Musings of a Disobedient Woman

Twenty years ago Muslims across Australia were more or less a contented lot; they had freedom of religion, could build their mosques and schools with less trouble from local council the law was even handed; racism and religious vilification were officially decried; hijab-wearing women were not scared of going out in public. Opinions and views on Middle Eastern politics were expressed inside people’s ethnic enclaves, mosques and the privacy of their own homes. In any given year there was bound to be a colourful outburst from the irrepressible Mufti of Australia and one could always count on the annual hijab debate—but it was basically a low temperature era in community relations. Non-Muslims knew little about Muslims and mosque communities were happy to maintain that social distance.

But September 11, 2001 changed that—we were now entering a high temperature era in community relations. During the Howard years the same level of political reassurance and support went missing. Now the voices of prejudice became drawn from a wider spectrum.

This paper outlines how Australian Muslims have managed—or mismanaged—the fall out from this crisis; how they attempt to define their hybrid identities in a ‘high temperature’ era and what strategies are presently being utilised by Australian Muslims in this transitional phase to break down community apprehension and mistrust.

One of the key questions here is tied up with identity. Asserting a positive image in difficult times is an ongoing struggle. Australian Muslims are constantly expected to demonstrate their loyalty either by draping themselves in the Oz flag, (often a woman in nikab) or publicly and repeatedly denouncing acts of terrorism. Leaders are caught on the back foot trying to explain “themselves”—not only locally but also in relation to trouble spots around the world—Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan as if they are in some way responsible for these events. A crime committed by an individual or a group of individuals is seen as their crime.

To be sustainable an identity needs sources of self-respect. Our media, popular culture, social landscapes and territories—located in schoolyards, at the beach, shopping malls etc sustain and reflect majority identities. A beleaguered minority on the other hand, has to scramble for its self-respect. The T-shirt slogans ‘Lebos’ rule’ and ‘Proud to be a Muslim’ for example that we saw in TV images during the Cronulla Riots in 2005 were a desperate adolescent attempt to find self-respect irrevocably damaged years before in the Sydney Gang rapes of 2002.

Youth I spoke to in the mid 1990s saw no reflections of themselves in pop culture; they grasped at straws. Today the “sit up and take notice of me” images are of Jihadists-- not Mohammed Ali or Malcolm X and the rumour mills trundle out the sad, ludicrous message that Will Smith or Michael Jackson are the latest converts!

Other parts of a Muslim identity have to do with one’s degree of religious attachment to Islam. Another is the attachment to your country of birth.

Today the word ‘indifference’ is long gone and everyone has an opinion about Muslim(even Muslims have an opinion about other Muslims) and the term ‘Islamophobia’ is part of our lexicon. Muslims and Arabs around Australia have identified September 11 as a defining moment in their lives. Many–regardless of their degree of religious attachment—still believe that they are living in the shadow of hostility; this response is almost universally held. Muslims and Arabs –Christian Arabs too --they’ve become ‘THE FOLK DEVIL OF OUR TIMES’ as academic Scott Burchill describes in his book Bin Laden in the Suburbs.

After September 11, relations between Australia ’s Muslim and non-Muslim populations changed almost overnight. The average Australian was frightened and repulsed by Muslims. In turn, many mosque community Muslims began to feel that Australia was not a safe place for them any more. These were the Muslims visibly recognisable through head covering or beards who live close to mosques. The immediate effect -- they were shocked, silenced and saddened—there was a tendency to withdraw. A woman leader from the Lakemba area told me at the time,

‘The harassment and the attacks were bad enough but on top of everything the community was constantly being asked---as if we were subhuman with no regard for human suffering---“Do you condemn these attacks?” or “Why do you hate Americans?”’

People believed they were in danger of being interned (a Sydney fear in particular); parents and teachers cautioned children to smile a lot and be extra, extra polite in shops. “How do we explain to our children that we are not evil? parents said.”

We are still living with the impact of these tragedies on community relations: language changed, definitions were reshaped and mindsets hardened. Whether it’s the Danish Cartoons in 2006 or Gaza in 2008, Muslims come under an unfriendly spotlight.

Minorities throughout history have been the subjects of powerful stereotypes. Stereotyping does not bar self-definition but it becomes an uphill battle; it’s the fate of those seen as not belonging to the proper order of things-- standing outside the values, which define the citizenship as a whole. It was once the plight of Jews wherever they lived, Irish Catholics in Australia , indigenous Australians also.

The ugly expression ‘UnAustralian’ has an ugly meaning; it wasn’t always around as baby boomers will attest. It underlines subtexts, which say, ‘you are visibly different, you are not like us, you threaten our democracy. Where’s your passion for Gallipoli and cricket’?

