The situation in Australia however, is far from hopeless. Positive integration is possible, but it takes political will by our federal and state governments. No longer can we afford to take the politically expedient avenue of putting the sole onus on Muslims to integrate through promoting vague discussions on values and head coverings. A more urgent focus should be on developing policies which address economic barriers to integration and facilitate upwards mobility of Australian Muslims within the broader Australian society.
If we are serious about this we would first of all increase education and employment programs. Clearly education programs are a priority, nurturing not only hard skills, but also soft skills that are essential to communicating and networking. These programs should focus on areas of geographic disadvantage, and specifically address under-serviced areas such as Muslim women and youth. Such programs will tackle some of the disproportionate unemployment problems suffered by the Muslim community.
One thing is to have the skills, another is to use them. Having skills does not ensure employment. One barrier is religious discrimination. Hence strong laws against religious discrimination will help Australian Muslims get jobs, keep jobs and gain promotion.
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The UK, United States, Canada, South Africa and New Zealand all have legislation which prohibits discrimination on the basis of religion, whereas here in Australia, it is not unlawful under federal law to discriminate against someone, or vilify them, on the basis of their religion. However, under state law, Victoria does have such a protection. Several studies have shown that it has worked in those countries and Australia should follow suit.
There is no doubt that the stereotyping of all Australian Muslims in the media and public domain as fanatics and terrorists because of the misguided actions of a few can lead to unnecessary prejudices and misconceptions. But ultimately, these underlying prejudices between Muslim and non-Muslim Australians must be tackled through community projects. Ones that work at a grassroots level with schools, service providers and welfare organisations are likely to be most effective, and extra funding for such programs would be a wise social investment.
Once meaningful policies are implemented, we can let the migration process run its course, and we will see Australian Muslims, like the Irish, German, Italian, Greek, Vietnamese and Chinese before them, become another colourful tile in the modern Australian mosaic.
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