Why Jews must speak up when Muslims are targeted

We should all be disturbed that peacefully praying Muslims are confronted by police force, he writes Michael Cohen.

I want to say something clearly.

As a Jew who is generally perceived as left-wing, watching police confront a peaceful Muslim prayer group in Sydney made me sick to my stomach.

Not because it’s complicated, but because it’s not.

People are praying. People are gathering. People are protesting peacefully. And suddenly they were seen as a security problem.

This should bother anyone who cares about civil liberties. However, this has a special weight for Jews.

The irony here is cruel.

A Jewish Hanukkah event was attacked. An appalling move. This trauma became part of the rationale for Isaac Herzog’s visit. Security has been increased. Tension increased. Understandably so.

But then events took a strange turn, and Muslims who were silently praying and protesting were confronted by the police force. People playing football. Families are standing. Ordinary people exercising basic democratic rights.

So let me make this clear.

There is an attack on the Jewish community in the background, and those who physically confront the state are Muslims.

This is not security. This is displacement.

And historically this pattern never ends well.

I’m not interested in tribal accounting. I don’t believe suffering is a competition. But Jewish history gives us a special sensitivity to what happens when minorities are framed as risks, when public order is prioritized over human dignity, when fear becomes policy.

We know this story.

It begins with “increasing tension”. It moves on to “necessary security measures”. This ends up with entire communities being treated as suspects by default.

This is why I find the silence of much of the Jewish community so disturbing.

Of course not everyone. There are Jews speaking. But institutionally? In public? Loud?

Too many people are missing.

And I understood. People are afraid. Antisemitism is real. The Hanukkah attack was real. There is a desire to wander around wagons.

But here’s the thing: Jewish security never came from siding with state power while other minorities were oppressed under it.

This has always come from insisting on universal rights.

From saying this: If Muslims are treated this way today, Jews may be treated the same way tomorrow.

I’m tired of hearing that speaking up for Palestinians or Muslims somehow endangers Jews. What puts Jews in danger is allowing injustice to be committed in our shadow. What puts Jews in danger is their appearance of complacency while another community is publicly humiliated by the police.

Solidarity is not branding. This is not a social media stance. That’s what you do when you’re uncomfortable.

Right now, Muslims in Australia are watching closely. They see how quickly peaceful gatherings can be reframed as extremism. They see how easily prayer turns into a threat. They notice who speaks and who doesn’t.

If the Jews remain silent, we too will become part of this story. And I don’t want this.

I want Australian Jews to say clearly: It is unacceptable for police to target Muslim prayer groups. Protest is not terrorism. Islamophobia has no place in this country.

Not because we are morally superior, but because we understand in our bones what happens when societies decide that some people deserve less rights.

This country is at a crossroads. It may slide further into suspicion, oppression, and collective blame.

Or he might recommit to pluralism, civil liberties, and the simple idea that everyone deserves dignity in the public sphere.

Jews don’t need to dominate this conversation. But we should definitely not stay out of it. Because once minorities are categorized into “acceptable” and “problematic,” history tells us that the list never stops growing.

If not now – when?

Michael Cohen is a Jewish Australian writer based in Sydney who has previously made extensive contributions to international newspapers, presenting both articles and conceptual material. He now focuses on human rights issues.

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