SYDNEY – An Australian Muslim revert has blasted One Nation leader Hanson, who claimed Muslims are cheating welfare, accusing her of creasing a “culture of fear” inside the Muslim community.
“I think Pauline Hanson right down to her hairstyle is Australia’s Donald Trump,” Sara, a recent female Islam convert and mother from Sydney, angrily rejected on Channel Nine’s A Current Affair program on Wednesday night, The Daily Mail reported on Thursday, September 1.
“Every Muslim friend I have works very hard; they’re from countries like Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, and in those cultures, it’s actually very shameful not to work hard to support your family,” she added.
Sara comments came in reaction to Hanson argument in a debate on Sky News before the start of federal parliament on Tuesday.
“You’ve got people out there from Muslim backgrounds and they’ve got four wives and numerous children,” she said.
“They’re getting into housing commission houses – we’re actually paying for that. That is not right and it shouldn’t be happening in Australia.”
Senator for South Australia Nick Xenophon responded to Hanson’s accusations saying that “polygamy is not legal in this country”.
“No, but it’s happening Nick, it’s happening,” Hanson replied. But Xenophon argued: “You can’t single out one community and one religion and pick on them.”
Barrister Bilal Rauf, an advocate for the Muslim community, rejected the “unfounded” comments, challenging her to prove her claims.
He ‘would be very surprised if she had any information or statistics’ to back up her claims, while Mitchell believed that some Muslims, some Christians are, some Hindus and some Jews cheat the system, but ‘we have to treat them all the same way,” Rauf said.
Culture of Fear
The Muslim revert, Sara, described fear she has been facing recently as a result of anti-Muslim rhetoric by the One Nation leader.
“She has created, in the society I grew up in, a culture of fear, where it’s not safe for me to walk down the street with my child in suburbs that are predominantly white and not multicultural,” Sara said.
“I have to take off my hijab when I take my daughter to some areas of Sydney and neighboring towns – that’s not a position any woman should ever be placed in.”
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.
A 2007 poll taken by the Issues Deliberation Australia (IDA) think-tank found that Australians basically see Islam as a threat to the Australian way of life.
A recent governmental report revealed that Muslims are facing deep-seated Islamophobia and race-based treatment like never before.