My earliest memories of hypocrisy are of being forced to play footbrawl (some call it football) at school. Being a big kid, I was inevitably picked to be a front row forward. We were instructed to always grab our opponent’s jersey in a scrum, and thus impede and delay their return to the game. If ever they did that to us, we were expected to scream fowl and complain to the referee. The hypocrisy of that always left a sour taste in my mouth and I never again took any interest in the game.

Fast forward to the early 2000’s when Jose Ramos-Horta was involved in the struggle for independence for East Timor (latter to become Timor-Leste). I remember Mr Ramos-Horta in an interview speaking about the support he had verbally received from numerous world leaders at the time. However, when the crunch came, that support evaporated. As he explained – his first experience of international political hypocrisy.

Staying with Timor-Leste for a moment, there is also the hypocrisy of the Australian government at that time, spying on an ‘ally’ to gain an advantage by depriving the fledgling country of precious oil revenues, compounded even further by prosecuting the whistle blower for exposing these actions. How’s that for a moral, forthright government one could get behind and support.

There has been a veritable explosion of hypocrisy in recent times. Let us begin with the most recent example – the tragedy at Bondi Beach.

There are literally dozens of reports, studies and articles documenting the rise of antisemitism that it is no wonder the Jewish community is in shock, dismay and anger over this heinous attack. Among the noise however, equal reporting which goes unacknowledged reveals an increase in Islamophobic attacks in Australia as well. Why are the attacks on one group of Australians less or more important than attacks on another group of fellow Australians? Why does one group of Australians need a special envoy to advise (more akin to ‘dictate’ to, rather than to advise…) the government on how to reduce this rise, while other groups are ignored? Hypocrisy?

Attacks on any innocent Australians are reprehensible, especially when they are targeted for their race and/or religion. But so far as I know no Australian has been murdered recently because they are Muslim. We have just witnessed Australia’s worst ever terrorist attack in which 15 innocent people were murdered and many more injured. There is a massive disparity in the severity, prevalence and violence of antisemitism compared to Islamophobia at present. The Government’s repeated failure to recognise this, and virtual inability to use the word “antisemitism” without simultaneously condemning Islamophobia, is one of the reasons it is being widely condemned for failing to recognise, and act on, the problem.

And the Government did not only commission and envoy on antisemitism. It also commissioned Aftab Malik as a special envoy on Islamophobia. His report was handed down in September.

http://theconversation.com/landmark-report-makes-54-recommendations-to-combat-islamophobia-in-australia-now-government-must-act-264489