RUTHFULLY YOURS

Sometimes, though, even the most wretched amongst us serve the cause of the common good, and such was the case when this small and loud explosive device detonated in the face of fellow guest Yassmin Abdel-Magied. For once Senator Lambie was being rude to the right person in the right place and for the right reason.

Briefly, Ms Abdel-Magied, who already has her own ABC cable show and was sent off on a recent taxpayer-funded junket to hijabber in some of the world’s worst despotisms about the joy of being Muslim in Australia, spent much of Q&A talking loudly and to little point about any number of topics about which she either knows nothing or chooses not to acquaint herself. From baseload power to the tenets of her religion and, of course, the imminence of catastrophic climate change, Ms Abdel-Magied streamed random cliches and pseudo-factoids rooted only in her imagination. When she suggested sharia law implied nothing more than praying five times a day and, further, that women are happy as Larry under Islam, what little in the way of good manners Senator Lambie had embraced on the night were flung aside. The exchange is segmented and analysed here by video blogger Progressing Backwards, whose clip would have been embedded for display on this page but for the narrator’s vulgarity in punctuating his thoughts with the procreative verb.

As a consequence of the women’s encounter, gripes the Australian Islamic Mission and 49 groups and individual signatories to an online petition, multiculturalism’s gorgeous mosaic is being pulverised, not merely by Senator Lambie but — and this bit is delicious — the ABC as well! According to the petition, compere Tony Jones should have gagged the garrulous Taswegian because, well, Muslims must not face, not ever, pointed questions about their creed and its compatability with hard-won Western norms like, for instance, the equality of women. More than that, the petition’s text all but demands that Islam be treated now and forever with a conspicuous and courteous deference. The petition is reproduced in full below, but this paragraph is especially worthy of note (emphasis added):

If Q&A wants to invite Muslim individuals to its forum, it should be able to guarantee a safe environment for them based on trustworthiness and comfort to speak in a platform that is rarely afforded to them, especially on issues concerning them.

The irony is that the ABC has been doing just that since the Prophet was a lad, leading one to suspect — and please pardon the cynicism –  that Ms Abdel-Magied owed her place on the panel as much to a winning smile and the glib giddiness of her manner than any wisdom she might then or previously have poured into the wells of human insight. Opinions may differ, and the applause of the typically unbalanced Q&A audience for Abdel-Magied’s defence of sharia’s alleged innocence suggests they very much do. But the inanity of her theological pronouncements might well lead others to conclude she is no better than an airhead whose prime credential is, you know, a photogenic otherness. Were she to team up with Waleed Aly and do the Leagues Clubs, they could be the Islamic George Burns & Gracie Allen. She’s the fun face of Islam, the girl with the lampshade on her head, the life of what the ABC in its habitual celebration of tokenism imagines to be the perfect multi-culti party.

Had the excitable senator not been at hand, Ms Abdel-Magied might have burbled her way through 60 minutes of vacuities without encountering a harsh word. Thankfully peace was not to reign and, as a result, viewers were treated to what President Obama might have called “a learning moment” –  the petition of the aggrieved that is reproduced below. While that document expresses the signatories’ predictable outrage that a spokesdill was placed in a position to confirm her   nitwittery, it also serves the more useful purpose of reminding us that Islam deems itself deserving of a respect, nay, a reverence, to which no other faith would ever dream of laying claim.

Below is the petition, which can also be viewed, along with reader comments, at the change.org website. As of Thursday morning, it had garnered some 1900 signatures, not all of them supportive.

Interestingly, another change. org petition also cites the fishwives’ summit on Monday’s Q&A, demanding that Ms Abdel-Magied be fired by the ABC for “blatantly lying to the public about the merits of Sharia Law and the oppressive impact it has on non-Muslim groups, homosexuals and women.”

That petition has so far attracted almost 5,900 signatures.

