There are so many questions I want to ask Pauline Hanson about racism and religions
IF you believe Australia is a proudly multicultural society, the return of Pauline Hanson’s One Nation party is worrying and hard to explain, writes Naz Jacobs.
Opinion
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PAULINE Hanson is Australia’s dirty secret. Not many people admit to liking her, yet she garners hundreds of thousands of votes.
I’ve never been a fan of Hanson. Take a look at my picture and that probably comes as no surprise. The One Nation leader said recently that if elected, she would call for a royal commission to determine whether or not Islam is a legitimate religion. I’m mind-boggled.
How exactly does one call an official inquiry into a belief system? Does she intend to have the Koran analysed word for word, all influential Islamic texts and scholars from centuries past scrutinised and evaluated?
Is she even aware that there are different sects of Islam with differing beliefs? Has she heard of Sunni, Sufi, Shia?
Oh, Pauline, there are so many questions I’d love to ask you over a halal snack pack.
If her proposed policies don’t affect you right now, you probably shouldn’t be too complacent. Hanson’s history of bigotry extends far beyond Islam. Her anti-Asian sentiments from years gone by are an indication of how deep and wide her racism runs. It seems she needs a villain to oppose and she merely changes its face according to the political climate of the day. The most frightening part of Hanson’s reappearance on our political stage is that she’s not just one woman with bigoted views. Her xenophobic fearmongering has triggered support across the country — a testament to how ingrained it is in our society. Hanson simply puts a name to Australia’s inner racism.
“The support I’ve received from Australians ... and the encouragement I’ve received from the Australian people is why I’ve kept going,” she said on the weekend.
Her popularity fills me with unease. Our country prides itself on its multiculturalism, but One Nation wants to rule out all other nations. Unlike Donald Trump, Hanson may not have mentioned building a wall, but her zero net immigration policy is just as strong a divide. Of Islam she says: “If you actually look at it, what I’m talking about is the mix and the makeup that will actually destroy our culture and our way of life. We are a Christian country and what I’m saying is we have never ever had any issues or problems or fear in our country from any other religion. That’s fact.”
In fact, only about 60 per cent of Australians identify as some form of Christian, according to the 2011 Census. About 20 per cent have no religion and only 2.2 per cent of us are Muslims. Her NSW One Nation senator, Brian Burston, continues the fearmongering, saying the Muslims are coming and “they will introduce the caliphate, they want a caliphate here and it will happen one day”.
Her supporters vote for her out of this fear of a threat to the Australian way of life. But what is the Australian way of life, Ms Hanson?
In 2007, she allowed a newspaper to take her DNA to trace her ancestry. It turns out the outspoken politician has roots in the Middle East. The test showed that 9 per cent of Hanson’s genetic makeup originated in the Middle East, the birthplace of Islam. Another 32 per cent came from Italy, Greece or Turkey and 59 per cent from Northern Europe.
Please explain. She is clearly a product of many races that have migrated across the globe.
Her party is anti-immigration, but without immigrants our great country would be worse off. And without immigrants, Hanson wouldn’t have her villains to oppose.
She’s made it clear she doesn’t want any more Muslims calling Australia home, but what of the Muslims who already do? I assume that banning the burqa and halal food, while enforcing surveillance in mosques and Muslim schools, is simply the tip of the iceberg.
Perhaps we should be wearing ankle monitors to track the whereabouts of every Muslim.
And if you’re part of any minority — whether religious, racial or otherwise — you’re probably not safe from Hanson’s attention. Who knows which group she’ll choose to bully next?
I would jokingly say perhaps redheads, but I guess that’s one minority group she’ll always vouch for.
Naz Jacobs is a News Corp editorial assistant
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