Make love not war - Australians

An overwhelming majority of Australians believe we can live in harmony with our fellow Australian Muslims, a recent study has found. Despite the depressing look of our divided society at the moment, there are some really good stats as well.

By a big margin of 66 per cent to 18 per cent, Australians believe that their country's non-Muslim and Muslim communities can live side-by-side in harmony. The "unsure" 16 per cent is there to be persuaded. 

Indeed, one of the outstanding features of this survey is the high number of people who are "unsure" (and undecided) about what the Government is doing and what is going on around them. They are unsure about the wisdom of military involvement against IS, unsure of the wisdom of laws to gaol whistleblowers and journalists, and unsure about whether or not the Federal Government is exploiting tensions for its own political ends - meanwhile, they are reluctantly supporting the present air strikes even though they will make us less rather than more safe. 

In many ways it is the very picture of confusion. 

For any political party with a touch of imagination, here is an important - and surprising - finding: rather than fund overseas military operations, a considerable number of Australians would prefer to see Australia pull out of Iraq and instead spend the hundreds of millions of dollars on reducing social problems that might give rise to extremism in parts of Australia's Muslim community. 

Forty per cent of people consider this a more effective way to make Australia safe. Only 26 per cent oppose the idea. A very large number, about 33 per cent, are unsure. 

The finding suggests that people would prefer to see the Government make love not war - or at least attempt a social rather than a military solution. more