Author Michael Mohammed Ahmad told the live audience on ABC's Q&A he was no longer interested in reassuring bigots but challenging them.
In a response to a question about Fraser Anning's maiden speech in Australian parliament last week, in which the Senator referred to a 'final solution' while calling for a ban on Muslim immigration, the 32-year-old said the "cyclical' nature of racism in Australia was something he had witnessed his entire life.
"It's not new rhetoric. We hear it every couple of months. Every time the Muslim community hears it, there's a script that we have to follow. We have to say, 'Stop being racist towards us. Stop stereotyping us. Stop essentialising it. Don't be afraid of us. We mean you no harm,'" Ahmad told the live panel on Monday night, where he was joined by fellow Australian authors Maxine Beneba-Clarke and John Marsden.
"My position is quite the opposite. My position is this: If you are a racist, if you are a white supremacist, a bigot, racist, an orientalist, an imperialist, a colonialist, an Islamophobe and a xenophobe, you should be afraid of me because the majority of people on this planet will say no to you and we will stop the bigotry and hatred you're spreading."
As if to prove Ahmad's point, Q&A host Tony Jones interjected to clarify: "Let's be clear Mohammad, in your case, you’re talking about with your pen or your typewriter, correct?”
Ahmad fired back, “What, because you’re worried that I’m implicating some kind of violent action?”
“Of course I’m not,” Ahmad continued. “I just find it really cheap when there’s a concern that Muslims are inciting violence, because if you looked at the foreign policies of the West they are the most violent people on the planet.”
The tense exchange attracted social media attention, with some viewers labelling the implication offensive.
Did I just hear Tony Jones offering Michael Mohammed Ahmad the ‘opportunity’ to say that he’s not violent #QandA https://twitter.com/anthroprofhage/status/1031512756992716800?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Ahmad is the author of recently published The Lebs, a coming-of-age novel about a young Lebanese man growing up in Sydney's western suburbs in a racialised political climate post 9/11, and the director of Sweatshop: Western Sydney Literacy Movement based at Western Sydney University.
He said the treatment of television personality Yassmin Abdel-Magied who faced public backlash after a 2017 social media post critiquing Anzac Day went viral, showed there was nothing Muslims could do to allay white anxiety.
"It makes no difference what kind of Muslim you are - good Muslim, bad Muslim, ignorant Muslim, educated Muslim, moderate Muslim, radical Muslim - (you are) still Muslim. At this point I'm not interested anymore in reassuring bigots not to be afraid of me."
