Why are anti-Semitic screeds, ethnic hatreds being tolerated in Australia?
Last week, at a mosque in Sydney’s southwest, imam Sheik Youssef Nabha appeared to encourage people of Lebanese descent to stay in Lebanon, implying it was all right to be allied with Hezbollah, while stirring animosity against Israel and promoting anti-Semitism.
On Tuesday, The Australian reported that another Sydney-based cleric, Abu Ousayd, known for his anti-Semitic rants, delivered another anti-Semitic tirade on New Year’s Eve, saying “Jews were descendants of pigs and monkeys”.
These events among our Muslim community should give cause for serious concern.
According to the NSW Anti-Discrimination Body website: “Racial vilification is against the law. It is a public act that could incite hatred, serious contempt or severe ridicule towards people of a particular race … Public acts include: communications that can be seen or heard by the public (this includes print, radio, video or online).”
Given this, we should rightly ask: Why aren’t these Muslim leaders being called out by our leaders and charged by the appropriate authorities?
If what has been published about the rants of the Muslim cleric on New Year’s Eve are not a public act that could incite hatred, serious contempt or ridicule against Jews, then, short of mob violence, what else would?
Last year there were similar rants against Jews coming from Sydney-based mosques. The AFP investigated and nothing was done about it. If that meant our laws were not strong enough to warrant a prosecution then they need urgent strengthening. If this remains unchecked, we are witnessing something akin to the anti-Semitic rage that Germany saw in the early 1930s. We cannot let this fester.
Our country is one of migrants. Almost 26 per cent of Australians, according to the 2022 census, were born overseas; 3.2 per cent of Australian identify as Indigenous and the remainder (more than 70 per cent) come from migrants, either forced or voluntary, who settled here since the First Fleet.
And these migrants come from many diverse cultures and countries. But having come here, we all assume a responsibility to abide by our laws and leave behind the difficulties that drove us and our forebears to come to this great country. Australia is one of the great success stories of the world, welcoming millions of migrants, who over centuries have suffered discrimination and hardship whether because of ethnicity, race, colour, gender or faith.
My own ancestors hailing from Ireland came to this great country in the 1840s and 1860s, escaping famine and prejudice. They were welcomed, and toiled to create a comfortable environment to raise children and eventually prosper. But they left their troubles behind. They were forward-looking and contributed to what makes our country great.
Respect and tolerance are two important foundational principles of our nation. They are what has made our country welcoming to migrants. They have contributed to the stability, growth and progress of our society. We have evolved and thrown off the dark cloak of the White Australia policy. We have turned instead to fostering harmonious relationships, promoted social justice, encouraged personal growth and fostered innovation. We have achieved this amid a framework of a very broad and diverse population with many differences in religion, race, ethnicity and personal backgrounds.
As we approach Australia Day, I am prompted to write about these characteristics because I can see troubling factors that, if not addressed now, will lead to undermining our respect and tolerance of our fellow Australians and possible violent conflict. The rants of the Muslim clerics I have referred to are of a grave concern. And equally concerning if, it is shown to be the case, two Australians and their wives left the country to be with an outlaw terrorist group. It may be that their travel was innocent and they have been hijacked by the Hezbollah movement as their own. Whatever the case, we must be proactive and show zero tolerance to citizens who wish to either bring their fights into this country or wish to go back and continue their fights in the country they or their forebears were born in.
There is no place in our society to bring the hatred and intolerance that have stewed (over centuries in many cases) in countries migrants have left for these shores. Many of my forebears died in the potato famine in Ireland in the 19th century. Some fought for independence. But those who migrated to Australia left their troubles in Ireland and never deigned to imbue into their descendants a continuing hatred of the English or a continuation of the struggle for Irish independence.
Their focus was building a life here and contributing to the society here and its good governance and development.
Religious leaders must be careful what they say and must not stir animosity against other groups. The tragedy unfolding in the Middle East is horrific. But we need to be vigilant that it is not imported here. And there are troubling signs it is. For example, the continuing demonstrations for a peaceful resolution of the conflict risk turning into not only an anti- Semitic rave but a violent one at that.
Our leaders need to call out this behaviour and ensure any extremist or threatening conduct is strongly condemned, and those who breach our discrimination laws or incite violence are jumped on immediately and charged with the appropriate offences.
We have seen this before in our community. In the 1970s and 1980s we had problems emanating between the Serbian and Croat communities in Australia. Both groups migrated from what was then Yugoslavia and as tensions rose at that time in the Balkans between the two groups there, these tensions were reflected in Australia. This escalated to several instances of violence and conflict. We cannot allow this to happen again.
Francis Galbally is a Melbourne businessman.
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