Inaugural speech

Special Envoy to Combat Islamophobia, Mr Aftab Malik

I’d like to acknowledge that I am standing on the land of the Gadigal people and pay my respect to their Elders – past and present.

Social cohesion in Australia is under pressure

We are convening at a moment in time in which social cohesion is under immense pressure.

From fires and floods to COVID-19, rising cost-of-living pressures, and expanding global conflicts, communities are facing a wide array of shocks and stresses.

This has affected wellbeing, connectedness, and cohesion both within communities and with key institutions.

While I am deeply honoured to have been selected for this role, it isn't something to celebrate.

It's an acknowledgement that something is broken.

This appointment is a recognition that Islamophobia is real in Australia and indeed across the world. This is not just a challenge for Muslims, but for us all.

This role also emerges against the backdrop of rising levels of hate against Australian Muslims both online and offline. It has also seen a surge in anti-Palestinian racism, which can intersect with Islamophobia. [1]

Islamophobia is skyrocketing, but has existed long before October 7 2023

Two-weeks after 7 October, The Islamophobia Register reported that Islamophobia had increased ten-fold. Since then, the number of incidents reported to the Register continued to grow, reaching an average thirteen-fold increase by November 2023. By July 2024, Islamophobic incidents had skyrocketed to 617 per cent.[2] Some of the reported incidents included death threats, violent physical attacks,[3] and videos inciting violence.[4]

However, Islamophobia is not a new phenomenon.

The 2019 Christchurch terror attack in New Zealand, resulted in a fourfold increase in Islamophobia here in Australia.[5]

A 2020 pilot study found that mosque attacks in Australia were “neither new nor rare”. Two days after the Christchurch attack, a 23-year-old man drove into Baitul Masroor Mosque in South of Brisbane and was heard yelling offensive language. The study revealed that attacks were reported in 41% of Sydney mosques, 70% of Melbourne, and 89% of Brisbane mosques.[6]

While recent events occurring overseas and locally have accentuated fear and anxiety about Islam and Muslims, negative attitudes towards Muslims existed long before.

A ten-year study, published in 2011 found that “50% of Australians self-identified as being anti-Muslim.”[7] Eleven years on, the Scanlon Foundation’s 2022 Mapping Social Cohesion Report, revealed that Muslims are perceived with the highest levels of negative sentiment.[8] More recently, the 2023 Australian Cohesion Index reveals that only a quarter of Australians hold a positive view about Muslims.[9]

Islamophobia is real with detrimental impacts to Muslim’s wellbeing.

I understand the critical importance of free speech and I believe deeply in it. It is a fundamental right, and some are concerned that it is underappreciated and under threat.

As confronting and controversial as the word may be for some, Islamophobia wasn’t coined to deter criticism or interrogation of Muslims or Islam. Freedom of speech entails being uncomfortable at times, with what one hears.

Islamophobia should not become abused to the extent it becomes a plastic word: meaningless.

Especially when there are actual victims of Islamophobia who have been physically attacked and verbally abused without provocation, simply because they are Muslim. Many of these attacks occur in public settings and often in the presence of bystanders who do nothing to intervene.

The Australian Human Rights Commission Report, Sharing the Stories of Australian Muslims, captures some of these experiences. A Muslim man reported an incident on a train trip he took with his wife and three children, all aged under ten. His wife wears the hijab. Another man on the train approached the family and asked if they were Muslim. When he found out they were, he verbally abused the parents. He then approached the children and said he would ‘love to kill them all’.”[10]

Another reported incident captured elsewhere, involved a Muslim woman whose hijab was ripped off at a bus stop. In yet another incident, another Muslim woman was assaulted on the street, with the man yelling at her, “You f–––ing Muslim”.[11]

Muslim women who are oftentimes visibly identifiable as such, face what has been described as a ‘triple penalty’: being women, part of an ethnic minority, and Muslim.[12] In fact, it has been shown that women and children “remain the most convenient targets of Islamophobia”.[13]

Action Against Islamophobia has noted that the surge in Islamophobia, “has left many Muslims anxious about engaging in their daily religious activities, such as praying in mosques or leaving the house wearing the hijab.”[14]

The cumulative effects of these experiences is that it leads to emotional, physical and mental distress, individually and collectively as a community.

