SYDNEY UNIVERSITY STUDENTS AND STAFF OPPOSE ISLAMOPHOBIA, FEAR-MONGERING AND ORCHESTRATED TERROR RAIDS Over 40 students and staff at The University of Sydney have published a statement asserting their opposition to Islamophobia and condemning the Abbott governments terror raids, and new terror laws, as racist. It says they will not let Abbott “divide and rule”. Published in abbreviated form in the student newspaper Honi Soit this week, the statement highlights the link between the government’s orchestrated terror raids, which were carried out in close collaboration with the media, and the growing racist attacks on the streets. SRC Ethnic Affairs Officer Gabrielle Pei Tiatia said Thanks to the government’s anti-Muslim hysteria Muslim students have faced being verbally abused and spat on in recent weeks”. “It’s not hard to see that these new laws, and the overblown terror raids, were discriminatory, when they have given so much confidence to racists everywhere. Cory Bernadi thinks this is a personal invitation to open up another debate about banning the Burqa, and instead of shutting him down, Abbott is encouraging him”, said Pei Tiatia. The statement also takes aim at the Sydney University Vice chancellor Michael Spence for his role in contributing to this Islamophobic backlash by targeting and banning a particular Muslim speaker, Uthman Badar, from speaking on campus earlier in the year. Pei Tiatia explained “It’s shameful that our own Vice Chancellor would contribute to this climate of manufactured fear by banning a speaker during Islamic Awareness week. Badar has not even opened his mouth, but he is targeted as a security threat. What else can you call that but racism? That is why it was so important that the Sydney University community respond to this, and say the Vice Chancellor is not acting on our behalf.” Signatories include a number of SRC Office Bearers and club presidents, staff members from the National Tertiary Education Union, and incoming SRC President Kyol Blakeney who is also Sydney Uninversity SRC Indigenous Officer and National Union of Students NSW Indigenous Officer. For more information contact Gabrielle Pei Tiatia on 0416488258 or Caitlin Doyle-Markwick on 0421180853. To view full statement and signatories go to https://facebook/noislamophobiausyd
Posted on: Wed, 15 Oct 2014 04:48:51 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015