ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at harmful political contexts through a social work values lens and outlines some of the threats to human rights, peace and justice at local and global levels. It discusses two interconnected areas are: asylum seeker rights and Islamophobia. The chapter focuses on the imperative for social workers to be activist when encountering wicked politics and wicked problems, there are ethical boundaries. C. Maylea and A. Hirsch discuss the tacit compliance of social workers in the asylum system and the likelihood that they will breach their ethical obligations under the Australian Association of Social Workers Code of Ethics. A number of factors converge to allow Islamophobia to fester, including through uncritical notions of free speech, state policies and actions, such as in anti-terrorism laws that lead to over-policing, unfiltered media collusion, and fear and bigotry in the wider community. The political dimensions of Islamophobia are broadly two-fold: reworking of the clash of civilisations discourse and the rescue phenomenon.
