Yassmin outcry ‘shows racism on rise’

Gillian Triggs says the outcry against Yassmin Abdel-Magied is an example of increased racism against Muslims.

Gillian Triggs in Melbourne. Picture: David Geraghty

Human Rights Commission president Gillian Triggs has savaged critics of ABC presenter Yassmin Abdel-Magied’s Anzac Day Facebook post, highlighting the outcry as an example of increased racism against Muslims.

Professor Triggs also attacked Malcolm Turnbull’s proposed changes to the citizenship test, ­arguing that tougher English language requirements were “problematic” and could be open to abuse and lead to discrimination.

Yassmin Abdel-Magied. Picture: Adam Smith

She told a packed house at the Melbourne Town Hall last night that Ms Abdel-Magied’s Facebook post was a “relatively minor incident” and that her freedom of speech was constrained.

“The recent example of a growing intolerance of demonising Muslims generally has been the controversy of a Facebook comment on Anzac Day by Abdel-­Magied, a hijab-wearing Muslim woman,” Professor Triggs said at an event hosted by the Ethnic Communities Council of Victoria.

“She drew attention to the plight of the detainees on Manus and Nauru and the refugees in Syria and Palestine.

“Despite a speedy apology from her, to what she said was a disrespectful comment on this important day of remembrance, this relatively minor incident has been used to demand the removal of Abdel-Magied from the Council of the Australian-Arab Relations, to constrain the right of freedom of speech and to demand that as an Australian resident since she was a child she should return to Sudan, her country of origin.”

Professor Triggs has been a long-time critic of the government’s offshore asylum-seeker policies and has drawn controversy over the commission’s pursuit of Queensland University of Technology students and Bill Leak, the late cartoonist with The Australian, over 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act.

She lauded Foreign Minister Julie Bishop for resisting calls to sack Ms Abdel-Magied from the Australian-Arab council.

“It is very encouraging that (Ms Bishop) has not succumbed to this kind of abuse,” she said.

“This single incident, however, clearly touched some raw nerves. The head scarf has become a lightning rod for attacking Muslim women. The incident also prompted further ritual attacks on the independence of the ABC and the populist nationalist language has emerged that we ‘should put Australia first’.”

Professor Triggs said she was worried about a rise in nationalist rhetoric from political leaders and about proposed changes to citizenship tests.

She said that the best way to promote Australian values was not to include more questions in citizenship tests but to enshrine them in a bill of rights.

“It is perfectly reasonable to ­articulate our national values but to recite what we already know and believe in is not good enough,” she said.

“It may be reasonable to ­require a few years residency in Australia as a prerequisite before citizenship and it is certainly worth talking about. But the requirement that a citizen should speak a certain level of English, while reasonable on its face, was problematic because it is open to official abuse.”

With her leadership of the commission ending in three weeks, she reflected on her controversial tenure

“I am coming to the view that they have been able to say things about me, and attack me, in a way that never would have happened to a man. And I am sorry to say that, but it’s true,’’ she said.