I was never a good cricketer, as much as I wished I would be.
The day I made the second grade side in Year 11 was an exciting moment for me. A chance for me to play a quintessential Australian sport I loved with a group of my new teammates – who were once just classmates – got me so anxious and nervous I didn’t sleep a wink before our first match.
I went to a high school in Auburn, a suburb locals dubbed ‘the heart of western Sydney’. I was born in Auburn, a first generation Australian with a Syrian background.
Heading back home on the school bus from that inaugural game (we got pummelled), I turned to one of my new batting partners to discuss our respective performances. My eight off 30-odd balls may not have set the crowd alight, but it had me beaming with positivity.
Speaking to my mate of Lebanese descent, I couldn’t help but slip in and out of my second language, Arabic, which is how I would communicate at home.
As soon as the first foreign syllable rolled off my tongue, one of the other players immediately jumped up in his seat, turned to me, and declared: “speak Australian or f*** off out of my country.”
And so I slumped back into my seat, hunched over and muted. I didn’t speak another word – of any language - for the remainder of the journey.
I was 16. I’ve grown thicker skin since then.
I’m an Australian who is proud of his background and Islamic origins. This mix is not inconsistent. Not only can you have one with the other, the combination can in fact add perspective and understanding to your day-to-day life.
My blood bleeds green and gold. I shadow box every time Timmy Cahill scores for the Socceroos and bolts to the corner flag. Yet I am meant to question whether I deserve to be here or not? I think not.
For someone who grew up singing ‘Advance Australia Fair’ loud, proud, and with a weaker vocal range than some of my classmates, I’m seeing an unsettling rise in negativity towards multicultural Australians by a vocal minority. And I’m smack bang in the middle of it.
When US Presidential hopeful Donald Trump declares there should be a “ban on all Muslims”, you get upset for a moment, take a deep breath and remind yourself ‘he surely won’t win’. The strong support shown by some of his adversaries and constituents, also difficult to swallow.
But when a former Australian Prime Minister calls for a “religious revolution” inside Islam, I cannot help but feel like I’m 16 all over again.
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Islam needs reform, Abbott says
Tony Abbott, when he was at the helm as PM, regularly talked about ‘Team Australia’ and how it was crucial to stamping out extremism and the rising threat of home-grown terror.
I agreed with Mr Abbott. Team Australia is vital. But, I didn’t agree that he truly understood what ‘Team Australia’ was. In light of his recent comments, it seems he still doesn’t.
I’m more Team Australia than Tony Abbott, because I understand the dynamics of our complex national identity. It’s an identity comprised of multiple creeds, ethnicities and religions – including Islam.
I have just visited an Islamic school in Liverpool, Sydney’s south-west. Not only were the teachers denouncing the and , but advocating a combined Australian/Muslim identity. As the principal put it: “we work for a big cause; to make sure that we are living in harmony with everybody. We are all Australians." These students, these teachers, are all a part of Team Australia.
Work absolutely needs to be done on both sides. More leaders within the Islamic communities need to step up. Most of those voices also need to be younger, to truly get a widespread message across. But pushing for greater fractions helps nobody except those who want to see our beautiful country destroyed. Ten years on from the Cronulla Riots we need not move backwards, but continuously forward.
This year has been a turbulent one for racial relations on our fair but divided land. Ever since the one year ago, terror has never swept so close to our sandy shores. We all know this, it is essentially drilled into us everywhere we go every day of the week. But the fear of terrorism has not brought us together - it has split us down the middle.
Far-right groups such as the so-called ‘Freedom Party’ would have you believe blocking hard working Australians like my mum into this country 30 years ago could “put a stop to the spread of Sharia Law” (a concept most moderate Muslims don’t believe in any way). Rather than initially attack this argument when I first came across it, I instead researched the Freedom Party – I read old articles, interviews, viewed videos and the party’s Facebook page. What I uncovered intrigued me.
Watching a video of a man draped in an Australian flag - a flag I love so much – telling his loyal legion of supporters that people like me “don’t belong here”, was a chilling parallel to many propaganda videos by none other than IS. Flags used as tools to brainwash, the ‘us and them’ mentality, it was all there. These two extremist groups are more alike than they’d ever want you to realise.
In multiple rallies fronted by the Freedom Party it has scoffed at claims its views are racist, repeatedly stating “Islam is not a race”. This is what you would call a bigotry loophole.
Judging someone, anyone, based on their appearance or beliefs, goes against everything Australia stands for.
Teamwork may not be the only step to defeating the ever-present threat of terror, but I promise you it will go an incredibly long way.
Omar Dabbagh is a reporter for SBS World News.
