The first Muslim woman elected to federal Parliament, Anne Aly, has declared that a poll showing half of respondents want to ban Muslim immigration doesn't reflect the true feelings and reality of mainstream Australia.
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However, Dr Aly, the Labor member for the WA seat of Cowan and a counter-radicalisation expert, said a degree of xenophobia towards minorities does exist, fed by hateful rhetoric, and needs to be confronted by political leaders and regular people.
The poll, released this week, found 49 per cent of people favoured a ban on Muslims moving to Australia, previously considered an idea espoused only by outsider politicians like One Nation leader Pauline Hanson.
The survey found 60 per cent of Coalition voters, 40 per cent of Labor voters and 34 per cent of Greens voters agreed with the proposition and the most common concern expressed was that Muslim people were not integrating, followed by fears of terrorism.
"We've got a society that is one of the world's most cohesive, multicultural and multi-faith societies," Dr Aly told Fairfax Media.
"What this poll does show is that the cohesiveness is quite fragile. We need to keep working on it."
She said every Australian had a moral duty to call out "false imagery" of Australia that was advanced by One Nation and anti-immigration voices.
Senator Hanson advocated a Muslim ban in her first speech to the Parliament since being re-elected. Queensland Nationals MP George Christensen also called for restrictions on migration from countries with high levels of Muslim extremism.
According to Dr Aly, who arrived in the country as a two-year-old from Egypt, Muslims can also succumb to a divided view of the country despite it not squaring with their own experience.
"It's very easy for the average Muslim Australian to say: 'Oh, wow, everyone around me hates me'. But that's not my personal experience in Australia and I know it's not the experience of other Muslims in Australia," she said.
"People say everyone hates them but then you ask them what they neighbours are like and they say: 'Oh, I love my neighours'.
"I think every parliamentarian, and particularly the Prime Minister, has a moral obligation to speak up and say: 'This is not Australia' and really lead the debate on who and what we are."
She suggested the Essential poll's questions were too negative and could have skewed the results.
"They did not ask: 'Do you like your Muslim neighbours? Do you agree to have Muslims that contribute to Australia'." she said. "They were all negatively worded."
The former Curtin University professor, who has previously been invited by US President Barack Obama to speak at the White House, acknowledged waves of migrants to Australia do historically attract some hate, especially at times of economic turmoil.
"We can't keep falling into this pattern every time there is a new 'other' that we can blame for everything," she said.
"We've been doing it for 200 years. Grow up, Australia. Let's take our place on the world stage as a mature nation."
She said it was hard to understand why people could hate minorities but that the "root of the grievance" needs to be addressed and that voices like Senator Hanson and Mr Christensen couldn't hide from their role in fuelling xenophobia.
During the election campaign, as the candidate for Cowan, Dr Aly was subjected to a campaign by Liberal figures that sought to paint her as soft on terrorism because of her government-funded de-radicalisation work.
