SYDNEY – As a new poll revealed unexpected fear among Australians towards Muslims, a Muslim leader said on Tuesday that only talks and interaction would end the unjustified concerns.

“Everyone had a right to be concerned about things that they don’t know about,” Maha Abdo, executive officer of the United Muslim Women Association, told SBS.

“I can’t take away the fear of other people, but all I can do is, wherever I can, provide a balanced perspective of Australian Muslims.”

Abdo was referring to the new poll based on Australian Survey of Social Attitudes data which revealed that 60 per cent of Australians would be apprehensive if their relatives married Muslim people.

Surveying 304 randomly selected Australians, the poll asked respondents to answer on a five-point scale their perspective on a relative marrying a Christian (8.1 per cent), Buddhist (29.4 per cent) or Jewish (33 per cent).

The poll also invited respondents to provide their opinion on statements such as “practicing Muslims should be searched more thoroughly than others in airports and stations” (36.5 per cent agreed) and “practicing Muslims pose a threat to Australian society” (40.4 per cent).

In order to end this fear, Abdo urged Australians to get to know Muslims in their communities.

“I’m sure everyone has a neighbor, there are colleagues at work, friends at university – start talking to one another and using those bricks that have been thrown around to build bridges, rather than walls.”

Then people will discover “we’re all so similar”.

“We all have the same needs, the same aspirations for our children, the same hopes and dreams.”

Unrepresentative

The suggestion was supported by Dr Matteo Vergani, coauthor of a Deakin University paper that analyzed the data from the 2016 Australian Survey of Social Attitudes.

“Knowledge of Muslim people, like having Muslim friends and coworkers, is associated with less fear of terrorism,” he told SBS.

Likewise, knowledge of Islam, tested by questions such as: ‘Is Jesus a prophet in Islam?’, is associated with more tolerance.

“The more people knew the answers, the less prejudice [they displayed] against Islam and the less fear of terrorism.”

Dr Vergani also questioned the poll as offering a true representation of the Australian community.

“I would not say it’s representative, it’s a national snapshot,” he said.

Professor Andrew Markus from Monash University agreed, adding that polls that required respondents to answer either “yes” or “no” could result in gross oversimplification.

“The problem with a ‘yes/no’ survey question is that public opinion cannot be placed in two categories,” Professor Markus said.

Muslims, who have been in Australia for more than 200 years, make up 1.7 percent of its 20-million population.

Islam is the country’s second largest religion after Christianity.

In post 9/11 Australia, Muslims have been haunted with suspicion and have had their patriotism questioned.