Debate over wearing Islamic headdress
Updated
Retailers in Australia are lending their support to calls to outlaw the wearing of Islamic headdress in some public places.
Presenter: Annie Guest
Speaker: Michael Smith presenter on Fairfax Radio's 4BC in Brisbane; talkback caller; Peter an airport security guard; Suliman Sabdia, President of the Islamic Council of Queensland
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MICHAEL SMITH: Its good to get back to Brisbane. I had my little four-year-old daughter, who aspires to be a ballerina...
ANNIE GUEST: Michael Smith and his daughter were shopping in south-west Sydney.
MICHAEL SMITH: I got the fright of my life as my little girl jumped and screamed as we walked around a corner in the shops. Right in front of us is a person dressed in a full on, like a black robe or black hood, black gown, over his/her head, with a half-inch slit at the eyes, and it fair dinkum looked like a Ku Klux Klan robe, only it was all black.
ANNIE GUEST: The presenter on Fairfax Radio's 4BC in Brisbane knows what he would have done in his former job as a policeman.
MICHAEL SMITH: I found the behaviour of those people to be offensive. And honest to god, if I'd still been a copper, I would consider charging those people with offensive behaviour.
ANNIE GUEST: Michael Smith told his Tuesday drive-time audience the wearing of the burqa is growing because of large numbers of immigrants. He says criminals can use it as a disguise and in shops it's like wearing a balaclava.
MICHAEL SMITH: A reasonable person would find that offensive. Anybody would. If I whacked a stocking over my dial, people would be alarmed and offended. It's just the same with this hijab.
ANNIE GUEST: This talkback caller, who the presenter referred to as his brother, encapsulated some of the listener complaints posted on the station's website.
TALKBACK CALLER: Listen, you're a disgrace.
MICHAEL SMITH: (Laughs) Why's that?
TALKBACK CALLER: Like, Michael, can you grow up, mate? Because that's very racist comments.
MICHAEL SMITH: Forget running with this predictable response that I'm being racist or religionist or Arabist or cultural imperialist, whatever your lefto tirade that takes your fancy, it's just very simple. It's nothing to do with religion at all.
ANNIE GUEST: Michael Smith won support from most of his talkback callers, including Peter the airport security guard.
PETER: We can't screen them. We don't know what's underneath them, and it's a security checkpoint, you know, so we're not allowed to do our job properly either there.
ANNIE GUEST: The president of the Islamic Council of Queensland, Suliman Sabdia, says the comments on radio are disappointing.
SULIMAN SABDIA: Not racist. I don't know the man, but certainly a bigot. You know, I think there's a strong case for bigoted. Ignorance too. Certainly ignorance.
I feel that his comments, he probably doesn't know or understand the religious requirement, you know what the religious requirements are.
ANNIE GUEST: He's called for unity and calm.
SULIMAN SABDIA: I don't think that people in Australia or any part of the world, do you understand, should fear Muslim women if they've got the full hijab.
And now, yes, it's true, we're all aware of it, we see it in TV, that in the Middle East and even in other places, in Afghanistan, that people with criminal intentions have disguised themselves, you understand, as woman suicide bombers.
But in the Australian context, no, my fellow Australians, you have nothing to fear.
ANNIE GUEST: The broadcasting watchdog, the Australian Communications and Media Authority, has reiterated that its code of practice prohibits vilification.
