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The leader of a Brisbane Islamic college says he is keen to have another meeting with Pauline Hanson after a “robust conversation” at the school during which the One Nation leader wore an Israeli flag pin.
Hanson visited the Islamic College of Brisbane for an arranged meeting as part of a yet-to-be-announced Seven Network segment focusing on the controversial senator.
The college’s chief executive, Ali Kadri, told this masthead the One Nation leader sat down with six representatives from the school – including senior staff and three high-achieving female students – for what was a roller-coaster discussion.
“At times, it was healthy,” he said. “There were agreements, with nodding of heads, and sometimes, disagreements – that’s how I will describe it.”
Sporting an Israeli flag pin, Hanson questioned one of the students over her decision to wear a niqab, a veil that covers most of the face.
Kadri said Hanson reiterated her stance backing a “monocultural Australia”, which she first detailed alongside plans to clamp down on Muslim immigration in a mid-June National Press Club address.
He said she also repeated her opposition to the flying of any flags – including the Aboriginal flag – other than the Australian ensign, prompting one of the school’s staff to question her Israeli flag pin.
Kadri said he felt the meeting was generally constructive, and he hoped to use a record of it for future classes dissecting political discourse.
“I’m very proud of my students,” he said. “They did a great job.
“We’re always going to be open to having a dialogue and conversation, [and] I would always teach our students to respectfully speak to people who we disagree with.”
Kadri said the college – the first Islamic school Hanson has visited – was interested in meeting with her a second time.
“I think there’s a lot of talking about each other in our society, and not enough talking to each other,” he said.
“As an educational institution – not just as an Islamic educational institution, but as one of the largest educational institutions [in Brisbane], with a lot of young Australians – I want to send that message to my students that we should be able to talk to people.”
The 1700-student prep to year 12 school was a lightning rod for anti-Muslim sentiment, Kadri told this masthead last September following one of several bomb threats in the past year.
At the time, he said motorists passing the school at pick-up time regularly hurled Islamophobic abuse at families, and said that in one instance, a pig’s head was left outside the school.
The college also participated in the landmark SBS series The Swap, where students from different religious and non-religious schools traded places, and for which Kadri was the architect.
He has also been an active voice on “Islam, migration, media bias, extremism, education, and politics” in media and posts to his online accounts, including criticism of Hanson and her remarks about immigration and Islam.
On Friday, before Saturday’s meeting, Kadri published a post online referring to a “difficult, sensitive and uncertain” situation he would walk into the next day, from which he said he wanted “justice”.
Speaking to this masthead, he said he felt he needed to connect with the One Nation leader on a human level.
“When Senator Hanson says things which are incorrect … I see the impact of it on people, young Muslims and females, and I feel emotional and hurt,” Kadri said.
“However, it would be unjust of me to not meet her [Hanson] face-to-face and tell her this in a respectful manner, and try to hear her point of view with an intention to try and change her mind on this issue.”
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