OPINION: While Muslims try to win hearts and minds, Islamophobia and the demonisation of Muslims continues from the highest political and media platforms.
A century-old mosque in a Western country will sound like a building out of place and time for many people in Australia. Such ignorance is widespread even though Muslim contact with indigenous Australians, the Aboriginals, predates European settlement.
The terrorist attack of September 11 2001, changed a lot of that, both for good and for bad. Suddenly there was a widespread interest in everything Islam. The bad part of it was that it was driven by fear which was constantly drummed into the heads of an average Westerner in the name of the ‘War on Terror’, sold as a ‘clash of civilisations’ by an unholy alliance of the right-wing media, politicians and extreme right-wing groups.
It was hard to figure out where to start and what could we do with our limited resources. While I was solving this dilemma one evening outside Holland Park Mosque, I saw a middle-aged non-Muslim neighbour walking past the mosque. I was shocked but quickly realised he has confused the mosque with a crematorium which is right behind the mosque and is not part of the mosque structure. I clarified the difference between a crematorium and a mosque to him and invited him inside the mosque. He didn’t come in that day but promised he would come over sometime.
That single day gave me the confidence to believe that the best way to conquer manufactured fear is by communicating with love and peace. That message needs amplification and that is why when we were approached by the production team ofWhile we try to win hearts and minds, Islamophobia and the demonisation of Muslims continues from the highest political and media platforms. Most Muslims have personally faced anti-Muslim discrimination or know of someone who has.
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