Most pupils must be smarter than their teachers and parents. Bruce
Most pupils see Muslims as terrorists By Chee Chee Leung February 6, 2006 The AGE MOST Victorian schoolchildren view Muslims as terrorists, and two out of five students agree that "Muslims are unclean". Just over 50 per cent believe "Muslims behave strangely", and 45 per cent say Australians do not have "positive feelings about Muslims". These are some of the preliminary findings from a statewide survey of student attitudes towards the Muslim community. The research - conducted in the second half of last year - is based on responses from 551 year 10 and 11 students across public and private schools. Almost half said they had learned "a little" about Muslims and Islam at school, but more than a third said they had learned nothing on these subjects. When asked if schools should teach more about Muslims, 29 per cent said no and 34 per cent said they did not care. Researcher Abe Ata, of the Australian Catholic University, said the findings showed a need for educators to develop new ways of promoting multiculturalism among children. "There are very strong signals that there is a chasm between mainstream students and Muslim students," said Dr Ata, a senior fellow at the university's Institute for the Advancement of Research. "Educationalists and policymakers in education should take proactive steps : to help create more racial harmony in the classroom and outside it." In the survey's other findings: 62 per cent agreed Christians were smart, while 36 per cent agreed Muslims were smart. 38 per cent agreed or strongly agreed Muslims were the most negatively stereotyped of all minorities, including Aborigines. 34 per cent agreed most Australians were racist, while 46 per cent disagreed. Islamic Council of Victoria board member Waleed Aly said the results were troubling. "What it demonstrates is that Muslims are being viewed in a way that is really subhuman," he said. "The only way you can combat this kind of prejudice is on a personal level : it's much harder to hate people when you actually know someone in that social group." The chairman of the Ethnic Communities Council of Victoria, Phong Nguyen, described the findings as "a wake-up call". "We cannot assume that our children who grow up in a multicultural setting will automatically be accepting of each other," he said. "Adults need to do things to make sure that our impressionable young children have a growing, mature understanding of the world and other people." Mr Nguyen said learning about other faiths and cultures was just as important to a child's education as studying subjects like maths or physics. The State Government's draft education laws explicitly permit teaching comparative religion in public schools and enshrine "openness and tolerance". According to the Australian Education Union, some Victorian schools discuss issues involving Muslims in the curriculum, but others may be hesitant to do so. "Sometimes schools do shy away from such controversial issues because of the sensitivities," Victorian president Mary Bluett said. "There's always the thought that you might fall foul of politicians or parents." But Victorian Association of State Secondary Principals president Andrew Blair said schools had a social responsibility to discuss these sensitive issues with students. "Just because it's tough, you shouldn't turn your back on it," he said. Mr Blair also said the task of helping young people learn about other cultures lay not only with schools but also with parents and families. "If this is accurate, it's an indictment of what's actually taking place in schools, but also probably an indictment of conversations within families in Victoria," he said. 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