Ideas@TheCentre
After the riot: A civil discussion of multiculturalism
In the wake of the violent demonstration by Muslim protestors in the Sydney CBD a few Saturdays back, many Australians have been asking what the ‘riot’ means for Australia’s status as a peaceful and harmonious multicultural society.
To answer this question, The Centre for Independent Studies decided to convene a forum to discuss the issues. The forum, held last week at our St Leonards office, featured three short speeches by my colleagues, Peter Kurti and Benjamin Herscovitch, and me. This was followed by a Q&A session.
At short notice, approximately 50 member of public attended and my impression was that many in the audience were relieved that contentious but important issues were finally being discussed.
The riot was a shocking but perhaps not that surprising an event. For a number of years, there has been growing community concern about the integration of some Muslim citizens into the Australian community. Most concern has centred on the ethnic enclaves of southwest Sydney, around the suburbs of Lakemba and Bankstown, which have a high proportion of Muslim residents, many with a Lebanese background.
Among thinking Australians, these concerns are not a manifestation of inherent prejudice but prompted by legitimate queries. Australian society has had a long track record of successfully integrating migrants from diverse backgrounds. But, as the religiously motivated protests by slogan-chanting, free speech-denying Islamists showed, something appears to have gone wrong with a subset of a subset of newcomers.
Nevertheless, discussion of the pros and cons of multiculturalism, along with immigration, is often discouraged by some ‘politically correct’ sections of the media and politicians afraid that it will get out of hand and stir up ‘racism’.
The quality and value of the questions asked and comments made by the audience at the forum proved is possible to have an intelligent and respectful conversation about multiculturalism. Video of the forum will soon be available on the CIS website and is well worth viewing, especially the Q&A session.
Dr Jeremy Sammut is a Research Fellow at The Centre for Independent Studies. The speeches will be published as an Issue Analysis paper on 11 October.
