3 | Attitudes toward religious communities A researcher from the study commented that, ‘Australian schools are still lagging behind the UK, EU and Canada with respect to their treatment of religion’.26 A number of roundtable participants pointed to the media and the ‘general culture’ as sources of bigotry, misunderstanding or discrimination. Multiculturalism is now a highly contested concept. Religion is often portrayed in a negative or divisive way in popular culture. Many participants noted a lack of ‘religious literacy’ in the mainstream media and suggested that this contributes to harmful impacts on minority communities. There is, for example, a distinct lack of Muslim people in the Australian popular media—though there are often news stories about Muslims. Several participants suggested that public leaders did not routinely identify the importance of religious diversity as part of multiculturalism. Although we have strong national messaging regarding the importance of cultural diversity, this is rarely expressed in terms of religious diversity. 16 Some suggested that religion, particularly Christianity, has a declining role in public discourse. In this context, some participants asked whether we still have ways to have a positive and robust discussion about engaging and encouraging faith communities in Australia, or whether there is a tendency to put faith and religion in the ‘too hard basket’. More specifically, some participants advocated targeted education of particular groups within society—police, security guards and the media were mentioned in this context. It was noted that education about religion in schools has been shown to have a very positive impact on students’ attitudes. A Jewish participant at the Melbourne roundtable discussed the positive, long-term impacts of a well-developed school program called Courage to Care, which ‘informs and educates Australians about the dangers of prejudice, racism and discrimination.’27