Anglo-Christian tribalism

As American historian Joan Wallach Scott highlights:

A worldview organised in terms of good versus evil, civilized versus backward, morally upright versus ideologically compromised, us versus them, is one we inhabit at our risk. It leaves no room for self-criticism, no way to think about change, no way to open ourselves to others. By refusing to accept and respect the difference of these others we turn them into enemies, producing that which we most fear about them in the first place (The Politics of the Veil, 2007, Princeton University Press).

Scott also suggests that instead of assimilation and rejecting difference:

… we need to think about the negotiation of difference: how can individuals and groups with different interests live together? Is it possible to think about difference non-hierarchically? On what common ground can differences be negotiated? Perhaps it is the common ground of shared difference, as French philosopher Jean-Luc Nancy has suggested.

Muslim-Australians who appeal against council decisions rather than passively accepting the refusal, and the legal system that sooner or later allows them to build mosques and Islamic schools, manifests that multiculturalism in fact works well in Australia. And it would be a progressive step if mosques, churches and other temples can stand side by side without anybody feeling threatened.

Maybe it’s time for all Australians to come to terms with multiculturalism, and to accept Muslim-Australians, who have been in Australia for many generations,  and also other minorities, as real Aussies and give them “a fair go”.