An interview by Age writer Barney Swartz (with Geoff Strong - 26/7 p6) with Muslim group Hizb ut- Tahrir's Australian leader, Wassim Doureihi, highlights some of the challenges we face from our admission of other cultures into our country. Somewhat naively we have assumed that immigrants would, in a generation or so, all assimilate into our society with minor and acceptable change. We believed our society was strong and our values resilient enough to handle the influx. Well that's pretty much the way it used to be. But now, think again Australia!
In an article the following day (27/7), Professor Dennis Altman of La Trobe University argues that our children should all be educated at primary level in state schools, to get used to, and to understand, other cultures. He points out that the growth of private and home education will only increase the tendency for ghetto development. Noting that ethnic differences have not been a big problem in the past, he draws attention to the more serious conflicts now being nurtured by religion. He notes that while post WWII migration has largely followed our materialistic drift from religious observance, there is a new tension in the arrival of immigrants perhaps more dedicated to their religion of Islam, although this tension arises more from the fundamentalist attitudes of some Muslim leaders, who are now openly denigrating our culture of democracy.
How far and to what degree more extreme attitudes are endorsed by most Muslims is a matter for conjecture, but the main problem is that with the authoritarian nature of Islam, that cannot be assessed with any accuracy. However we are told that fundamental Islam is 'implacably opposed to Western values and the presence of Westerners in Islamic states'.
We realise that the Muslim world is far from happy about its experience of the 'Christian' West in the Crusades, Palestine, Kosovo, and now Afghanistan and Iraq. Mr. Doureihi sees the involvement of the West as a 'campaign against Islam which is political, economic, ideological and military' which justifies Islamic violence in defence of invaded territories. We should not underestimate the determination of the more militant in Islam, who are bent on the re-establishment of the Caliphate - a fully Islamic state from Indonesia to Spain. This is really the resurgence of an old war, which will cost all the wisdom and strength the West can muster to resolve in a just and peaceful way. All else is failure and that we or the world cannot afford.
Islam has no agreement with democracy. Although its benefits suit them as a moderate minority, it would have no future in a fully Islamic state. He observes that 'with matters dealt with in halves, you inevitably arrive at a foul concoction', meaning Islam under the rule of governments under western control or influence. With 'a foul concoction' he could have been describing our pseudo democracy. It is neither fish nor fowl - an elected dictatorship.
It is now suggested that radical leaders should be deported, but this may merely aggravate without solving anything. Mr Doureihi wants to win hearts and minds to Islam(ic government). Our objection is that church and state must be separate, with all, including religious people, ruled by democratic government. We too have the challenge of winning hearts and minds - to democracy. We have a big job to do and we should be thankful perhaps for the challenge. We have been too slack about it for a long time now. We have a battle on our hands. Will we win the hearts and minds to democracy, or simply dig ourselves in further by dependence on military strategies, and ignoring the root problems? Democratic government must be fair within and between nations. If democracy is not filling the bill, and earning the respect of Muslim dissidents especially among the young, we are 'sowing the wind' and the 'whirlwind' will be our own fault.
Real democracy has yet to be realised. The Secret Ballot Party calls for the dedication of the Australian people to the challenge ahead - a true multiculture, with religions contributing their special gifts to the wellbeing of our people as we live under just and stable democratic government.
Wake up Australia.
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