The following statement, initiated by the Illawarra Socialist Alliance, seeks to build a community consensus against racism and for solidarity and social justice. It has been signed by: Gordon Bradbery, independent candidate for the seat of Wollongong; Dr Munir Hussain, Chairman, Omar Mosque; Illawarra Greens; and Illawarra Socialist Alliance.
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Take a stand against racism
We condemn the recent comments made by ministers and members of the Liberal Party, whose actions aim to divide the community based on racial and religious grounds.
On February 17, the Sydney Morning Herald reported that in December 2010 the opposition spokesperson for immigration, Scott Morrison, had urged the shadow cabinet to capitalise on the electorate’s growing concerns about “Muslim immigration”, “Muslims in Australia” and the alleged “inability” of Muslim migrants to integrate.
The evidence of how this strategy is playing out is obvious.
The Liberal Party adopted One Nation's policy to cut foreign aid. Morrison said it was not appropriate for taxpayers to fly some relatives of victims of the Christmas Island disaster to Sydney to attend family funerals.
Peter Hartcher pointed out in the SMH: “Some were Christian funerals, others were Muslim. But all of them were foreigners, all of them were boat people, all of them were dark-skinned, and to Morrison that made them all fair game.”
Liberal party leader Tony Abbott endorsed these comments at the time. Later on, he and Morrison said that only the timing of the comments was insensitive, not the comments themselves.
Since then, Liberal Senator Cory Bernardi has stated that “Islam is a totalitarian, political and religious ideology” and “Islam itself is the problem”.
All those who believe in a fair and just society should publicly reject these racist, xenophobic and religiously intolerant comments. Not only are they offensive, they are dangerous because they fuel harassment, vilification and violence against specific religious and ethnic groups.
No one wants to see a repeat of the ugly Cronulla riots of 2005. The Liberal Party chose to risk this happening again.
It’s time for the community to stand together, to stand shoulder to shoulder with our brothers and sisters from the Islamic and Arabic communities in solidarity against racism and prejudice. We hope others will join this campaign for freedom of religious expression and social justice. We call on the Liberal Party to stop its attacks on immigrants and people of the Islamic faith.