What does social cohesion look like in everyday Australia?
Sometimes it is not found in government reports, conferences or carefully worded speeches. Sometimes its real test comes on an ordinary Sydney bus.
Last month, 13-year-old Janna, a Muslim schoolgirl wearing a hijab, was travelling home when she was subjected to appalling racist and Islamophobic abuse by a stranger.
She had reportedly drawn his attention after standing up for another hijab-wearing girl whom she believed he was photographing without her knowledge.
Other passengers witnessed what followed, yet her mother later expressed dismay that so little intervention occurred. A man has since been charged over the incident.
There is an uncomfortable question here for all of us: What would we have done?
Would we have looked away, afraid to become involved? Would we have quietly recorded the incident?
Or would we have found a safe way to stand beside a frightened child and let her know that she was not alone?
This is the difference between being a bystander and becoming an upstander.
The incident cannot simply be dismissed as the behaviour of one individual.
Islamophobia Register Australia says average weekly reports of Islamophobic incidents have risen from 2.5 to 18 since October 2023 — an increase of 612 per cent — with Muslim women disproportionately affected.
In September, the Office of the Special Envoy to Combat Islamophobia launched Australia’s first National Islamophobia Index, designed to track attitudes towards Muslims and identify both the drivers of prejudice and the conditions that encourage belonging and inclusion.
These initiatives matter.
Governments must provide effective laws, policing and policies. Schools and universities must provide safe environments.
Media organisations must exercise responsibility, and political leaders must understand the consequences of language that divides Australians.
But governments cannot legislate friendship. They cannot manufacture trust by decree.
Social cohesion ultimately starts with us.
At a recent religious liberty conference in Sydney, I argued that “human dignity cannot be defended selectively.”
If we expect fellow Australians to stand with Muslims against Islamophobia, Muslims must stand equally firmly against anti-Semitism, anti-Christian hatred, racism against Indigenous Australians, and hatred directed towards Hindus, Sikhs, Indian, Chinese or any other community.
Our principles cannot change according to the identity of the victim.
Australian Muslims also need to move beyond seeing ourselves primarily as a minority seeking protection.
We are citizens, professionals, teachers, doctors, journalists, business owners, workers, students, parents and grandparents.
Many Muslim families are now into their third and fourth generations in this country.
Australia is our country and our home. Its social cohesion is therefore our responsibility too.
That means getting to know our neighbours, participating in civic life, opening our mosques and community institutions to others, building genuine interfaith and intercultural relationships and serving people without asking about their religion or ethnicity.
And importantly, it means speaking up when someone else is targeted.
Being an upstander does not mean putting oneself in physical danger.
It might mean alerting authorities, supporting the person being abused, reporting an incident, documenting it safely or simply standing beside the victim and reassuring them: You are not alone. You belong here.
Indeed, the Special Envoy’s national campaign now explicitly encourages Australians not only to report Islamophobia they experience, but also to report incidents they witness and stand in solidarity with those affected.
Social cohesion is not built when everything is peaceful and everyone agrees. It reveals its strength when tensions rise and communities refuse to turn against one another.
We should therefore ask ourselves a simple question.
If a Jewish child is abused for wearing a kippah, will we speak up?
If a Sikh is attacked because of his turban, will we stand beside him?
If an Indigenous Australian faces racism, will we challenge it?
If a Muslim schoolgirl in hijab is intimidated on a bus, will somebody tell her that she is not alone?
Our answer should be the same every time.
Australia’s multicultural success was built over generations. It should never be taken for granted.
The next chapter depends on all of us — not as passive bystanders, but as active upstanders.
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