australia's fast-growing Muslim population is a source of deep community angst, which fuels a polarised and sometimes ugly debate, as exemplified by reports opposition immigration spokesman Scott Morrison urged his Coalition colleagues to "capitalise on" such concern. (Morrison dismissed the reports as gossip but didn't say they weren't true.)
Muslim leaders know they have to confront this head-on, but struggle in the political arena. "We've never been engaged in the political process. We never understood it because our forefathers were literally factory workers," Sydney's Lebanese Muslim Association president Samier Dandan says. He's pushing for Muslims to become more politically engaged.
Lakemba imam Hilali acknowledges the frustration and anger that can potentially breed violent extremism are palpable in his community.
"There are no terrorists in Australia in terms of execution. There are people who have the mindset to commit harm, but no one has the capacity to execute anything. What it is, is just a mindset - just talk and ideas."
In addition to tackling extremism, which has seen a few men sent to prison, Muslim leaders face the vexed issue of building the infrastructure needed to service their growing community, such as more Islamic schools, youth centres and mosques, developments that typically encounter public antipathy and local council resistance.
Two Sydney councils have recently introduced new regulations restricting the operations of places of worship, apparently in response to proposed new mosques.
Some leaders, such as Dandan, say priorities need to change. "We do not want any more mosques; that is my message to the scholars: we don't need any more mosques. We want services," he says.
The second truth is the expanding Muslim diaspora is afflicted by entrenched socioeconomic problems that fuel alienation and resentment, which no amount of political rhetoric alone will fix.
Two recent sets of statistics illustrate the issues at hand.
The first is a report published last month by the Washington-based Pew Research Centre's Forum on Religion and Public Life, The Future of the Global Muslim Population: Projections for 2010-2030. Using figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, it predicts Muslim numbers in Australia will increase by 80 per cent, compared with 18 per cent for the population overall growing from 399,000 at present to 714,000. This is due first to higher reproduction rates - Muslim families typically have four or more children, while other Australians have one or two - and, second, to migration from Muslim majority countries such as Afghanistan, Somalia, Iraq and Iran.
The reactions to the projection among Australian Muslim leaders varies from cautious optimism to scepticism and open dismay.
"It could be a fear campaign," Australian National Imams Council spokesman Mohamadu Saleem says. He is recalling an alarmist video posted on YouTube in 2009 that used bogus figures to suggest Europe would soon be taken over by Muslims. It has had 12 million hits. Reassured that the Pew Centre is reputable, Saleem adds: "Whatever happens, Muslims in Australia are a tiny minority, and will be so forever."
But Dandan is far from sanguine about the projected near doubling of Muslim numbers.
"That is of great concern to us because we don't have the facilities and the infrastructure, and the government is not supporting us," he says.
The Muslim community has plenty on its plate already: intergenerational poverty, undereducation and unemployment, a pressing need for more social, welfare and aged-care services, a siege mentality fostered by a suspicious public and often hostile news media, close attention from the police and security agencies and the problem of pockets of religious extremism.
The challenges are compounded in a diaspora that is diverse and disunited - in truth, many communities rather than one - and suffers from a lack of language skills, public relations and lobbying know-how, strong leadership and political clout.
Dandan claims Muslim communities have been abandoned politically, particularly in southwest Sydney, where they happen to live in electorates safely held by the Labor Party.
"We're a growing community, so where are the services? Our youth get no services, our elderly no services, employment, no service, hospitals atrocious, our schools - don't even talk about it, go and have a look at our schools. Are we not getting the services because we're Muslim or because these are safe Labor seats?"
A second set of statistics underscores his complaints, showing that despite numerous success stories such as that of Dandan, who runs a multimillion-dollar IT security firm, Muslims overall remain one of the most disadvantaged groups in Australia.
The figures are in a 2009 report by the National Centre of Excellence for Islamic Studies, Social and Economic Conditions of Australian Muslims: Implications for Social Inclusion.
On the upside, it found that education-wise Muslims are high achievers: 21 per cent of Muslim males have a university degree, compared with 15 per cent of non-Muslims. But this doesn't translate into financial rewards, apparently because of language barriers, discrimination and non-recognition of qualifications obtained abroad. Unemployment among Muslims is two to four times the rates among other Australians. Twice as many Muslims have no income. Only 15 per cent own their own homes, compared with one-third of other Australians. Twenty-six per cent of Muslim teenagers are unemployed, against 14 per cent of non-Muslims. And, shockingly, 40 per cent of Muslim children live in poverty, almost three times the national average.
The report found Australian Muslims are more vulnerable to multigenerational endemic poverty, "thus making poverty a way of life". This in turn creates alienation from mainstream society, leading to higher rates of delinquency, crime, imprisonment and potentially resort to religious extremism.
These issues require urgent attention, the report advised. But, Dandan says, "The politicians don't care, they literally don't care." He cites an elaborate new youth centre built next to the Lakemba mosque, which took the local community 13 years to build because it received zero assistance from government.
Similar grievances are echoed in other Muslim precincts such as the city of Hume in Victoria which, according to the ABS, is the most disadvantaged suburb in Melbourne and has the highest number of Muslims in the state. Its already high migrant population has been swollen by an influx of refugees from Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia and Sudan.
Leila Alloush, public officer for Victorian Arabic Social Services, says the area has become an enclave for slow integration and a high level of deprivation.
Recently, schools in the northern region of Melbourne have reported increases in cyclic racism, that is youth from Arabic-speaking backgrounds responding (in kind) to encounters with racism and violence. Feelings of alienation and helplessness have become pronounced and these youth have increasingly reported feeling disconnected from the mainstream, Alloush warns.
Dealing with these pressing challenges calls for authoritative leadership, which often seems lacking in Australia's fractured Muslim populace. This is partly a function of Sunni Islamic tradition, which eschews a political or clerical hierarchy because all men are considered equal before God.
It is also because Australia's Muslims are made up of 27 nationalities and as many different cultures and histories. The Australian Federation of Islamic Councils covers 120 Islamic societies, all with their own agendas. AFIC is seeking to assert itself as the peak Muslim body, but it is under-resourced and reliant on part-time officer-holders.
And its measured tone is often drowned out by shriller voices such as that of Hilali who, despite needing a translator, even after 30 years in Australia, is a favourite of the media for his sometimes outrageous remarks, like his oft-quoted 2006 comment comparing women and rapists with uncovered meat and a pack of wolves.
Groups such as AFIC and the LMA have initiated an array of outreach programs, such as interschool sports events, debates, interfaith dialogue, public meetings and open days at mosques. The LMA and Hilali took a team of 40 tradesmen to Queensland to help rebuild houses after the recent floods. "These are all ways by which barriers can be broken down," AFIC president Ikebal Patel says.
But it is an exhausting and often frustrating task. Dandan cites a case where Muslims were encouraged to donate blood, prompting a potential recipient to comment: "I don't want Muslim blood injected into me."
"We understand that from our point of view we need to engage, but if you engage and the engagement is not reciprocated, it's like a slap in the face," he says. "Time and time again we're stepping away from our families and businesses to do this work for the community, and we're getting burned out because we're not getting any help."
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