Dr. Susan Carland of Monash University, recently called Islamophobia “a documented, growing reality,”[15] while in a 2016 research paper, Professor Kevin Dunn of Western Sydney University called the experience of racism among Australian Muslims as “extraordinary and concerning”.[16]

However, Islamophobia is not merely a localised phenomenon, but it is global “plague” according to the UN Secretary-General António Guterres.[17]

Unfortunately, it appears to be quite acceptable to denigrate Islam and Muslims. In 2011, Baroness Sayeeda Warsi, then co-chairwoman of the British Conservative Party, infamously quipped that “Islamophobia had passed the dinner-table test.”[18] What she meant by this, was that it was socially acceptable, it was mainstream in British society, to show an open intolerance towards Islam, even at the “most respectable of settings – middle class dinner tables.”[19]

Combatting Antisemitism and Islamophobia

Social media has exposed many more people to the growing range of harmful, hateful, and violent views than ever before.

While 7 October has unleashed a tsunami of mis, dis, and malinformation about Islam and Muslims, it has done the same for Jewish communities too.

Antisemitism and Islamophobia are not mutually exclusive: where there is one, you most likely will find the other, lurking. I don’t intend to use this role to advocate that one form of hatred is more important than another: both antisemitism and Islamophobia are unacceptable.

As such, I look forward to engaging with my counterpart, Jillian Segal, to share insights and exchange ideas how we can fortify social cohesion, and bring our communities together on a common ground, rooted in dignity for all, or what the late Rabbi Jonathan Sacks referred to as “human honour”; Kavod habriyot.[20] Likewise, Muslims too are reminded in the Qur’an that God declares: “We have indeed honored [sic] the Children of Adam”[21](The Qur’an, 2015, 17:70).

Working towards social cohesion, together

Islamophobia, like antisemitism engenders social exclusion which leads to a degraded sense of personal safety, and a deterioration of belonging and citizenship. But it also has far-reaching implications for all Australians. Why? Because the impact of Islamophobia produces an ‘us’ and ‘them’ landscape, where “the individual and societal impacts of [Islamophobia] are the creation of disruption, fear, hostility, suspicion and isolation for both ‘us’ and ‘them’.”[22] Thus,

Islamophobia is not a Muslim issue, but a social cohesion issue, and therefore a challenge for all of us here in Australia.

Each of us can play a part in making sure that violence and hatred have no place in our communities. We can do this by valuing and strengthening the bonds between us and by calling out discrimination and being allies to those who experience it.

My role

So, what will I be doing for my part, in combatting Islamophobia? In this role, I will not be speaking on behalf of the Government, nor will I represent the Government. Neither will I claim to represent all Muslim communities, who are culturally and linguistically diverse. As the Special Envoy to Combat Islamophobia, some of the things I intend to do include:

• Engaging experts to utilise research and data to identify what drives Islamophobia
• Listening to those who have experienced Islamophobia, and promote public awareness and understanding of the impacts of Islamophobia
• Combat stereotypes and misinformation about Muslims and Islam, and
• Provide advice to the Prime Minister and the Minister for Immigration, Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs, to inform policy development and legislation that combat Islamophobia

Conclusion

Despite the many challenges different communities have faced, as a society, we continue to come together to support one another in many ways.

It is our diversity in Australia that is our strength and what is beautiful about living here in this multicultural, multireligious and multilingual country.

It is my hope that, despite our differences, we do not fail to be compassionate to one another.

Perhaps what's called for is a dose of common decency: to treat others how you would like to be treated.

We all need to work together to ensure that we engender a shared sense of values in our country’s rich multiculturalism.

For Muslims who face the ugliness of human behaviour, God challenges us to respond with beauty: idfa’ billati hiya ahsan [23] (The Qur’an, 2015, 41:34). And when our hearts are overwhelmed, in conformity with the Prophetic counsel, believers are told to hold onto optimism, while hobbling the proverbial camel “against all contingencies”.[24]

Thank you.

Sources

1. Carland, S. (2023). A war of words: preliminary media analysis of the 2023 Israel-Gaza War. Islamophobia Register Australia. IRA_2023-Israel-Gaza-War-Report_Final_V3.pdf (Back to text)

2. Sambul, N. (31 July 2024). An Islamophobia envoy hasn't been appointed yet. Some Muslim leaders say it isn't necessary. ABC News. An Islamophobia envoy hasn't been appointed yet. Some Muslim leaders say it isn't necessary. (Back to text)

3. Carland, S. (27 September 2024). Personal communication. (Back to text)

4. Islamophobia Register Australia, (28 November 2023). Reports of Islamophobia coming in at unprecedented rate – now thirteen-fold post Israel-Palestine escalations, [Press release]. (Back to text)

5. Carland, S. (2023), '‘We’re Islam in Their Eyes’: Using an Interpellation Framework to Understand Why Being a Woman Matters When Countering Islamophobia'. Religions,14(5), 654, 2. doi:10.3390/rel14050654. (Back to text)

6. Poynting, S., Iner, D., Mason, G., Asquith, N, & Mason, R. (2021, 15 March). Graffiti, arson, death threats: new research finds widespread violence against Australian mosques. The Conversation. Graffiti, arson, death threats: new research finds widespread violence against Australian mosques. (Back to text)

