UPDATE 9.15am: The opposition says news that Victorian Muslims feel threatened by racism needs to be addressed.
Victorian Muslims say many in their community feel forced to live in enclaves in order to protect themselves from racism.
And they have made a plea that Australian society be more tolerant, allowing them to be free to wear burqas and build mosques.
Opposition leader Daniel Andrews said all levels of Government must work together on the issue.
“It’s important all members of our community feel safe,” he told heraldsun.com.au this morning.
“Australia has a proud history of multiculturalism and all levels of government must work together to ensure we remain a country that promotes and celebrates diversity.”
Melbourne suburbs like Broadmeadows, Coolaroo and Meadow Heights have high Muslim concentrations, according to census data.
But in a submission to a federal parliamentary inquiry into migration, Victorian Islamic Council president Hyder Gulam said Muslims did not set out to create enclaves.
He told the joint standing committee on migration a fear of racism was a key reason many Muslims congregated in certain suburbs.
“The Government recognises that housing affordability, access to multicultural services and a fear of racism is one of the reasons certain Muslim communities (but not all) congregate in specific suburbs (that is, Lakemba, Broadmeadows) and not that there is an intent to create separate enclaves,” he said.
Mr Gulam said that the fear and alarm over multiculturalism was more about Muslim integration and assimilation.
“We feel that the public discourse needs to be more clear about what that means as we believe that in a tolerant and multicultural society, one should be able to observe halal, wear the burqa and build places of worship without hindrance (subject to the law of the land),” he said.
Mr Gulam said some Muslims found it hard to feel part of a wider national collective because of a perception that Australian society “does not respect individuality with respect to religious practice”.
“The overwhelming majority of Australian Muslims want nothing more than to get on with their lives and make meaningful contributions to this wonderful country,” he told the inquiry into multiculturalism. “Constantly being singled out and problematised makes this so much harder to do, especially when done for political gain as seen by recent comments by certain federal parliamentarians.”
South Australian Liberal senator Corey Bernardi has branded the burqa as un-Australian and called for it to be banned.
Victorian Liberal MP Kevin Andrews has expressed concern about religious enclaves and has criticised political leaders who fail to speak out against the rise of extreme Islam.
Yesterday, Mr Andrews said: “Australia’s great achievement has been to balance diversity and integration. Diversity is celebrated, but without integration we will not maintain social cohesion.”
Ratepayers Victoria president Jack Davis said that councils pandering to Muslim groups by providing women-only swim and gym sessions was ridiculous.
“People should be able to keep their customs but they should integrate when becoming Australians,” he said. “To demand things be provided exclusively by ratepayers is wrong.”
Islamic Council secretary Sherene Hassan said: “Our biggest qualm is how we are depicted by some media outlets and some politicians. There’s constantly that focus on those Muslims who are on the fringe.”