Lurches to the right show us racism is the problem, not the solution

US Vice-President Joe Biden reminds us that, like America, Australia has a responsibility to combat “the gathering forces of rac­ism”.

As a person of the Jewish faith, racism and its consequences are etched into my soul. Racism robs a people of their choices and opportunities, their homes, their livelihoods and their sense of confidence and security.

But we cannot afford to confuse the need to call out racism with the dual imperative to call out extreme Islamism. The two evils fuel one another.

While racism radicalises alienated young Muslims in ever increasing numbers, denying or failing to name Islamist terrorism and implement adequate, proportional security measures only intensifies the fear, hatred and ­ignorant demonisation of Muslims in general.

The term proportional is important here.

If television presenter Sonia Kruger thinks banning immigration by Muslims will prevent terrorism on Australian soil, should we accept only female immigrants because 82 per cent of domestic violence is perpetrated by men? We should be refusing would-be immigrants on the basis of their links to terrorism, not their religion.

That said, if the community perceives that the words and/or actions of our leaders in response to Islamist terrorism are ­inadequate, the ensuing fear and frustration drive people towards figures such as Pauline Hanson, who peddle the lie that racism is the ­solution rather than the problem. Tackling racism requires us to call that lie but, as Aboriginal journalist Stan Grant wisely has pointed out, vilifying Hanson, let alone her supporters, is no solution either.

Grant, a member of the Referendum Council that I co-chair, told an audience in Canberra last week that there will be a range of voices in the new parliament and we should not seek to silence any of those voices.

What we should do is to calmly, clearly and powerfully repudiate Hanson’s bigoted positions — ­positions that do not necessarily reflect the views of all her supporters.

As a Jew, regardless of whether my community is directly targeted by Hanson, it would be wrong to remain silent.

We have a special responsibility to contrast extreme Islamism with the religion practised by the vast majority of Muslims in this country, who are peaceful and law-abiding.

Racism, regardless of its target, is a threat — to us and to the nation to whom we owe our freedom and prosperity, the very lives of our children and grandchildren.

For more than four decades, my law firm has been a voice against racism. This not only stems from my being a Jew. It also stems from being Australian, and a human being.

And it has been fortified through 25 years of working closely with indigenous Australians, the most racially denigrated people in the country. Indeed, this denigration is embedded in our Constitution, and the bipartisan support for righting that wrong is testament to the shared commitment of our political leaders to continue to strengthen and mature our unique brand of multiculturalism.

Biden also commented last weekend on the US and Australia being “nations of immigrants”, and the perspective this should afford us on the universal dangers of racism.

With the additional richness of Australia’s unique indigenous heritage, which began long before the waves of immigrants arrived on these shores, our cultural and religious diversity provides us with the foundation and a powerful rationale to do all that we can to shore up national values of respect and empathy.

Australians are also known for our plain speaking, and as the world faces a terrorism threat, unprecedented in scale and complexity, we have an equally solemn responsibility to identify that for what it is — namely terrorism that is perpetrated by people who identify as Muslims.

Writing in Sunday’s edition of Israel’s oldest daily newspaper, Haaretz, Muslim reformer Felix Marquardt put it this way: “We must not cede to the natural inclination to say we have nothing to do with the authors of the ignominious crimes committed in the name of Islam. To address the problem, one must first admit there is a problem.”

Mark Leibler is senior partner at law firm Arnold Bloch Leibler. He is co-chairman of the Referendum Council and national chairman of the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council.