Senator Andrew Bartlett
Tuesday, October 11, 2005
 
Why Aussie Muslims are anxious (and why the rest of us should be too)
A range of laws were passed a couple of years ago giving extra powers to ASIO. A little while after that, I starting getting representations from a range of Muslim groups and individuals expressing concern that they were being targeted by these laws, and it was causing a rising degree of unease amongst many people in Muslim communities in Australia. I made mention of it as part of a speech I gave to the Senate last year.

Not surprisingly, the latest plans for even stronger laws are causing greater concern. Naturally, the Government says that the laws don’t mention Muslims and will be applied without discrimination. However, as the Immigration Department in Australia has graphically displayed over the last few years, how you administer laws and the political context in which government officers implement them makes a huge impact.

If you want to know why Muslims are fearful of how they might be targeted in Australia, read this compelling piece taken from the Times (on Barista's site). . It is the story of James Yee. He is a third generation American from New Jersey, an army captain graduate of West Point, the elite US military academy, who was posted to Guantanamo Bay. He is also a Muslim. He ended up in shackles, branded a spy.

As well as showing what can happen when rampant suspicion and overblown fear becomes official Government policy, it also gives an insight into what conditions are really like at Guantanamo Bay. Of course, any number of studies of history and human nature tell us that it is inevitable that people there would be treated like this. It is what inevitably happens in any other environment where government officers gain absolute and unaccountable power over other people, and it is what will happen to Australians if further, unaccountable powers are given to Government officials and Ministers.

The plan to bring in draconian new laws under the guise of fighting terrorism has the support of the political leader of every state and territory in Australia, all of whom are from the Labor Party, as well as the federal government headed by the ‘Liberal’ Party, so it is going to be very difficult to stop them. But I feel I have to try, regardless of how slim the chances. You don’t defend democracy by sacrificing it. Trying to strengthen democracy is the key reason above all else why I’m in the job I’m in (and why I’ve stayed in the Democrat party for that matter).

UPDATE: Alistair Nicholson QC explores some of these issues in an article in The Age. "Let there be no mistake: the Islamic community do feel targeted by this legislation and do so with justification."

PS: And as a reminder of where authoritarianism can lead to, read this story from The Guardian (also found at Barista) about a democracy activist in China, beaten to death in the middle of the street.

posted by Andrew Bartlett @ Tuesday, October 11, 2005 Permalink
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