The politics of fear

How did Erdogan, Anning and a madman with guns come to speak for us?

AS New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern this week vowed not to speak the name of the Australian terrorist who killed 50 people in Christchurch, a video of parts of his rampage was screened on the other side of the world at an election rally for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The rally was at Canakkale in Turkey, where hundreds of Kiwis and Aussies will travel to commemorate Anzac Day next month. Erdogan said that if any went to Turkey for anti-Muslim reasons, they would be returned “in coffins” like their grandfathers. It was an incendiary speech. “What business did you have here?” asked Erdogan, referring to the Anzacs of the Gallipoli campaign in World War I.

“We had no issues with you, why did you come all the way over here?

“The only reason,” he told his supporters was “we’re Muslim, and they’re Christian”.

He said of Christchurch: “The enemies of Muslims have shown that they continue to hate us.”

After the rampage video, the screen on Erdogan’s stage held an image of Australian senator Fraser Anning, who days earlier had blamed the New Zealand massacre on immigration.

The Queensland MP, who gained a mere 19 primary votes and was elected by a quirk of the electoral system, was widely condemned by Australian and New Zealand political leaders.

One Aussie teen was so enraged he cracked an egg on Anning’s head in protest, and was set upon by four men. Two of those who jumped to Anning’s defence have since been identified as far-Right agitators. One had been convicted of inciting contempt against Muslims with a mock beheading.

As New Zealand Deputy PM Winston Peters packed his bags for Turkey so as to hose down the diplomatic flames by speaking directly with Erdogan, the firebrand Anning shot off another volley.

“In an anti-Western rant, Erdogan has made threats against Australians and New Zealanders who would commemorate the memory of our Anzacs,” he reportedly said.

“If you had any doubt that Islam and the civilised world are incompatible, this threat should clear that up for you.” It’s a war of words, for now. Turkish officials claimed Erdogan’s comments had been taken out of context, and the Australian Government said the Turkish President has since moderated his position.

Erdogan has form. He was jailed for four months in 1997 for inciting religious or racial hatred by reciting a poem with a verse that translates as “the mosques are our barracks, the domes our helmets, the minarets our bayonets and the faithful our soldiers”.

Human rights groups and governments deplore Erdogan’s authoritarianism and his attacks on free speech. In 2016 and 2017, more journalists were jailed in Turkey than anywhere else.

HOW

did Erdogan, Anning and a madman with assault rifles get to speak on behalf of Christians, Muslims, Turks, Aussies and Kiwis, most of whom are peaceful, hospitable, loving people?

The answer is “fear”, or more precisely the universal human fear of the unknown.

Fear is a potent motivator. It can drive people to heroism, petrify them, force them to their knees and turn them against each other. It’s instinctive, about survival.

There is an undercurrent of fear of Islam in Australia.

Muslim paraphernalia — the hijab or niqab or men prostrating on prayer mats — elicit fear in otherwise kind, friendly people.

This fear is a natural defence mechanism against potential threat. It inevitably subsides with familiarity and empathy. Before too long there’s halal food on the supermarket aisle next to the wontons, saveloys, spaghetti, sushi and kombucha.

The problem is that the unscrupulous harness this natural fear and amplify it so as to empower themselves. Erdogan, Anning and that other bastard all used fear to garner power this week. They whipped fear into hate and demonised “the other”.

So now a student from Taroona who travels to Gallipoli with a school group to commemorate her late great grandfather on Anzac Day can be an invading Christian to fearful Turks, and a caring Muslim mum in a hijab can be harassed and called a terrorist while walking home in Glenorchy.

Tribes are galvanised by fear and hate.

Conflict feeds on itself until who is right and wrong, who caused what, and who struck first is so bitterly contested and confounded by propaganda as to be meaningless.

THE

Erdogans, Annings and bastards of this world would not profit from this fear so effectively if it was not already being stirred and kept at a simmer.

Australian politicians have long been exploiting fear of “the other”, such as Muslims and asylum seekers, for political gain in the same way Erdogan did this week, just more subtly. Sometimes it’s not what they say but what they neglect to say.

But it wasn’t always this way.

After the White Australia policy was abandoned in the 1950s, right-minded MPs resisted exhuming remnants of bygone racism by declining to play what is known as the race card.

PM John Howard broke with this gentlemen’s agreement when he refused permission for the Norwegian freighter MV Tampa to bring 433 rescued refugees to Australia in 2001.

Osama bin Laden’s September 11 terror attack on the US amplified fear and consolidated support behind Howard.

This fear has been kept simmering for almost 20 years by a broadbrush sweep of the political spectrum in Australia.

Our leaders have a duty to reduce this fear by speaking with respectful, temperate and inclusive language and leaving the race card out of the deal.

But with a federal election around the corner, it appears few in the major parties are trying to lead us out of this mess, and the usual coterie of opportunists is willing to trade this nation’s medium- and long-term peace and security for short-term political gain.