As Australians we think we have a unique set of values … we weave intricate mythologies. I think we mistake Oz characteristics (mateship, a fair go, standing up for the under dog, and so on) for universal values--of decency, respect, justice, and honesty.

On the subject of Gallipoli: A former cricket-loving prime minister once told me, after I suggested that learning about the Turkish version of Gallipoli might be useful for students, that ‘ any attempt to intellectually undermine it [the Anzac tradition] would be to challenge one of the emotional underpinnings of our society. There are certain elements of our history,’ he went on to say, ‘there are certain norms of the emotional side of our culture… We would lose our soul’ were his exact words to what he clearly saw as my heresy in suggesting that there might be another version of Gallipoli.

Muslims here have not had the power or the resources to successfully project a positive self- image; compared to the UK and USA they have lacked an intellectual base. This is now starting to dramatically change as evidenced in this conference. But the intellectual resources, and strategies of, for example, the Australian Jewish community have been lacking.

Unlike the Jews around the world, Muslims have not been a minority for 2,000 years. In their countries of origin the 1^st generation of Muslims who emigrate here are the majority and when they come to Australia they still have the complacency of feeling like a natural majority. It takes time to learn the skills of being a minority that has to make itself understood by a majority that wants you to “ASSIMILATE” that old sad policy that failed miserably in the mid 1900s.

But in Australia you become a stereotype. It’s so easy to avoid the complex in an electronic age where everything is an image and nothing is a thought. The stereotype is fuelled by the term ‘Australian Muslim community’, wafted about in the media and public domain. It’s inaccurate, simplistic and misleading but is rarely corrected by religious leadership of mosques and Muslim organisations including AFIC (Australian Federation of Islamic Councils) and its state affiliates.

This self- identification symbolises a kind passive ‘collusion’ and perpetuates stereotypes which in my book Caravanserai describe as ‘the Muslim frozen in perpetual prayer’. The ice- age Muslim is usually Arabic speaking, often Lebanese—yet the majority of Australian Lebanese are Christians.

According to Prof Abdullah Saeed of the National Centre of Islamic Studies in Melbourne, approximately one third Oz Muslims can be defined as devout in terms of ritual and mosque attendance; one third are nominal Muslims only, calling themselves secularists, cultural Muslims or ‘Muslims of the heart’, and one third attend mosques at their own discretion and their degree of religious adherence fluctuates. All groups however, identify in some way as Muslims (whether it’s a religious ID, a cultural ID or an expression of political protest) they tick that little box at census times.

A major challenge for Muslims around Australia is that for twenty years or more Muslims have been defined through the ‘ Sydney prism’. The gatekeepers liaising with government and the media were linked to the Lakemba Mosque and its colourful imam and former mufti, Sheikh Taj al Hilali plus a coterie of other male 1^st generation representatives. This perception that all Muslims acted the same was a form of self-stereotyping. These groups whose power base rested—and still rests inside the mosque communities and state Islamic societies sometimes see themselves as the ‘authentic Muslims’; who control the ‘Muslim industries’ of halaal meat and Islamic schools.

For many years we had this strange concurrence where normative Muslim types were positively selected as gatekeepers but also negatively selected as visible objects of hate (men with turbans and beards and women with hijab. These were the authentic or real Muslims! Islam was a religion and religions must have clergy who speak for their followers—so the thinking went.

The non-normative types were cut out of the picture, too often the Australian Turks, the non Arabs, the non Mosque communities, and the ‘low intensity Muslims.’

The ‘invisible Muslims are easy to ignore –you can’t tell by dress or accent. They can even pass as the average bloke (Sharif of the ‘Biggest Loser’ reality TV show whose first name is Mohammed.) But the average ‘bloke Muslim’ does have a lot in common with the more religious Muslims these days for the label ‘Muslim’ has taken on a secular or political identification because of what is happening in Palestine, Afghanistan and Iraq. I have not come across Muslims here, no matter how lukewarm their religious affiliation is, who do to overwhelmingly identify with what is happening in the Middle East and Afghanistan.

But disappointingly, the unwillingness to engage visibly with the suffering of persecuted Christian minorities living under duress in Muslim societies happens when you are only concerned with the sufferings of your own tribe. Muslims have a natural empathy born of experience and it should be extended to persecuted Christians too.

Post 2001 Responses: Coping Mechanisms and Transitions.

Changes in leadership are slowly happening, faster in some states than others. A major gatekeeper was toppled in 2008, this was a major shift in status quo—the presiding mufti had made one ‘taken out of context ‘remark too many—in these times it couldn’t be ignored or rationalised as it had been in the past.

