Prepared by: Kais Al‐Momani Nour Dados Marion Maddox Amanda Wise C
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- SUM M A R Y
SPECIFIC PROGRAMSLeadership Australia – A New Generation, implemented by the Australian Multicultural Foundation and funded by DIAC, is a leadership and mentoring program for 16 young Australian Muslims from each state and territory. Step‐in‐out: Multicultural Young Men’s Leadership, also funded by DIAC, is implemented by Multicultural Youth South Australia. It aims to build leadership skills among young Muslim men aged between 14 and 25, in order to increase participation in the mainstream community. Programs of interest that have emerged out of the United Kingdom fall broadly into the following categories: ƒ Religion and school ƒ Faith and social cohesion ƒ Diplomacy between Britain and Muslim nations ƒ Muslim women’s voices ƒ Muslim men’s voices ƒ Political inclusion, power and participation. Many are funded by independent trusts and philanthropic foundations. Notably, the Role of Faith Schools – Discussions, Dialogues and Debates, funded by the Runnymede Trust, promotes cohesion between young people from various ethnic and faith backgrounds. Two sister projects were funded and implemented by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation: In My Name – a Collection of Muslim Women’s Voices and In My Name – a Collection of Muslim Men’s Voices. Of special interest is a project called Active Citizenship Program of Study, delivered by the independent Nasiha Education Foundation. It seeks to improve life skills of young people from Muslim backgrounds and teach the importance of diversity, social cohesion and a sense of common purpose. Its approach is unique in presenting an enriched Islamic perspective on citizenship values, sourced directly from Islamic traditions. The program has been designed to be part of existing curriculum in mosques and madrassas. Government funding in the UK for social programs focused on Muslim communities explicitly emphasised preventing violent extremism and terrorism, in a strategy called PREVENT. Its goals were to: ƒ Challenge violent extremist ideology and support mainstream voices ƒ Increase the capacity of communities to resist violent extremists ƒ Address grievances. In 2007, the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government announced £45 million to local authorities under the program. In August 2009, this funding was boosted by an additional £7.5 million. These programs, under the heading ‘Empowering Communities’, included the Community Leadership Fund, Local Government Performance Indicator on Preventing Violent Extremism, Pathfinder Fund, Challenge and Innovation Fund and the Young Muslims Advisory Group. The Community Leadership Fund provided funding to organisations working on: ƒ Capacity of organisations and communities ƒ Supporting Muslim young people ƒ Supporting Muslim women ƒ Capacity of Muslim faith leaders ƒ Local forums against extremism and Islamophobia.
PREVENT strategy’s objectives. The Young Muslim Advisory Group was established in August 2008 to work with Cabinet ministers on such matters as reducing discrimination, enhancing civic participation and lifting employment levels. SUMMARYThe current literature does not facilitate an accurate assessment of levels of Muslim political participation in Australia. This is for a number of reasons. One is the very great diversity of Australian Muslims. Self‐identified Muslims come from almost every geographical background, including both Indigenous and non‐Indigenous Australians. Factors which affect political participation include age, education, employment, English fluency, socio‐economic status, length of residence in Australia, integration into a religious community and level of religious commitment. Further, some of these (such as the last two) interact in ways which complicate one another’s effects. Australian Muslims range from very low to very high on each of these measures, making their assessment as a single community very difficult. In spite of these difficulties, meaningful information can be mined from the large international and Australian data on migrant political participation, and from the smaller, mostly overseas, literatures on the relationship between religion and political participation and on Muslim political participation specifically. The survey of initiatives demonstrates that Australia has already made a significant start in developing programs to enhance political participation by Australian Muslims. The remainder of this report augments the existing literature through qualitative research to assess which initiatives are most likely to succeed, and why. CHAPTER 4: OPPORTUNITIES AND BARRIERSCOMMON CHARACTERISTICS OF THE POLITICALLY ACTIVENot surprisingly, interviewees tended to describe themselves as highly self‐motivated, and not easily discouraged. Asked what barriers they had encountered, many echoed the response of a youth leader: “I tend to be the sort of person who doesn’t see barriers”. Several said that, rather than be discouraged when they encountered opposition, they merely took it as a stimulus to try even harder. As in other communities, the politically active often grew up in supportive, and perhaps politically‐aware, families. For example, Diana Rahman came from a very politically‐engaged family: her father always read the paper (“the Courier Mail, because that was what there was—so he was always abreast of Australian news”), and encouraged his daughters to be active. As well as direct political socialisation, many interviewees found in their family backgrounds the resources to be personally strong, willing to go out on a limb, unafraid to risk criticism—necessary attributes for anyone taking a public stand. Cultural background is also important. Those whose families originated from countries with robust democratic institutions found political involvement easier, and more attractive, than did those from totalitarian or repressive countries of origin. A number of interviewees described wanting to “give something back” to Australia, and emphasised that their work, even if directed specifically towards Muslims or towards a particular ethnic group, was aimed at improving things for the whole Australian community. To some, the negative publicity about Muslims after September 11 2001 was a motivating force. Media stereotypes inspired some to demonstrate a different face of Islam. Others were moved by the discrimination Muslims experienced to help other Muslims understand and act on their rights. One said that, since 2001, he felt he could not publicly criticise any Muslim community because “there’s enough of that already”. He felt a constant obligation to challenge negative stereotypes. Some attributed their move into political activity to a particular issue. A number of Australian interviewees echoed Canadian MP Omar Alghabra, who said he finally got to the point where expressing dissatisfaction with the political situation was not enough: a friend challenged him that if he wanted to complain about how things were then he should try and do something about it. Most described their political awakening as a gradual process. By contrast, Malikeh Michaels had been politically active since high school, but found her conversion to Islam gave her activism a new focus. A very strong theme for all interviewees was the importance of education. They argued that discrimination in the general community was largely attributable to lack of education and that better‐educated people were less likely to hold negative, stereotypical views of Islam. They felt that all Australians, Muslim and non‐Muslim, needed to be better educated about the Australian political system in order to participate effectively in democratic processes. One participant had designed an education program, “How to Lobby Effectively”, about Australian democracy, which was first used at Auburn Mosque in the lead‐up to the 2004 federal election. But, convinced that the wider Australian population also needed basic civics instruction, the participant has now used it in other forums with non‐Muslims. Interviewees also all felt strongly that education was vital for new migrants, as a means of settling in and improving their circumstances, and that knowledge of English was a determining factor in people’s ability to participate (as our research confirmed). Moreover, several argued that lack of education about Islam made Muslims more open to extremism. “Backyard imams” with little training, and new converts with more enthusiasm than knowledge, could easily be misled; whereas those with a deeper knowledge of Islamic theology and political traditions were less susceptible to radicalisation. Affinity Intercultural Foundation’s newly‐launched Islamic Sciences and Research Academy (ISRA) offers university‐level courses which aim to teach Muslim students a better understanding of their faith, and non‐Muslim students, such as trainee nurses and teachers, a better understanding of how to interact with Muslims they encounter in their professional practice. Directory: sites -> default -> files -> documents -> 01 2014 documents -> Ace abi catair customs and Trade Automated Interface Requirements documents -> Mobile audio/video recording systems documents -> The south australian government gazette documents -> All public acts appearing in this gazette are to be considered official, and obeyed as such documents -> Union interparlementaire inter-parliamentary union 01 2014 -> Voices Shaping the 01 2014 -> Muslim Voices – Hopes and aspirations of Muslim Australians Centre for Muslim Minorities & Islam Policy Studies 01 2014 -> Editors: Kerry Download 16.24 Mb. Share with your friends:
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