A quick scour of social media commentary after news websites posted photos of the One Nation leader wearing a full burqa in the Senate showed that her antics met at least one of her goals. Those who see in Senator Hanson someone willing to speak their minds, and voice their fears, congratulated her. These supporters won't be found in most newsrooms, boardrooms, corporate offices, political party rooms or other spaces of power in Australia. There are probably few in Canberra, insulated as it can be from regional grievances.

Her stunt resonated with her base, impatient with financial and cultural elites that Hanson supporters believe have tilted the odds against them and robbed them of control over their destiny. This is only more troubling because so few of Senator Hanson's critics are likely to know just where her theatrics were welcomed, and why. Most of the nation is talking across One Nation's supporters. On their part, Hansonites despise what they see as the arrogance and naivety of opponents who shout down their racist slurs, a response they see as the muzzle of "political correctness".

In the crossfire of this battle are Muslims living in Australia. There can be no mistake: the onslaught of grubby tabloid smears, misinformed public attacks and unwarranted hostility not only besiege and marginalise Muslims in this country. They also do nothing to make Australia safer; in fact, they do the opposite. ASIO head Duncan Lewis has made clear how pivotal his agency's relationship with Muslim communities is to protect national security. To use words from Liberal senator George Brandis' commendable speech on Thursday, driving Muslims into a corner will only damage the country's counterterrorism efforts.

Aside from its obvious offensiveness, Senator Hanson's burqa stunt and the case she made against Islam afterwards were riddled with nonsense and irrationality. First, most victims of terrorism are actually Muslims. The so-called Islamic State has made massacres against Shi'ite Muslims a priority, and the Global Terrorism Index ranks Iraq as the country worst-affected by terror, followed by Afghanistan, Nigeria, Pakistan and Syria. All are Muslim-majority countries.

Second, Islam does not make its followers more likely to be fundamentalists, just as being white is not in itself the cause of neo-Nazism and ethnic supremacism. Extremism is caused by other forces, largely economic and political. Both these points bear repeating every time Senator Hanson attacks Muslims.

Her power lies in that base she performed her stunt for. Unless she implodes - which is not unlikely - those voters will keep listening to her. How the rest of Australia handles that is another question, but it could start by doing what it can to show that Senator Hanson's actions are nothing about Australia's security or the harmony of its communities. She only wants to keep her political stocks high.