I am not frightened of the muslin man, yet I am terrified of the man that is. I do not worry about the women in scarves yet I worry for them. I have never believed that a terrorist comes with the Koran in hand, nor do I believe that hate is only ever taught in this religion. I do however, have an issue with extremism, fundamentalism and injustice of any kind. I do not see these things on the streets of my town, I didn’t until now. The recent attacks on the local Muslin communities in my country has sickened me to the core. It seems that the horrific extremist behaviour half a world away has unleashed a very ugly, primitive side to some Australians. Is this ignorance dressed in the fabric of fear? I am alarmed that some have reacted so quickly to the raised terror alert almost like they have been lying in waiting for any excuse to fly their colours of revulsion. I am ashamed of your ignorance, I am embarrassed by your simplistic approach to this very complex crisis. When I am in a crowded space it is not the foreigner that I watch like a hawk, it is you. I am afraid of the rising tension on the street, the tension that you have created. A drunken bogan of the Brisbane kind who lives 5 minutes away from me decided that it was a good idea to booze up and graffiti the local Muslin community hall. Drunk and stupid, the worst kind of combination, he put his Jim Bean and cola can down along with his flannel shirt and covered the unmarked hall with vile statements of hate. When caught within hours he declared that he was just drunk and caught up in the hype of the moment. It is these moments that scare me the most as nothing is more terrifying than ill-informed ignorance. These so called terrifying Muslins forgave the men in a second flat and invited him over for tea. Terrifying aren’t they. It breaks my heart that these sentiments lie so closely to the surface of my countrymen. I was hoping for more understanding, for less intolerance. I was hoping for more positive actions and less over reaction from you and the media. I work with Muslins and strangely enough they are exactly like you. They laugh, joke, tell stories, share food and work just as hard as you. They love their families and boast about their children just like you do. The other things which is exactly the same is they fear ISIS and consider them the enemy just like you do. Funny that. Funny how some of you in your knee jerk reactions have made your ally your enemy. No wonder why wars last so many years when we have all forgotten who and what we are actually fighting for. I want to fight for harmony, for safe streets, for equal opportunity, for true multiculturalism, and for understanding. I want to fight for every person’s right to contribute to their community in a positive way. Your only enemy is your own ignorance – now that is something worth fighting against.
