Dr Gordon Moyes suggests “a better way to deal with the confronting burqa”
Parliamentary Leader of Family First NSW Gordon Moyes believes that confrontation can be uncomfortable and that some people are completely confronted by the way some people dress, however, we can handle confrontation.
“The inability to handle what confronts us, leads to people being trapped by their own raw and often abusive emotions and reactions, and this manner is not the best response to our feelings being confronted” says Gordon Moyes.
Gordon suggests the following ways to handle confronting situations:
1.Learn to tolerate discomfort with new behaviour as you handle confrontation.
2.De-escalate your own anxiety.
3.Consider your personal agenda. What do you think about people like the one who confronts you?
4.If you feel oppressed by the other person, you are most likely looking at a response that is not healthy.
5.Breathe a little slower, again this lowers your heartbeat and lowers the amount of adrenaline coursing through your body.
6.Don’t insult or argue. If you don’t get sucked in there is no argument to win, and you come out looking the better person.
7.Talk with the person concerned and let them move at their own pace when they fully understand the whole situation. That also means re-examining and changing your attitudes and prejudices.
The NSW Family First leader stresses we must work to make our nation a more accepting country, and a people who appreciate the basic humanity of each other without compromising our essential beliefs.
“We will be doing this in a couple of weeks in the Parliamentary Dining Room when I host a gathering for Church and Mosque Leaders. I will encourage Muslim men to realise their wife’s burqa can be confronting to people, and how this country gives a woman the choice of dress without fear of consequence. After all, the burqa is a form of cultural dress that is not commanded in the Qur’an, and many Muslim women in Australia choose not to wear one” says Dr Moyes.
Dr Gordon Moyes adds “reacting aggressively or banning legislatively is not the best response to feelings of being confronted.”
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