The SMH argues that we need cooperation from Lebanese Muslim Australians to fight terrorism, but Peter Dutton risks seriously undermining that requisite mutual trust.
Immigration Minister Peter Dutton told Parliament he had advice that "out of the last 33 people who have been charged with terrorist-related offences in this country, 22 are from second and third-generation Lebanese Muslim backgrounds".
Mr Dutton did not just call out the minority "doing harm to Australians". He demeaned a whole community by association.
We need governments to send clear messages with a basis in respect. Yet Mr Dutton smeared thousands of people whose only crime was to have parents or family who fled Lebanon in the 1970s.
We need to work with the vast majority of law-abiding Lebanese Muslim Australians to fight terrorism. Through inflammatory comments, however, Mr Dutton risks seriously undermining, or at worst destroying, that requisite trust.
Strong leadership is needed to rebuild it. And Mr Turnbull has a good spiel: "The glue that holds us together is mutual respect. His government's actions, however, fall far short of those words.
