By IPS Correspondents
DARWIN, Australia, Jun 21 2004 (IPS)

Aminah was coming back from work and had to use the public bus in this northern Australian city. She was wearing the ‘hijab’ or Islamic head covering and a man sitting in the front seat, facing her, seemed agitated.

”He asked me: ‘You’re from Indonesia, you’re a Muslim right? Well you’re a terrorist right?’,” she recalled.

”I then started crying and got off at the next stop,” she told the Human Rights and Equal Opportunities Commission (HREOC).

Aminah’s experiences are similar to two-thirds of Muslim and Arab Australians, interviewed by HREOC, who say they have been experiencing increasing racism or racial vilification since the Sep. 11, 2001 attacks and the Bali blasts on Oct. 10, 2002, which killed at least 190 people – most of them Australians.

The Bali bombings have been blamed on Jemaiah Islamiyah – – a regional network that aims to create a pan-Islamic state in South-east Asia and which several governments have classified as a terrorist organisation.

The HREOC report surveying the experiences of 1,400 Arab and Muslim Australians, released last week, said women are more likely to suffer racism with 90 percent of female respondents experiencing racial abuse of violence.

The report called ”Isma” or ”listen” in Arabic, found that those most at risk are identifiable because of their dress, appearance or name.

Some reported having eggs and stones thrown at them, cars driven toward them, or dogs set on them.

But the biggest impact of prejudice on Arab and Muslim Australians, according to the report, is a substantial increase in fear.

About 80 percent of survey respondents reported that since Sep. 11 and the Bali bombings, they are more worried or afraid of something bad happening to them personally because of their race, culture or religion.

”My experience is if something happens to me on the street, I stay in for a week,” a Muslim woman from a northern Sydney suburb told the human rights commission.

”I used to always go down to the city as a day out with my kids but a year ago I was physically abused and since then ”I no longer step out of the house alone, not a train or the bus to the city or anything,” she added.

Acting Race Discrimination Commissioner William Jones told IPS in a phone interview that Australian Arabs and Muslims are still experiencing prejudice on the street, in the media, at school and in using services.

”We listened to stories of women, mostly Muslim women wearing the hijab, anxious to walk their children to school in fear of being spat on, abused or ridiculed,” he said.

”We listened to the stories of people who felt they had been refused employment because their name was Mohammed,” he added.

Jonas said many are sick of having to justify their religion and upset by a wave of hatred on talkback radio.

But there had also been a number of reported deaths, where Muslims were the victims, which were considered racially and religiously motivated, according to the Islamic Council of Victoria.

”The police have suggested that most of them haven’t been but the impact on the community is they feel that way,” the council’s chairman Yasser Soliman told IPS.

”The perception is that there is that type of backlash, especially after Bali and Sep. 11,” he added.

After the two bloody events, Muslims were afraid to visit shopping centres and use public transport, Soliman said.

”Some parents would not let their children play outside. Even making friends with non-Muslims could be difficult because people were often suspicious,” he pointed out.

In November 2002, New South Wales MP Reverend Fred Nile, from the Christian Democrat Party, sparked uproar after urging the federal government to consider banning the wearing of the ‘chador’ and ‘hijab’ in public places.

The ‘chador’ is a dark traditional garment worn by Muslim women that covers almost all of the head and body.

” It is fact that such a body covering conceals a person’s identity and even whether they are male or female, which is a perfect disguise for terrorists as it conceals both weapons and explosives,” the Christian Democrat MP said to the consternation of community groups.

Matters were made much worse after Prime Minister John Howard launched an advertising campaign days before the Christmas holidays, in 2002, telling people how to spot terrorists.

Howard said Australians had to get used to the fact that there may be terrorists amongst them, although they should not allow it to change the way they went about their lives.

In February 2003, a booklet called ‘Let’s Look out for Australia’ was distributed to all homes by the federal government.

However, many Muslims in the HREOC report said they felt unfairly targeted by this campaign.

Several participants in the report described how their neighbours reported on them following the distribution of the government booklet.

One Muslim woman was reported to her real estate agent for washing her balcony with soapy water.

”My neighbour called the real estate agent and said: ‘She is putting dangerous chemicals on the property’,” she told the human rights commission. ”The agent came over immediately – this was the first time he had ever visited the property.”

But HREOC’s Jones said the report does not seek to lay blame or rake over the events of the past. ”Rather it demonstrates how important it is that we begin discussions with key organisations to develop a more harmonious community,” he told IPS.

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