Would someone please tell me why are people from Middle Eastern countries who have settled in Australia, some going back to the 1850s, are all lumped together and called Muslims, while the rest of us are called Australians?
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Why not refer to Muslim people by the country they were born in – Saudi, Iraq, Iran etc?
The word “Muslim” is a religious word for those who follow the teachings of Mohammad, not the country of their birth.
Why not call the rest of Australians Christians, Buddhist, Taoists etc, and then we would all be on level ground.
Older members of our society may remember when some Australians were ostracised for being Roman Catholic.
A friend’s father was the first member of this religion to be appointed to a senior federal public servant position in the late 1940s, even though his family had arrived here in the 1800s and had made a considerable contribution to our society.
We have friends who are Lebanese, Egyptian, Russian, Belorussian, Ukrainian, Swedish, Norwegian etc and we know them by the country they live in, or have come from, not by their religious preference.
We all love the country of our birth and should be able to use it even though we live in a different country and are equally proud of it.
The name Australian is again being used to denote “them and us” as a religious divide, and our government is allowing this to happen, and these horrible barbaric groups like ISIS love it.
My wife is Russian and I am a sixth generation Australian and we love our name “Australian”.
Barry Mitchell,
Milton
