AhlulBayt News Agency (ABNA): A Muslim advocacy group has urged the federal government to stop using the term "religiously motivated" to describe terrorism and extremism, saying it fuels negative attitudes towards Australian Muslims.
The Australian Muslim Advocacy Network (AMAN) said the latest Australian Cohesion Index showed that Muslims faced more prejudice than any other racial or religious group in the country. According to the index, only 25 percent of Australians had a positive view of Muslims, while 29 percent had a negative view, the Australian Muslim Times reported.
AMAN said the persistent association of Islam with terrorism in the public mind was a major factor behind this hostility. It said that despite the decline of Daesh-related media coverage, the stigma remained.
AMAN appealed to Attorney General Mark Dreyfus to revise the legal definition of terrorism and extremism and remove the reference to religion. It said this would help create a more respectful and inclusive environment for all Australians.
AMAN also asked the Australian Muslim community to build alliances with other groups to support this change. It said that Daesh supporters were not driven by religion but by political or ideological motives.
The Australian Cohesion Index measured attitudes towards six major faiths and several racial groups. It found that people of faith generally received less positive views than people of no faith, with Buddhists being the most positively viewed (49 percent) and Muslims being the least (25 percent).
It also found that people from non-European backgrounds received less positive views than people from European backgrounds, with Sudanese being the lowest (53 percent) and Italians being the highest (93 percent).
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