Culture

An Aussie Muslim Chaplain Patiently Answered Some Very Weird Questions On ‘Q&A’ Last Night

At some points during last night's Q&A , it felt like Australia was perilously close to growing up.

by Alex McKinnon  13 October 2015

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Even before it began, last night’s Q&A tentatively promised something of a respite from the smorgasbord of loud old conservative white dudes with bad opinions it usually serves up. Instead, this week’s episode offered a more diverse, reasoned range of panelists like Labor Senator Lisa Singh, who is the only person of South Asian heritage in federal Parliament, and Australia’s first Indigenous frontbencher Ken Wyatt.

Besides some fiery exchanges on the issue of indefinite offshore detention, with the panel’s three politicians trading accusations over culpability for the death and suffering of asylum seekers, it was an unusually collegiate and respectful episode. Given much of the show’s time was taken up with questions around the aftermath of the Parramatta Police Station shooting, that was pretty surprising.

Panelists found plenty of common ground on multiculturalism, the importance of calming rhetoric from political leaders and the need to engage with young people who might be susceptible to extremist messages. They even got a daggy group photo at the end.

Given some of the questions the audience came up with, calm, reasoned debate was sorely needed. Sheikh Wesam Charkawi, a high school chaplain who may or may not be the most patient man on Australia’s eastern seaboard, fielded a bunch of questions from members of the audience who clearly weren’t quite sure how to deal with a Muslim person sitting in front of them. 

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On Islam And Radicalisation

Charkawi was warm, friendly and forbearing throughout, thanking people for questions that ranged from the bizarre to the offensive. When the night’s first questioner asked if there was “something about the Islamic religion or people that makes them susceptible to radicalisation,” Charkawi tried to explain why he thinks some Muslim young people in Australia are feeling shut out from their own society.

“I’m seeing a lot of identity issues with the young men and women,” Charkkawi said. “I keep hearing from many on the streets and the schools that I visit say: ‘They tell us that we don’t belong. They say we’re not part of the Australian community. That we’re terrorists, that we’re extremists, that our religion is one of destruction’.

“You’ve got to remember that these people were born into the age of terror, and they’re being told that they don’t belong. That leads to marginalisation and isolation, and if you add that to the mix of the propaganda being put forward by groups like ISIS, that’s a very dangerous mix. It requires a whole-of-society effort. We can’t just do what we’ve done in the past.”

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On Speaking English And “Assimilation”

Another questioner asked how Muslims can be expected to “assimilate properly,” arguing that “a Muslim leader in Parramatta [who] has been here for 18 years and does not speak English…just seems wrong.” The Muslim leader he was referring to, Dr Ibrahim Abu Mohammed, is an Egyptian-born cleric who moved to Australia in 1997 and was elected Grand Mufti of Australia in 2011. Dr Mohammed made headlines in the aftermath of the Parramatta shooting after calling on extremists to “stop messing with Australia” at a cross-faith press conference, but was criticised for speaking in Arabic through a translator.

The Mufti’s office later clarified that Dr Mohammed “speaks fluent conversational English,” but chose to speak in Arabic at the press conference because “it’s harder to express himself properly and quickly” when discussing “intense” matters, and he didn’t want to be “misinterpreted”.

None of which stopped outlets like the Daily Mail from going with screamy headlines like this one:

dailymail

Jernalism!

While the questioner was probably unaware of the significance of his language, “assimilation” also has a pretty fraught meaning. Before adopting a policy of multiculturalism and integration, Australia’s assimilationist immigration policy encouraged migrants from non-Anglo backgrounds to abandon their cultural, religious and linguistic upbringing in favour of white Australian mannerisms. (Spoilers: it did not work.)

In response, Sheikh Charkawi highlighted the substance of the Mufti’s message rather than the language in which he expressed it, and the impact the Mufti has had in his own life. In a perfect world he might’ve also pointed out that English is one of the world’s hardest languages to learn, that several hundred languages were spoken here before Europeans arrived, or that Australia is full of Nonnas and Yiayias whose grasp of English may be tenuous, but whose knitting and baked goods hold this great nation together more effectively than the bloody Border Force ever could. But you can’t get everything you want.

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On Whether Muslims And Christians Can Get Married — Wait, What?

Yet another audience member, who seemingly pays a little too much attention to Murdoch tabloid front pages than is medically advisable, asked Charkawi if he thinks “Christians and Muslims can live together,” before grilling him on whether he “would allow [his] child to marry a Christian in a dual-denomination wedding”. 

It was an extremely strange moment in a night full of them.

But it wasn’t all weird nonsense from the audience, which had some genuine contributions to make.

In a fascinating segment, another audience member explained the complex mix of alienation, confusion and vulnerability that led him to join a violent neo-Nazi group in his youth, offering some insights into the minds of the young, isolated men who get sucked into extremist movements.

If there’s one episode this year that’s really worth your time it was this one. An issue that too frequently descends into hysteria and fearmongering was explored with all the complexity, rationality and mutual goodwill it deserves. For a little while there, it felt like we’d begun to grow up.