Australia’s Islamophobia problem exposed by Muslim senator’s resignation over Palestine

The resignation of Australia’s first hijab-wearing Senator, Fatima Payman, from the ruling Labor Party, has highlighted the deep-seated Islamophobia in the country. This young politician faced intense intimidation and bullying from her colleagues due to her principled vote to recognize Palestinian statehood.

Payman’s courageous stance against her party’s official position, which does not recognize Palestinian sovereignty but supports a two-state solution, put her in direct conflict with the Labor government. Amid growing domestic anger over Canberra’s approach to the Gaza crisis, the Afghan-born senator, whose family fled Afghanistan after the Taliban took over in 1996, spoke out in support of the Palestinian cause, even publishing an opinion piece in Al Jazeera before the significant vote.

The backlash was immediate and severe. Payman claims she was ostracized by her Labor peers, who allegedly “leaked” to the national broadcaster that she had sought “God’s guidance” on the issue – a thinly-veiled attempt to portray her as an extremist.

Right-wing politicians, meanwhile, warned that Payman’s actions could foster a new “Muslim political party” and threaten Australia’s “social cohesion.” Her decision to vote with the Greens to support a motion on Palestinian statehood late last month led to her suspension from the Labor caucus. She resigned from the party last week and is now an independent senator in parliament.

Observers say her resignation has exposed the harsh realities of Australian politics, where principled stances on sensitive foreign policy issues can derail a politician’s career. Media Watch, a media criticism program from national broadcaster ABC, denounced Payman’s former colleagues’ remarks as blatant “dog whistling” to anti-Muslim sentiment.

The Islamophobia Register of Australia expressed deep concern that the “current tone of political commentary and public discussion” could “inflame” further discrimination against the Muslim community. The organization’s executive director, Nora Amath, condemned “the scornful and alarmist tone” of the comments referencing God, which she said “mock an Australian Muslim woman’s faith,” especially since parliament begins each day with the Lord’s Prayer.

Muslim journalists, speaking anonymously to local publication Crikey, criticized the mainstream media’s insensitive handling of Islamic religious terminology like “Inshallah” – a common phrase meaning “if God wills it” – which Payman had used. Some dismissed the uproar as an “online beat-up,” while the senator herself lamented being singled out as “a visibly Muslim woman” and expressed feeling offended and insulted for being asked to justify her use of “God.”

“When I told my colleagues that I would be praying and seeking guidance from God, that was in confidence. I did not expect them to share this almost in a condescending, ridiculing way,” Payman told ABC last week.

This was not the first time Payman faced such targeted abuse. Earlier this year, she was labeled a “terrorist” in parliament for her vocal support of the Palestinian cause and her use of the phrase “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” – deemed by some as antisemitic and sympathetic to extremism.

In contrast, politicians across the Asia-Pacific have taken more unequivocal stances on the Palestinian crisis. Malaysia’s Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim has emerged as a leading regional voice opposing Israel’s actions in Gaza, while Indonesia’s outgoing President Joko Widodo has vocally condemned the attacks.

Closer to home, the Australian government has sought to address growing bigotry by appointing a new special envoy to combat antisemitism and pledging an envoy to tackle Islamophobia shortly. However, the opposition has taken a more ominous tone. Opposition leader Peter Dutton speculated last week that having “Muslim candidates” in a future Labor government would be “a disaster,” while his colleagues expressed alarm about a perceived “Muslim voices movement” in Australia.

The Islamophobia Register’s Amath noted the glaring double standard, observing that other faith-based political groups like the Australian Christian Party faced no such vilification. These attitudes, she said, suggest “only Muslim political movements are a problem.”

Analysts note that the opposition’s concerns are not about a “faith-based” party emerging per se, but specifically a party with a Muslim political identity. “Australia’s multiculturalism worries about the place of Muslims in Australian society. The country calls itself secular, but retains a Christian identity in culturally ambiguous but nonetheless tangible ways,” said Australian National University Professor of History Frank Bongiorno in an analysis in The Conversation this week.

“Muslims are commended when they conform to the role of model minority in such a society. Explicit support for ‘Australian values’ is regularly demanded of them in a way no Christian migrant group experiences.”

When asked why the media-political class in Australia cannot overcome its Islamophobia, Greg Noble, a professor at Western Sydney University’s Institute for Culture and Society, said Australia has resorted to “reducing a complex world into simple answers,” similar to countries like the United States. “Islam has long been code in the West for violence, terrorism, despotism, and so on. So rather than try to disentangle complex situations, they opt for scare figures,” Noble told This Week in Asia.

“The Labor party has effectively backed Payman into a corner by depriving her of the ability to speak publicly about an issue which is of central importance not only to those of Muslim background but to many whose families come from the Middle East.”