Trapping Australian Arabs in a cartoon

There is some evidence that a direct hostility to Islam is part of the ideology of the secular Australia. This has a little bearing on the prejudices that have survived from European history. They reveal a destiny to which ordinary Muslims are chained - one that fixes them, and students at school, to a series of set reactions.

Several books in Australian school libraries were found to show that the ordinary Muslim does not escape the “fanatical” image of Ayatolla Khomeini. One of these is The Book of the Year (Allen & Unwin, 1981). The book depicts dozens of cartoons. They show various caricatures depicting greedy exploiters, terrorists and arrogant nationalists - all subject to the irrationalities of religious belief. The book has never been banned from school libraries.

If the media can start to report the pain felt by ordinary Christian and Muslim Middle Easterners at these stereotypes there is hope that these types of cartoons will eventually disappear.

Conscious or unconscious racism should not be a component of our politics, nor should it be disguised as freedom of speech.

And while any cartoonist, Australian or others, must perforce deal in stereotypes, there are some which are outdated, insensitive and threaten community harmony.

It is reasonable to suggest an end to satirists’ pens drawing these outdated and unacceptable images, and to withdraw offending books from Australian schools.

Trapping the cartoonist's prejudices is always a better option.