Such an absurd statement was dutifully countered by the free thinking panel but Chikarovski’s offering shone a slightly different light on the populous phenomenon of right wing hate groups marginalising Moslems.
To paraphrase, she essentially said that if intelligent, fair-minded individuals constantly deny air time to groups like Reclaim Australia and One Nation, then we in effect, are marginalising them, which is the very thing we accuse them of doing to minority ethnic groups in Australia. We should listen to them and engage them in the conversation, no matter how absurd their claims may be. A percentage of the population do react to their own fears without the capacity to delve beyond a knee jerk response.
The audience member went on to claim that radicalised Moslems read the Quran, which is why they do what they do. Moderate Moslems don’t read the Quran so much.
Panel member Lydia Khalil, a Defence and Counter Terrorism expert, responded by saying that in her 15 years of analysing the causes of terrorism, that it’s not really about religion.
“There are very specific and idiosyncratic reasons why individuals commit acts of violence which have nothing to do with religion. They’re marginalised. They’re on the fringes of society,” she said.
She added that most ‘Islamic’ radicals like ISIS, don’t read the Quran. They pick up on certain statements or ideas offered by ‘Recruiters’ and then marry them with their own need to lash out at the world. To confuse these individuals with practicing Moslems is a convenient over-simplification and utterly baseless.
I have to confess to feeling embarrassed for the One Nation supporter as she proudly voiced her total ignorance of
Islam. It also struck me that she was approaching a complex issue with a narrow mind. She has synthesized her fear into a broad target and was prepared to demonise an entire religion. Now isn’t that pretty much what the Islamic extremists do too. So our One Nation supporter actual has similar personality traits to the radicalised youths who are drawn toward a simple solution to their own fears.
Interesting how conflict occurs more readily when the protagonists have enough in common.
With that in mind, I would be far more concerned about people who share the views of a One nation supporter than I ever would be about our peaceful Moslem community.