Australia’s first Muslim Senator, Mehreen Faruqi has used her maiden speech to warn against the normalisation of racism in Australia.

According to Ms Faruqi, migrants no longer feel welcome in Australia because “bigotry and xenophobia have been allowed to flourish.”

Ms Faruqi admitted that racism, sexism and discrimination have always existed, but claims these things are now legitimised, normalised and even encouraged by our media and politicians.

An example Ms Faruqi appealed to was Senator Fraser Anning’s maiden speech in which he described the Muslim culture as being the least capable of assimilation.

And of course, according to Ms Faruqi, the other perpetrators of this flourishing racism, sexism and discrimination are none other than — you guessed it — the dreaded straight white male.

“A culture of online harassment, bullying and toxicity now targets everyone who is not a straight white man,” Ms Faruqi said.

Wait. Did she just discriminate against people based on their sexuality, race and gender all in the same sentence?

Ms Faruqi went on to say, “Far too little attention is paid to the implications this political racism has for our lives, our mental health and our families. We cannot be expected to ignore sustained abuse or be told to hide the fear and the gut wrenching pain that it causes… We will not be silenced, we will speak out.”

The thing is, even if Ms Faruqi is correct, what course of action is she actually proposing? Shutting down criticism of multiculturalism? Silencing people who are opposed to Islamic ideology?

As we’ve noted before, there’s no virtue in shutting down free speech you don’t like. That’s why the idea of ‘hate speech’ was invented. It provides a way of silencing your opponent and claiming the moral high ground in doing so.

Call any negative opinion about multiculturalism or Islam “racism” and you can silence your opponent without having to engage with his arguments.

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