What is going to make Australia safer?

AUSTRALIA is scared right now — and comments by Pauline Hanson and Sonia Kruger reflect this. This is how we can tackle those fears.

Pauline Hanson puts media on notice.

SONIA Kruger is scared, Pauline Hanson says there is “fear on our streets”, and banning Muslims is the best way of feeling safe. Or is it?

People have anxieties and those anxieties are understandable, Professor Greg Barton told news.com.au. “It’s a scary world and it would be naive to say there’s nothing to be anxious about.

“The question is what we should do in response?”

Ms Hanson has called for an honest debate to “find the right answers” about why terrorism has found its way onto Australians streets, and been able to inflict such horrible violence around the world.

Her views are already being backed by media personality and Today Extra host Sonia Kruger, who believes that Muslims should be banned from entering Australia.

Sonia Kruger believes Muslims should be banned from entering Australia. Picture: Today Extra

In her remarks, Kruger pointed to the example of Japan as being one country that did not allow much immigration and was safe from Islamic attacks.

But Prof Barton said taking Japan’s approach was no guarantee of safety.

“It’s true that Japan has a small Muslim population but that doesn’t really shed light on our situation,” he said.

Japan’s low immigration has not stopped incidents like the Tokyo subway sarin attack in 1995, which was carried out by a cult.

Banning Muslims from entering Australia would also not stop homegrown terrorists.

Prof Barton said Islamic State did target kids from Muslim backgrounds but in most cases they did not start off as extremely religious, and those identified in attacks were generally born in those countries.

“Islamic State preys on identity politics, and their alienation,” he said.

WE DO NEED TO TALK ABOUT IT

If people really want to be safe, Prof Barton believes in honest conversations, but people have to be open to hearing the answers.

“(Ms Hanson) closes herself to that conversation by painting Islam as just a political ideology inclined to violence and that all Muslims move in that direction,” Prof Barton said.

“She already has her answer and wants a way to ventilate her views.”

Ahead of the July 2 Federal Election, Ms Hanson released a video where she said: “We don’t bring in pit-bull terriers because they are a danger to our society.

She said people should “pressure the government to say no more Muslims in Australia”.

These comments show Ms Hanson’s views are already set and despite being confused about aspects of Islam, Prof Barton said she did not seem to be making a genuine attempt to understand or learn.

“I think there should be a space for having honest conversations but when you fall back on bigotry or the demonising of an entire population ... there’s no space for that conversation to happen.”

Prof Barton said another problem with Ms Hanson’s approach was she had essentially “disqualified herself” after spending 20 years demonising other populations including Aborigines and Asians. “This is a consistent pattern that we should recognise,” he said.

Setting her sights on Muslims now, could make the situation worse, and would not solve the problem of keeping Australians safe.

“Because of the alienation created, the problem would double. It’s not a practical solution and it’s not a clear headed response. It wouldn’t solve the problem.”

During the debate on Q&A this week, Education Minister Simon Birmingham said he didn’t think a Royal Commission into Islam, which Ms Hanson has called for, would be helpful, or that banning certain categories of people were ever helpful.

He said the government had a responsibility to make sure that Muslims felt safe but also that the government was doing everything possible to protect all Australians.

“We also have to acknowledge there are around 500,000 Australians, who voted for Pauline’s party, they have worries ... about terrorism,” he said.

Mr Birmingham said the government had to be vigilant in explaining to Australians “calmly and rationally” the types of step

s it was doing to protect them.

ONE THING IS ACTUALLY STOPPING ATTACKS

Prof Barton warned inflammatory comments undermined the one thing that was actually stopping attacks — the building of trust within Muslim communities that encouraged them to report any suspicious behaviour among friends and family.

This has been crucial in thwarting more than half of the nine attempted attacks planned in Australia over the past two years, he said.

One of the clearest examples of this was the arrest of a Melbourne teenager in May last year who was allegedly planning to detonate three bombs on Mother’s Day.

His plot was uncovered after a friend saw an angry Facebook post and called the terrorism hotline.

“That’s human intelligence that can’t be replaced by electronic technology,” Prof Barton said.

In hindsight, Prof Barton acknowledged that Australia could have handled migration and building social cohesion better in the past, but concentrating on not giving terrorists what they want was the key to the future.

A young man arrested after the police raid in Greenvale.

AUSTRALIA COULD CHANGE, FOR THE WORSE

Banning Muslims would only change Australia and we could lose what we love most about the country.

“If you do what Kruger wants, it will make things worse, at least in the short term and it would be playing into the terrorist’s hands,” Prof Barton said.

“It will make us change ourselves in ways that are contrary to our character.”

This could include putting restrictions on freedoms that Australians value such as democracy, freedom of speech and religion.

“The terrorists are trying to push our buttons and they want us to do things against our best interests and values but serves their purpose,” Prof Barton said. “It’s a game of psychology.

“That’s why they do outrageous things because they want us to be angry.”

OTHER EXTREMISTS COULD EMERGE

It won’t just be terrorists who would be emboldened in this new Australia.

Prof Barton said the country was already facing a real risk of right wing extremism.

“Fascists have been a problem throughout history and they haven’t gone away,” he said.

Attacks from right wing extremists were often seen in countries like America.

“This is a very real problem and if we don’t handle it well, we will not only play into the hands of Islamic State and lead to more Islamist terrorism, there will be more right wing terrorism too. It will make things worse.”

Terrorists also understand this, and Prof Barton said that the discovery of a fake Syrian passport in connection with the Paris attacks in November was evidence of this.

“The passport is almost certainly false but the ploy was to put the idea of migrant flows and terrorism together.”

Comments calling for Muslims to be banned had the potential to stir up further distrust and hatred to Muslims.

“The real problem with that sort of language is that it unlocks actions, you might have people attacking people wearing the veil, and could also culminate in attacks that are more violent,” he said.