A younger generation, often the second generation is being heard in the media and at conferences around Australia. First generation leaders continue to control the world of Islamic societies, but a younger leadership is using other forums to be heard: they are writing, they are visible, they have their blogs, their You tubes—they are carving out their own domains. Their English fluency, their energy and sense of humour is out there breaking down barriers.

With the changing of the gatekeepers has come the establishment of Islamic centres at universities around the country and they are providing a new source of information and knowledge instead of relying on religious leaders. The centres are cultivating a new generation of leaders with a more open mindset; Australian-born, educated and already living an adaptable hybrid life with an understanding of Australian culture, they speak English fluently, are more egalitarian and representative. The proactive engagement of a younger generation as seen in the SBS live show Salaam Café was a highly successful strategy.

And what about women leaders? Hijabis and non hijabis show a united front in working together. Male Muslims still dominate the media but females are being selected for committees. They liaise and work outside most formal organisations—working under the radar is not a euphemism for ‘behind the veil’.

A watershed moment in the history of Australian Muslims occurred in December 2008 when Muslim women leaders in Sydney and Melbourne publicly revealed problems in women accessing mosques. This became front-page news in Victoria. Breaking the silence—you have to have confidence to do this.

In the past there’d been much talk about entering into dialogue with the wider community, but it was more rhetorical than real.

Now leadership of many Mosque communities has dropped its fortress mentality. While I personally am not sure how useful the ‘open day at the mosque philosophy’ is at promoting community relations, it’s a start.

An example of how deep this problem is: Two years ago I was at a symposium held in Canberra. Three hundred Australians most of whom had never come within five paces of a Muslim met with thirty or so Muslims in an open and frank exchange. After two days of interaction two women approached me and said, ‘We didn’t know Muslims laughed or told jokes.’ It’s funny but it’s also chilling. This is the kind of social distance that will take decades to break down.

At the same time there are others who continue to circle the wagons in defence of Islam whenever something critical is ever said; this reduces the capacity to be self-critical. Some become more engaged with being Muslim than they would ever have in their country of origin now that they find themselves a minority. Some are embracing victim hood almost as a way of life.

Abrahamic faiths weekend camps are popular amongst younger Muslims. The latter have many friends in the burgeoning interfaith movement in Australia but there is also a need to return to other more secular alliances. Certain differences of opinion need to put aside to return to the alliances of the anti racist movement of the previous century. Hate speech needs combating by religious people and irreligious sceptics who should put aside their ideological differences in the interests of social justice and human rights.

Using religious hate speech laws is another strategy favoured by some but not all Muslims—at present the communities are divided on this matter because of the long-drawn out case involving the Islamic Council of Victoria and Catch the Fire Ministries. The complaint by the ICV under new Victorian laws on religious vilification was an atypical response from Muslim communities. But an increasing number of people are in favour of legislation working hand in hand with community education to break the cycle of abuse that happens in these matters. Anti-discrimination legislation by itself might not change attitudes but certainly modifies behaviour. Critics of the legislation accept racial vilification as uncivilised and morally wrong yet reject the idea that Islamophobia is a specific form of racism against Muslims who are visibly different.

The ICV v CTF case illustrated a diversity of opinion amongst Muslims. Many thought it a mistake to go to the law; they believed they’d lose out in the court of public opinion and they would be called enemies of free speech. Their reluctance shows that you need confidence as a Muslim to call on the rule of law. Three Anglo Australian Muslims who believed in their rights made the complaint.

Australian Muslims are trying to change attitudes towards them –it’s not easy. The pathological dread of Islam that has been in danger of developing in Australia in the 21^st century can only be shifted through partnerships where Muslims engage with non-Muslims and non-Muslims become more aware of Australian Muslims as fellow citizens. The burden is on the minority to develop the skills to project positive images and it would be easier if non-Muslims were more willing to see Muslims beyond the stereotype. Attitudinal change takes decades and during these years we need alliances, the law and community education and hopefully some changes in Middle East politics. Muslims have opinions about what is happening in the Middle East. The word Ummah means community of believers and they cannot disengage with the suffering of other Muslims in Iraq, Palestine or Afghanistan and Lebanon. Yet they are supposed to gag themselves because these views are not held to be legitimate which is strange in a democracy.

‘This is a vile culture and if you think for one second
that it’s willing to just live in the sands of God’s armpits
you’ve got another thing [sic] coming. They want to come
and live right where you live and they think you’re evil.’
(Kiss bassist Gene Simmons during a radio interview. He later
told Associated Press he was speaking mainly of ‘extremists’ and
that his remarks were taken out of context.)

To the understanding of the halaal butcher I met in Lakemba in 1994 who displayed a marvellous empathy born of experience eg.

‘You need a heart big enough to love two countries if you
are an immigrant. It shouldn’t be a case of loving one over
the other. It’s like having two children; your heart must be
big enough to love them both.’