Former war crimes prosecutor Rabia Siddique believes the national discussion on Islam should be reframed like domestic violence has been.
Ms Siddique said the debate about violence against women had matured enough that it was reflected in the reporting on the issue.
The lawyer said Muslims were still expected to regularly defend their faith as peaceful when there was a terrorist attack or Islam was raised by political figures.
“When will it end?” she said.
“Elders and leaders and community representatives of the Muslim community have repeatedly, over and over again, condemned these atrocious attacks.
“They’ve repeatedly pointed out that Islam is a religion of peace like all the other mainstream, formalised religions.”
Ms Siddique, an Australian-Indian Muslim, served in the British Army during the Iraq War and was taken hostage while trying to secure the release of SAS soldiers in Basra in 2005.
They were eventually released and rescued, but Ms Siddique’s role in securing their safety was overlooked by the British government. She took the Ministry of Defence to court and won.
“I think what we need to do is we need to stop,” she said.
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“We need to not give into the fear mongering, and the bigotry and we mustn't allow ourselves, be us Muslims or any member of any religion in this country. We mustn’t allow ourselves to be captive to this.”
Ms Siddique said the media had played a positive role in reframing the tone and language on family and domestic violence.
She said the same approach needed to be adopted for reporting on violent extremism.
“I’ve lost dear friends to violent extremist attacks as well so I do have some understanding of the trauma and the fear that this brings,” she said.
“I think in a similar way to the way the media has been encouraged, and to a large extent has successfully and more responsibly reported on family and domestic violence incidences … I think a similar thing needs to be done,” she said.
“I think there needs to be a similar campaign and focus in terms of how the media report violent extremism because the media play a huge role in giving a voice to these fear mongers.”
