The strategy report, A National Response to Islamophobia, from Special Envoy to Combat Islamophobia Aftab Malik, published on September 12, comes after he met more than 100 Muslim community members, experts on Islamophobia, youth, women and religious leaders.
It follows Special Envoy to Combat Antisemitism Jillian Segal’s July report, which was light on evidence of antisemitism but heavy on recommending state suppression of the Palestine solidarity movement and defence of the Israeli state.
Segal attacked supporters of Palestinian national rights and equated Zionism with Judaism. Overall, her recommendations would increase antisemitic hatred and prejudice against Jews.
Malik’s report pays serious attention to the evidence for Islamophobia. He sought feedback on recommendations from 30 national and international experts in Islamophobia, social cohesion, community activism, criminology, news media, psychology, hate crime, anti-racism, mental health and Islam–West relations.
A foreword by Muslim Australian Test cricketer Usman Khawaja relates examples of his family’s experiences of Islamophobia and ends up with a clarion call for change.
Islamophobia Register said in July that it had recorded a 530% increase in Islamophobic incidents over 21 months, since October 7, 2023. It said more than 1500 cases were reported, many of which were connected to expressing solidarity with Palestinian civilians.
Khawaja refers to a verbal assault on his mother when she attended one of his games. He also reported incidents when Muslim women had their scarves ripped from their heads and, in one case, a toddler was called a “dog”.
“At its core, Islamophobia is not just about individual prejudice; it is also institutional, structural and systemic,” Khawaja says, adding: “The responsibility of dealing with Islamophobia doesn’t lie with a select few, but all of us. But, only a select few, including the Prime Minister and others, can enact real change, and make a long-lasting difference felt for years to come.”
Segal demanded cultural and educational institutions align themselves with the Israel-friendly International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism, with government funding principles deployed as a whip to impose this. She also proposed judges be “educated” in that definition.
Malik does not try such overreach. His key recommendations are for twin parliamentary commissions of inquiry into Islamophobia and anti-Arab and anti-Palestinian racism. Unlike Segal, he defends free speech at universities.
Malik’s report does not seek to define the contested concept of Islamophobia, but to convey its pervasiveness and impacts.
He refers to widespread research on Islamophobia in Australia, which has found that such racism has reached unprecedented levels since the October 7, 2023, Palestinian attacks from Israeli-occupied Gaza into Israel and Israel’s genocidal response.
Malik describes the broad range of ways in which Islamophobia is a part of everyday life for Muslim communities in this country, but especially for Muslim women who wear hijabs.
His report then discusses “deeper, underlying institutional and structural forms of Islamophobia”, by which he finds “research demonstrates that Muslim men are often disproportionately targeted … particularly in relation to law enforcement”.
Malik identifies the drivers of Islamophobia as the constant “othering” of Muslims as a national security threat and in negative stereotypes by sections of media and some politicians. The downplaying, or outright denial, in public discussion of the seriousness of Islamophobia means that popular consciousness of this racism is very limited. Stereotyped reductions of Muslim identities and the dehumanisation of “Palestinian and Arab-Australian communities and their supporters” also help drive racism.
He notes anti-Palestinian and anti-Arab racism “often essentialises all Palestinians as Muslim”, despite Palestinian and other Arabic-speaking communities praticising a range of faiths. He warns against “Islamophobia [being used] as a proxy for, or to conflate it with” anti-Arab racism, before also condemning this.
Malik’s discussion of anti-Palestinian racism is welcome. He notes the “broader climate of suspicion and alleged discrimination” in universities as Muslim students tackle universities’ concern with “extremism”, a label often cast on to students’ “efforts to humanise and raise awareness of Palestinians’ suffering”.
He said they, and presumably their supporters, fear “disciplinary measures for asserting their Palestinian identity, or for advocating for Palestinian rights”.
Universities Australia and university managements are, however, a noticeable omission from those Malik says he has engaged with to address Islamophobia.
Malik notes “the hellish suffering inflicted upon the people of Gaza is mobilising world opinion”, before clearly, if indirectly, calling out the genocide.
But his calls for two commissions of inquiry, one into Islamophobia and another looking into anti-Palestinian and anti-Arab racism, indicates a weakness in his approach.
Malik argues the root of Islamophobia is “ongoing confusion about the true nature of Islam”, specifically intellectuals’ and the broader population’s incapacity to distinguish “between extremism and mainstream Islam”.
He suggests this particular racism arises from simply having the wrong idea. This is why he is “confident that we can foster a society where anti-Muslim hate and prejudice are acknowledged, challenged and rectified”. Meanwhile, he says Labor’s failures in the face of the Gaza genocide “lack a moral action and exactitude”.
But Islamophobia and anti-Palestinian and anti-Arab racism, just as anti-Chinese racism and racism against First Nations communities, ultimately do not arise from an absence of good ideas and a failure to counter ethno-nationalisms, like Zionism or white nationalism.
Under capitalism, the dominant ideas and morals are class-based ones. The ruling class has a very specific material interest in upholding racist ideas because it works to confuse and divide people who do have common material interests.
Racism, including Islamophobia, weaponises social prejudices to justify a range of injustices, including a refusal to sanction Israel for its genocide, and Australia’s settler colonialism and power in the Asia Pacific.
Malik identifies the broad suppression of pro-Palestinian voices, which reveals the limits of capitalist democracy. But the global movement supporting Palestinian national self-determination and for sanctions on Israel is winning majorities across the globe; Islamophobia will be weakened if we force Israel to stop its genocide. Eradicating racism altogether will mean building broader solidarity in the fight for real equality and justice.