It seems like hysteria is reaching a peak with the rise of prejudice phoenix and One Nation senator Pauline Hanson. The proof is in the latest round of weekly polling conducted by Essential Research, which indicates 49% of those surveyed support a ban on the immigration of Muslims to Australia, as reported by Buzzfeed.
The line of questioning was spurred on by Hanson's recent controversial speech in the Senate calling for the ban. When asked to provide a reason as to why the ban was needed, almost half said it was because Muslims did not integrate into Australian society, and almost a third saw Muslims as a terrorist threat. Surprised by the results, EMC researchers actually ran the poll twice.
In addition, just under half of Australians supported Cory Bernadi's proposed changes to the Racial Discrimination Act, making it no longer unlawful to “offend or insult” someone because of their race or ethnicity as a method of supposedly expanding free speech. Nah, fam. At the very least, social media made sure to express their disappointment in the whole thing:
It's important to note it's a poll of just over 1000 people, perhaps suggesting it doesn't really reflect the whole of our population – but still, it is a cross-section that was checked twice. Either way, it's not doing much to do away with the idea that the country is slowly slipping into a mire of xenophobia.
While it seemed like a decent majority were outraged when Sonia Kruger came through with the wild "ban muslims" stance, the question has to be asked – just how much of our population are actually thinking the same thing behind closed doors?