7. Carland, S. (2023), '‘We’re Islam in Their Eyes’: Using an Interpellation Framework to Understand Why Being a Woman Matters When Countering Islamophobia'. Religions,14(5), 654, 1. doi:10.3390/rel14050654. (Back to text)

8. O’Donnell, J. (2022). Mapping Social Cohesion 2022. Scanlon Foundation Research Institute. https://scanloninstitute.org.au/sites/default/files/2022-11/MSC%202022_Report.pdf. (Back to text)

9. O’Donnell, J. (2023). Australian Cohesion Index 2023: A Report from the Scanlon Foundation Research Institute. Scanlon Foundation Research Institute. ACI-Report-2023.pdf. (Back to text)

10. Australian Human Rights Commission. (2021). Sharing the Stories of Australian Muslims. ahrc_sharing_stories_australian_muslims_2021.pdf. (Back to text)

11. Carland, S. (2024, June 4). These chilling voicemails prove Islamophobia is thriving in Australia – despite Senator Sarah Henderson’s callous dismissal. The Sydney Morning Herald [subscription only]. These chilling voicemails prove Islamophobia is thriving in Australia – despite Senator Sarah Henderson’s callous dismissal. (Back to text)

12. Australian Human Rights Commission. (2021). Sharing the Stories of Australian Muslims. ahrc_sharing_stories_australian_muslims_2021.pdf. (Back to text)

13. Iner, D., Mason, R., & Smith, C. (2023). Islamophobia in Australia – IV (2014-2021). Charles Sturt University. https://researchoutput.csu.edu.au/ws/portalfiles/portal/313346504/UPDATED_Booklet_Islambophobia_ReportIV_digital_lowres_spread.pdf. (Back to text)

14. Australian National Imams Council. Action Against Islamophobia is proactively bridging gaps in the Muslim community to effectively combat Islamophobia! anic.org.au. Action Against Islamophobia is proactively bridging gaps in the Muslim community to effectively combat Islamophobia! » ANIC. (Back to text)

15. Carland, S. (2024, June 4). These chilling voicemails prove Islamophobia is thriving in Australia – despite Senator Sarah Henderson’s callous dismissal. The Sydney Morning Herald. These chilling voicemails prove Islamophobia is thriving in Australia – despite Senator Sarah Henderson’s callous dismissal. (Back to text)

16. Dunn, K., Atie, R., & Mapedzahama, V. (2016). Ordinary Cosmopolitans: Sydney Muslims’ attitudes to diversity. Australian Geographer, 47(3), 281-294, doi:10.1080/00049182.2016.1191132. (Back to text)

17. United Nations. (2024, March 15). With Islamophobia on Rise, Everyone Must Work Together to End Anti-Muslim Hate, Bigotry Everywhere, Secretary-General Stresses in Observance Message [Press release]. With Islamophobia on Rise, Everyone Must Work Together to End Anti-Muslim Hate, Bigotry Everywhere, Secretary-General Stresses in Observance Message. (Back to text)

18. Batty, D. (2011, January 20). Lady Warsi claims Islamophobia is now socially acceptable in Britain. The Guardian. Lady Warsi claims Islamophobia is now socially acceptable in Britain. (Back to text)

19. Elahi, F., & Khan, O. (2017). Introduction: What is Islamophobia? In F. Elahi & O. Khan (Eds.), Islamophobia: Still a challenge for us all. Runnymede. 61bcd30e26cca7688f7a5808_Islamophobia Report2018 FINAL.pdf. (Back to text)

20. From the Thought of Rabbi Sacks. rabbisacks.com. https://rabbisacks.org/covenant-conversation-family-edition/kedoshim/from-priest-to-people/ (Back to text)

21. Hossein Nasr, S., Dagli, C. K., Dakake, M. M., Lumbard, J. E. B., & Rustom, M. (2015). The Study Qur’an: A New Translation and Commentary. HarperCollins. (Back to text)

22. Awan, I., & Zempi, I. (2017). Impacts of anti-Muslim hate crime. In F. Elahi & O. Khan (Eds.), Islamophobia: Still a challenge for us all. Runnymede. 61bcd30e26cca7688f7a5808_Islamophobia Report2018 FINAL.pdf. (Back to text)

23. Hossein Nasr, S., Dagli, C. K., Dakake, M. M., Lumbard, J. E. B., & Rustom, M. (2015). The Study Qur’an: A New Translation and Commentary. HarperCollins. (Back to text)

24. Murad, A. H. (2020). Travelling Home: Essays on Islam in Europe. The Quilliam Press. (Back to text)