Don’t expect a petition critical of the ABC’s error-prone Islamic evangelist to receive anywhere near the same sort of attention awarded to its less-subscribed rival. Going by many comments on the pro-sharia thread, to mke mention of problematic matters such as arranged child marriages, genital mutilation, consanguineous marriages, taqiyah, a policemen stabbed, a coffee shop held hostage or an innocent computer worker gunned down on a Parramatta street would be to indulge and endorse racist xenophobia.

The Petition

Dear Q&A and ABC,

We, Muslim community leaders, activists, academics, community members, and, organisations and leaders against fascism and racism would like to submit a formal complaint against last night’s Q&A episode featuring Jacqui Lambie.

We believe this episode was in significant breach of the ABC values of “Respect We treat our audiences and each other with consideration and dignity.”, and “Integrity We act with trustworthiness, honesty and fairness”, that your organisation prides itself on. 

Q&A also was in breach of its own aim to “provides a safe environment where people can respectfully discuss their differences”.

Lambie made a number of comments which are considered, by any measure, racist, Islamophobic and crude, and constitute racial abuse and bullying that would not be allowed at your workplace, the ABC, and would not be allowed at any of our workplaces, educational institutions or public spaces.

To illustrate this with examples, Lambie used undignifying, demeaning slurs that were personal attacks against Abdel-Magied and her integrity as a Muslim woman, such as when she said:

“So you can be a sharia law supporter and be half-pregnant at the same time, C’mon”,

“Stop playing the victim, stop playing the victim, we’ve had enough”,

“Your ban got lifted, get over it”,

“It hasn’t hurt you at all”.

Another example is when asked if her speech is hateful she admitted:

“To a minority, well if that’s a minority, but this is for the majority, this is what the majority want”. Here, there was an opportunity to stand for ABC’s values, yet the moderator, Jones did not interject to uphold the values of respect and fairness and remind her that hateful speech is not allowed on the TV network, or is it? Something we trust ABC to be clear about.

Upon re-watching the episode, we have not found any instance where Abdel-Magied attacked Jackie Lambie as a person, maintaining the values and purpose of the show to debate the ideas and answer the questions around the topic, and yet it would have been justified for her to defend herself and call Lambie outright for the racism she was espousing.

The moderator, Jones, instead, requested Yassmin to stop shouting as it is ‘unhelpful’, (later clarifying that he is asking both to stop) but made no attempt to acknowledge the reasons behind Abdel-Magied’s frustration and legitimate concern at the bigotry she was forced to respond to.

We want to point out the power asymmetry between Yassmin, a 25 year old activist, and Lambie, a senior senator occupying a position of power and authority. It is not Abdel-Magied or any one Muslim’s responsibility to stand up to abuse alone.

If Q&A wants to invite Muslim individuals to its forum, it should be able to guarantee a safe environment for them based on trustworthiness and comfort to speak in a platform that is rarely afforded to them, especially on issues concerning them.

Lambie has the Parliament House, news outlets and press conferences as platforms to express her irresponsible and harmful views, whereas Muslim youth are largely underrepresented and their voice often absent from conversations about Muslims in this country.  

We wish to remind Q&A that Yassmin’s appearance in itself is brave as it puts her in danger of being a target to online fascists who are relentless in attacking public Muslim Australian figures, and particularly Muslim females (who are at the forefront of “debate”).

Whilst you may view last night as an opportunity to boost ratings at the expense of fairness and respect to panelists, and members of minority communities, we view the bullying that occurred on last night’s TV show as a clear example of further deterrence for Muslim youth to engage in public platforms, given that their rights to feel safe, be respected and have a fair chance to express themselves is continually undermined and undefended by the ABC in instances like this.

We demand an apology from Q&A for its poor handling of the debate and for its failure to uphold its values of respect and integrity, as giving unchallenged airtime to racial and ethno-religious abuse fills individuals with hate to commit serious crimes against Muslims.

Islamophobia should not be tolerated, not in any workplace, and not in any forum.

Thank you,

Signed:

Australian Islamic Mission (AIM)

(plus 48 other sharia defenders or their useful idiots)