Prepared by: Kais Al‐Momani Nour Dados Marion Maddox Amanda Wise C
Download 16.24 Mb.
|
CHAPTER 5: TACKLING THE PROBLEMTHE DIMENSIONS OF POLITICAL DISENGAGEMENTAs Ahmad Kilani, Director of muslimvillage, points out, Muslims are a minority in Australia. Those who identify as Muslim make up only 1.7% of Australia’s total population, according to the 2006 Census. It is therefore important to consider the political engagement of this minority community within the broader national context. Individuals who took part in the interviews we conducted and who were active in the community, civics or political arena, were keen to stress that disengagement with the political system had many dimensions and did not concern Muslim Australians alone. Jamila Hussain, a lecturer in Islamic Law and member of a peak Muslim women's association, noted the difficulty of generating interest in politics in general and not only amongst Muslim Australians. It’s the same in the wider community; it’s really hard to get people interested in politics. Speaking about strategies that could engage Muslim Australians in the broader political sphere, another academic noted the difficulty of engaging any community in political action: Thinking about political participation in terms of being a public spokesperson on behalf of communities then it’s up to local communities to encourage their young people on an individualised basis to get involved, whether it’s …writing about issues, kind of working their way up the rung of community organisations, that’s one I guess pathway people can take. Or there’s the pathway of formal involvement with a Muslim identity through party politics, that’s another route, then there’s the academic pathway, there’s a pathway through journalism... Sometimes it’s going to be a matter of communities identifying people who have particular talents or skills and encouraging them to get involved, and sometimes it’s going to be people having their own individualised dreams and passions and getting involved in their own way. I don’t think we can come up with a formula that says this is how we produce politically active Muslim Australians, I don’t think there’s a formula for encouraging people to become politically active in general, let alone for Muslims. One participant, who had developed training for public servants, viewed the general lack of political knowledge amongst the Australian population as a widespread problem: I wear a hijab, and I have been for the last five years, so here’s this woman – I’m describing myself – wearing a hijab and training these mostly Anglo Australians in the machinery of government, starting off with the Constitution, and going through the separation of powers of government – the system, how the system works – and then ending up with their role, working in, say, the government department, when a question on notice comes through. How does that fit within the system? And doing senate estimates; where does that sit? And when a Ministerial comes in, where does that sit? And their role and how they’re supposed to operate within government. None of them had a clue. And I’m talking not only of the younger ones, but even some of the older ones, and that’s an interesting observation. It’s not just synonymous with Muslims per se, or Arabs per se. It’s actually across the board, and it’s a major gap in the education system in Australia, I believe. Liverpool Labor councillor Gullam Gillani similarly stressed that not only Muslim Australians feel excluded from mainstream participation: ‘that’s not just restricted to Muslims—your subject is Muslims, but I’m suggesting in general’. He maintained that efforts to foster political inclusion needed to be broader: I do suggest that it would be better for Australian society as a whole that those groups ... which feel that they are disadvantaged, that they are not being treated fairly... need to be approached, they need to be educated. A lack of interest in politics was also seen as generational, with younger people less likely to be interested in traditional means of engagement. One participant, an employee with a multicultural services provider in Victoria, noted that younger people tended to be attracted to different methods when it came to disseminating and obtaining information about politics. I know a lot of people that use this [the internet] as a platform to raise awareness on a lot of issues, and mainly political issues. So it’s not only using it as a site to network, but it’s a site to disseminate information to your network, as quickly and effectively as possible. ... And that’s the beauty of it: you’re not actually pushing it down anyone’s throat. So, if you post something in your News Feed, or your Live Feed, and if someone finds it interesting, they’ll click on it and read what you’ve posted. 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:
|