Recent events have once again brought to light the racism, bigotry and prejudice that pervades our society. It isn't a nice topic to talk about. Often people are confronted by their own shortcomings and react defensively instead of proactively. What do I mean by that? Well, instead of looking at themselves and wondering how they can improve their situation or their outlook, they become hostile to that which is other. We've all heard the adage that the best form of defence is attack. That's what happens. We see it over and over again, in the media and in social media.
In Australia, the recent attacks have been against Muslims, and the Islamic community generally, as they are seen as an easy scapegoat for the anger and fear people feel in reaction to the various worldwide incidents. Since 9/11 there has been an undercurrent of anti-Islamic posturing by a small minority of the population. This has grown and grown. In fact, it has grown to such an outrageous level that people aren't even ashamed of their discrimatory language. Posts, such as the one below, have become more commonplace. Some are so offensive, I could not bring myself to use them in this piece.
The problem with images such as this is that they allow people to justify their intolerance. If we look into what this image tells us, it is quite disturbing.
Firstly, "not taking in Syrian refugees and closing our borders is not being mean or heartless." Yes, it is. You are admitting that they are refugees, fleeing from their homeland with barely a possession amongst them, in need of assistance from foreign lands because they are in fear of rape, torture and even death if they stay in their country. Turning away people such as this is incredibly mean and heartless.
Secondly, "I lock my doors every night, not because I hate the people outside, but because I love the people inside." No, you lock your doors to keep robbers and murderers out. You lock your doors because you fear what would happen if you left them unlocked. Yes, you do that because you love your family but don't pretend that fear isn't a predominant factor.
This whole argument falls down when we look at a simple comparison: the child in danger on your doorstep. If a broken and bloody child arrived on your doorstep asking for help, what would you do? If we go by the logic of the above image, you should not unlock your door. They are not your family. They do no "belong" in your home. You have no responsibility towards the child. How many of you would actually say no to that child? So why do you feel that as a country it's ok for us to say no to the refugees when they are no different to that child on your doorstep?
People like guarantees. It's like when you buy a product from a shop, you want to know that it works, and if it doesn't you want to know that you can exchange it for a similar product or get your money back. Unfortunately, people don't come with guarantees. That frightens people. This is part of the reason why we have locks on our doors. Common sense tells us that 99% of the people outside our door aren't after our valuables or out to murder us as we sleep. We have locks to protect us from the 1%.
Given this, you might think that image we discussed was pretty accurate. Well, let's back it up. A lock can be unlocked to let some people in. We've already established that we'd probably let in the bleeding and bloody child. There's no guarantee that the child won't steal your wallet while they're in your house. You let them in because it's the right thing to do.
So now we are faced with potentially 12,000 Syrian refugees. Border control is the holder of the key to lock on our national door. They can let in those they deem to be an acceptable risk, just as we do with the child on our doorstep. They also keep out those they deem an unacceptable risk but here's the thing: there's no guarantee.
I wrote the above passage on my personal Facebook page. The people on my friends list who are very against taking refugees did not comment. I don't blame them. It can be hard to reevaluate your position. It can be confronting. It can be embarrassing. I don't think any of my Facebook friends are bad people. I don't think they are particularly racist or intolerant. I simply think they have been sucked in by the fearmongering done by the media and government.
The cynical side of me thinks the government has played this very well. They have been seen to be doing the right thing by saying they will take the refugees. They have also done little to quell the growing hysteria around the potential danger of the Islamic religion. This gives them an automatic out. Taking in refugees requires a lot of money from the government - from processing them to the benefits they receive until they are self sufficient - which could, in theory, be spent on other (much neglected) areas that would garner more support from the general public. Of course, governments being what they are, the spend would be nowhere near what the public think it should be and only a fraction of what they would have spent on bringing in refugees.
The media are in it for the story, not the truth. The story is what sells, whether it is based on fact or not. They will play one side of against the other and both sides off against the middle, all in the name of raising their own revenue. What sells the most copy? What will headline TV news? What will get shared on social media? Fear! Lots and lots of fear! The occasional good news story about a Muslim can't counter the vast reams of stories about terrorism at the hands of hard-line extremists who use religion to excuse their own bigotry.
The article on the left illustrates perfectly the habit the general population have of tarring all with the same brush. It's common throughout history. Different groups, different eras. Same result. Apparently the message of "not all Muslims are terrorists" just isn't getting through. There are millions of Muslims around the world who absolutely detest what is happening in the name of their religion. Blaming every Muslim for ISIS/ISIL/Daesh is just like blaming every Christian for Westboro Baptist Church or the Crusades. It just doesn't make sense.
The article on the right illustrates that it is not just the Western Countries who come under attack from extremists. The Western-centric media was full of the awful attacks on Paris, as you would expect. Hardly a whisper was heard about the attacks in Beirut. An Islamic area being attacked by Islamic extremists doesn't rate in Western countries. Even though the attacks were carried out, or attributed to, the same base organisation, the attacks in Beirut were deemed, media-wise, as less relevant.
People need to see that the extremists are not the same as the moderates, just as they are in every other religion or ideology. By saturating the airwaves and newspapers with one event and not the other, we allow the misconception that this is a Christian versus Islamic battle when it is, in reality, an extremist versus the rest of the world battle.
In the end, we all must stand as one. Regardless of religion. Regardless of colour. Regardless of creed. We must put aside our reservations and unlock the door. We must trust our Border Control to weed out as many of the extremists hiding amongst the refugees as they can. We must trust our fellow citizens to not stand by and allow our children to be radicalised. We must trust our police and our justice system to deal with those who break our laws in an appropriate manner. But most of all, we must trust the refugees who do make it to our shores because, after all they have been through, don't they deserve that which we have enjoyed our entire lives?
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