Gill Hicks from Adelaide, Australia had both her legs blown off in the London underground bombings of July, 2005.
Last weekend she attended a meeting of 340 non-Muslim and 40 Muslim Australians at the Old Parliament House, Canberra. Chosen from a representative sample of 1,400 Australians, they all came together to discuss the place of Muslims in Australian society.
Good will abounded, with doses of realism as well and we made progress. There was less fear and less ignorance after the two days. It is nearly always useful to meet and talk. Hicks emphasized that dialogue is important, but that is not to be confused with a "group hug." We all have to work at the grass roots level to stop radicalized 19-year-olds blowing up themselves and others, she said. "It's about ending cycles of violence. Somebody has to say ‘I'm not going to retaliate for this.'" A practicing Christian she is now a peace ambassador working with Muslim communities.
I shared a platform with Sheik Mohammed Omran of Melbourne, who has a fierce reputation and has uttered some strange thoughts, e.g. praising Osama bin Laden, but speaking good English he affirmed that he and his children were Aussies and he repeated his condemnation of violence.
We continued the dialogue in the kitchen after the public session, where he brewed us a cup of sage tea. I charitably declared it wasn't too bad, although I declined to use the Sheik's sweetener because it was Lent.
The Muslims won't help their cause if they always claim they are victims, often refuse to answer criticisms, justified or unjustified and ignore or ridicule the fears, real or exaggerated, of the majority of Australians.
But Sheik Omran was right when he pointed out that we constitute 98.5% of the population, while Muslims are only 1.5%, 300,000 in all, mainly in Sydney and Melbourne. As the majority, we too have work to do.
The best way to prevent even a tiny minority of young Aussie Muslims becoming radicalized and violent, alienated from our way of life, is to treat the Muslim community justly and well, encouraging the education of their children to break down disadvantage, and rejecting job discrimination so they can find work. They are victims of low level hostility and discrimination, sometimes as a result of old fashioned racism, sometimes because of the fear and anxiety produced by September 11 and the bombings in Bali and London.
It is unjust to tar all Australian Muslims with the broad brush of violent extremists because of the antics of a minority. Their overwhelming majority are peace-loving citizens.
Waleed Aly pointed out that it was information from Muslims that uncovered terrorist suspects in Australia.
The best protection in the long run for Australians will be achieved when every community, local, ethnic and religious, refuses to tolerate political violence.
The Canberra meeting contributed to that important goal.
