Rachel McIntosh year 10

12 September y

English Creative Speech

hello everyone, we are gathered here today to talk about something
of which is very topical at the moment, and that is ignorance towards
muslims also known as Islamophobia.

(The dislike of or prejudice

against Islam or Muslims, especially as a political force.)

The tragic events of France last week, which Im sure most are aware of
but in case you're not, Friday the 13th of November marks the date when
ISIS related suspects, ambushed 6 busy locations within Paris. 4 of these
locations being busy restaurants/bars/cafes where shootings or open car
fires took place, whilst the two most significant and busy places on that
night, included the Bataclan, where a concert was taking place and people
were taken hostage. Another being Stade De France, of which 3 suicide
bombings were set off outside of the stadium. The events on that night
resulted in 129 killed and hundreds of people left injured or in mourning of
their lost ones.
Many people took to social media to raise awareness for the events that
day in Paris which resulted in creating a online community of support for
the Nation which has suffered such a tragic attack. I myself, and many
others, hearts ached for those in Paris and were devastated by the cruel
acts of injustice, and as I watched, this online, supportive community
grow, I also began to notice the increased hatred resurfacing for Islam and
its innocent followers.
Ignorance towards muslims has been previously influenced by the 9/11
attack and due to the current publicisation in the media of ISIL (The
Islamic state of Iraq and the Levant, of which we commonly know as ISIS
(islamic state in syria), which is an EXTREMIST militant group that makes

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up for just 1% of the 1.57 billion muslims in the world.

Due to Islamic State attacks increasing and becoming more publicised by
the media, emotions such as anger and fear begin to cloud the judgement
of those in the western society. Many people who have been hurt by these
attacks are looking for someone to blame. With internal motives such as
revenge and justice, not only have many Australians began rejecting
their own muslims, but also many American, French, German, British, and
Russian citizens have too.
However, I would like to focus on the hate which is generating within
Australia, since it is something that effects ALL of us and, and is
something we are ALL involved in.
From the 1980s to the 2000s, Australia slowly turned from an anti asian
society to anti arab and muslim society.
In the early 2000s, the arrival of more muslim refugees increased, which
allowed the muslim community to expand to a size which made it
noticeable within local towns and cities. The introduction of these new
communities so fast and sudden, led to the misunderstanding of the
Islamic religion. Australian citizens were quick to stereotype muslim
women as oppressed and men who carry dark features such as tanned
skin, and beards soon became the stereo type of your modern day
terrorist in Australia.
And now, with the rise of militant Islam and their attacks, Islamophobia
globally, and in Australia has increased. This has began to undo the
positive relations Muslims and Christian Australians once had. This
relationship took YEARS to build, but has only taken weeks to destroy.
This brings me to the question as to why are we influenced by hate so
easily?
Is it a lack of understanding?
A lack of knowledge in the situation?
Or simply just a human flaw?

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Now how many of you can label Afghanistan on a map?

Or How many of you were aware that Pakistanis and Iranians are not
arabs?
Once questioning myself this, I realised, and maybe you have too, partly
our education system is to be at fault.
Due to our own lack of knowledge of the historical, and current events of
middle-eastern countries, we are quickly influenced by sources such as
social media, the news and our own political leaders, as they seem to be
the only accurate and factual source of information. However many of
these accurate and factual sources of information are often delivering
speeches and articles that are driven by fear, anger, or personal motives
such as popularity and wealth which is seen in politics.
Take one of Australias ex members of Parliament Pauline Hanson as
example. Pauline Hanson is currently a Political leader of her own
campaign called the One Nation party. The One Nation party is a
populist, conservative, and follows an anti multiculturalism platform,
more commonly known to you and me such as an completely racist
platform.
Pauline Hansons party One Nation I find, to be extremely ironic as
Australia already is one nation.
Every muslim, asian, european, African etc and every, Catholic, Buddhist,
Muslim, Jew etc living in this country with a citizenship is also AUSTRALIAN
and makes up this AUSTRALIAN nation.
This campaign is completely backwards, and it is already beginning to
undo many years bonding between Australians and people of other
nationalities and ethnicities.
The One Nation campaign already has just under 20,000 likes on Facebook
and is promoted by many other anti-Islam pages. The average supporter
of Paulines campaign is of 55 years of age and many have obtained either
little education, or a 40 year outdated one.

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These minds are easily influenced into anti muslim Australia due to their
lack of understanding and knowledge of the current attacks.
These minds are easily influenced into anti muslim Australia due to their
traditionalist views.
These minds are easily influenced into anti muslim Australia due to their
lack of education.
These minds are clouded by fear.
These minds are clouded by stereotypes.
These minds are clouded by misjudgement.
My message to you, is do NOT allow your mind to be clouded by fear.
Do NOT allow yourself to promote or encourage these stereotypes.
As the younger generation, I believe it is our duty to come together and
demand more education of the Middle East to allow ourselves not be so
easily influenced by racism.
As educated people, I believe it is our duty to abandon stereotypes which
cloud our judgement.
As educated people, it is our duty to not allow emotions such as fear and
anger interfere with our understanding and knowledge.
But as humans, I believe it is our duty not to blame a majority for the
mistakes and acts of terror created by an extremist minority.
Thank you.

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