The online Australian-Muslim magazine Sultana’s Dream has just published its second edition. Editor Hanifa Deen introduces the issue with an editorial on the burqa, which to many Westerners has become a kind of symbol of an imagined contest between Islam and Western civilisation.“Fed up talking about the burqa, yet ending up on the same old treadmill talking about the burqa!” writes the Kalgoorlie-born Deen. “A garment used in Australia by a miniscule minority becomes tabloid fodder in a nasty uninformed debate that often smacks of bullying.”
If 9/11 changed everything for Americans and even for Australians, let’s not forget that 9/11 also changed everything for many Muslims. There was much excellent coverage of the 9/11 tragedy on our screens and airwaves this weekend - so much so that it gave us cause to wonder if the sensitivity accorded to telling the stories of some innocent victims of political violence might someday be accorded to all.
Hanifa Deen has twice appeared at the Wheeler Centre, once speaking on ‘Muslim fatigue’ and the other as part of an Intelligence Squared debate, arguing that Australia hasn’t escaped its racist past.