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2 responses to “Contact me”

  1. Derya
    May 22, 2007 at 11:43 am

    Hey,

    Your article was amazing. I would’ve not put it any better myself. You completely read my thoughts about this issue.

    I am a university student, studying journalism and want to write a story about racism in our country, in particular racism for Muslims. I think it may be too broad for my to handle but are there statistics about racism for the whole of Australia? Should I just narrow it down to my local area (Parramatta)?

    If I were to narrow it down and write about racism in my area, how will I go about researching this? If you can help me or give me some tips, I would be very, very appreciative. =)

    Thank you.

    Kind regards,

    Derya

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  2. Legal Eagle
    May 22, 2007 at 1:00 pm

    Dear Derya,

    I’m glad you enjoyed my piece.

    As for concrete evidence on racism towards Muslims in Australian society, I believe a study was undertaken in 2003 by UNSW academic Kevin Dunn (link to study here). If you wanted to conduct a similar study in Parramatta, you could try that?

    I think that it would be interesting to study the attitudes and opinions of Muslim and non-Muslim respondents, and compare them. Eg, Do Muslims feel comfortable in groups of non-Muslims? Do non-Muslims feel comfortable in groups of Muslims? Would a non-Muslim Australian be happy if a relative married a Muslim? Would a Muslim Australian be happy if a relative married a non-Muslim? Does prejudice and fear go both ways? I suspect that it does, and that scary stereotypes abound.

    The important thing to work out is how to break down those fears and prejudice. One of my oldest friends (from primary school) is Muslim, and I regard her family as an extended family. I know that they regard me in the same light. Perhaps the important thing is to ensure more relationships such as these are built up, so that stereotypes are broken down.

    LE

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