In a 2003 lecture subsequently posted on Youtube, Samir Abu Hamza, director of the Islamic Information and Services Network of Australasia, claimed that it is acceptable for a man to hit his wife and that rape is impossible in marriage. It is only right that anyone who cares about women's rights would be outraged.
However, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and media commentators who have condemned the Islamic cleric have failed to address the critical issue: Abu Hamza's comments reflect an attitude held by many Australian men, not just some Muslim men.
The dredging up of a six-year-old recording of an Islamic cleric's offensive comments in the lead-up to Australia Day has been met with an understandable cynicism. After all, this is the same Abu Hamza, also known as Samir Mohtadi, who was an important Crown witness in the trial of accused terrorist Abdul Benbrika.
At that time he was described as "a moderate Islamic cleric" on ABC radio, an interesting contrast to the labels like "self-styled cleric" and "outspoken Islamic cleric" that have been used in the media over the last week.
Speaking at an Australia Day event in Hobart on January 22, Rudd said that the remarks "have no place in modern Australia at all. … Under no circumstances is sexual violence permissible or acceptable in Australia. Under no circumstances are other forms of violence towards women acceptable in Australia."
If only that were true. The sad reality is that violence against women is prevalent in Australia, with one in five women experiencing sexual violence by the age of 15, according to a 2006 survey by the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
The Victorian Centres Against Sexual Assault also report that intimate partner violence is the number one contributor to preventable deaths, disabilities and illness in Victorian women aged 15 to 44.
Women's Health Goulburn North East released a study in July 2008 entitled Raped by a Partner, which interviewed 21 women who had been raped by a partner.
In the report, each woman believed that her partner would not have recognised his actions as rape. This is a frightening indication of the extent to which violence against women is accepted within our society.
The Herald Sun's January 23 editorial wrote that Abu Hamza "would be better off living somewhere else. His inflammatory teachings are not welcome here."
Rather than echoing the line that migrants should live "our way" or leave, a serious stand against domestic violence needs to recognise that it is not an issue only affecting any one religion or culture, it is a social issue that women from all cultural, economic and religious backgrounds struggle with.
Using such remarks to attack a section of the community for not fitting into the "Australian" way does nothing to tackle the issue of violence against women.
The horrifying statistics revealed in these recent reports illustrate a violent, murky side to the "Australian" way, a side brushed under the carpet, especially during times of nationalistic outbursts such as January 26 — apart from examples in which the perpetrator in question happens to be from an already marginalised section of the population, such as the Islamic community.
Such race-based wedge politics is another favoured tool of staunch supporters of "Australian values", which — along with all forms of violence against women — must be opposed.