The anti-Muslim racism promulgated by virtually every politician has, unfortunately, had an effect. One poll showed that more half of Victorian schoolchildren view Muslims as terrorists. Similar numbers believe Muslims "behave strangely", and two out of five believe that Muslims "are unclean". Another poll of adults reflected similar prejudices: 54 per cent would be concerned if a relative married a Muslim.

We should be appalled by the prevalence of such bigoted attitudes, but not surprised. Not when both major political parties have aggressively promoted such racism.

John Howard's remark that the burqa was "confronting" to Australians followed Treasurer Peter Costello's attack on "mushy multiculturalism", when he argued that Muslims who do not conform to "Australian values" should be deported. Disgracefully, ALP leader Kim Beazley responded by demanding that the Liberals pass a law to enable such deportations.

The Cronulla race riot illustrates how bi-partisan verbal Muslim-bashing has made physical assaults on Muslims or people of "Middle-Eastern appearance" acceptable.

The Liberals' involvement extends from the racist comments of their MPs to the fact that the shock jock who supported and publicised the event, Alan Jones, has held high positions within the NSW Liberal Party.

But the riot was co-sponsored by the NSW Labor Government, which has slandered the Lebanese community as criminals for years, carrying on as if white people are incapable of violent crime.

The ALP must also take a share of the blame for the increase in anti-Muslim racism in Australia, with its consent to "anti-terror" laws that shred civil liberties and its frequent attempts to outflank Howard to the right on these issues. And it must also be said that the Greens have not been arguing that the "war on terror" is a hoax involving at its heart a racist campaign against Muslims.

The hysterical campaign to convince us that "we" are subject to a terrorist threat from Muslims has borne fruit, even among some otherwise solid anti-racists. A poll last year showed that while a third thought that Muslims were "doing enough" to combat terrorism, only a tiny 2 per cent rejected the whole idea that Muslims represented a threat.

Again, this is not surprising when the "threat of terrorism" is discussed in the media as if it were an undeniable fact. Yet other than an ASIO-organised stunt that killed two people at the Hilton Hotel in Sydney in 1978 (see SA #98), there has not been a serious terrorist incident in post-war Australia. Actually, you are far more likely to die from a lightening strike in Australia - five to ten die this way each year - than from terrorism. Yet there's no on-going hype about a "war on electrostatic discharges".

Even many who reject the idea that all Muslims are terrorists can believe that "something must be done" about the "radical elements" among Muslims. But what distinguishes these supposed bad apples? Is it that they don't conform to "Australian values"? Well, who'd want to?

Australia is a colonial settler state founded on genocide. Among the first Acts passed by Parliament after Federation was the White Australia policy. Australia has a long history of fighting imperialist wars, from World War I to Vietnam to Iraq today. These are hardly values worth defending, let alone forcing onto others.

In any case, telling an immigrant group that they should assimilate is always racist. People have a fundamental democratic right to enjoy whichever cultural practices they wish, speak the languages they know and live in whichever suburbs they desire.

The rhetoric about "radical Muslims" is primarily a means for the government to intimidate people out of resisting its warmongering policies. The term "radical Muslim" is used to demonise those who express a justified outrage at the US-orchestrated destruction of Iraq and the ongoing dispossession of Palestinians. It means a Muslim who has solidarity with these oppressed people, and who stands for resistance to imperialism.

It's understandable why the likes of Howard dislike anyone fitting this description. But progressive people must reject any idea that these qualities are a "threat".

The section of the Muslim community that does deserve some criticism is the so-called moderate community leaders who say they want to "help fight terrorism". Such comments only add weight to the lie that America and its allies are fighting a war to protect people from terrorism.

Any sane account of world politics today would show that US is the king-pin of all terrorists, and its "war on terror" is nothing but an excuse for it to practise more terror. Hundreds of thousands of dead, tortured and homeless Iraqis attest to this fact.

While it is understandable that Muslims feel pressured to appear loyal, pledging support for the "war on terror" only emboldens Western governments to run with their program of racism and state terror. It makes the situation for Muslims worse.