Prepared by: Kais Al‐Momani Nour Dados Marion Maddox Amanda Wise C

CASE STUDY: LEADERSHIP AUSTRALIA – A NEW GENERATION

INITIATIVE DETAILS

Australian Government/Department of Immigration and Citizenship

State Government/Victorian Multicultural Commission

Contact: Dr Hass Dellal

Australian Multicultural Foundation

Level 1, 185 Faraday Street, Carlton VIC 3053

Email: info@amf.net.au

Cohesion, Harmony and Security/Victorian Multicultural Commission

DESCRIPTION OF INITIATIVE

These individual projects include public presentations and mentoring other local young Muslims. In addition, the project participants have compiled an internet based leadership and mentoring resource kit for broader community use that continues to be developed. This guide includes information on leadership programs, mentoring, multifaith networks, working with the media, voluneetering, community networking and speaking opportunities. It provides contact information for organisations that youth can contact on a range of issues. This resource is described as a ‘working document’ that will be updated with regular additions.

CRITICAL SUCCESS FACTORS

In this case study, we were interested in looking at the effectiveness of the course in promoting leadership qualities and civic participation amongst its participants. We found this to be an innovative, well‐organised initiative that continues to have strong support from previous participants. Based on conversations with two participants and the co‐ordinator, it is evident that the program was successful not only in achieving its aims but in providing opportunities for participants to engage in the wider public sphere and within their own communities beyond the time frame of the course. This was also confirmed by evaluations conducted by the organisation of the program in 2008 through evaluation feedback forms completed by all participants before and after the training course. Seventy‐seven percent of respondents agreed that the program achieved its objectives and twenty‐three percent strongly agreed. Further, fifty‐three percent of participants said that they would fully recommend the program while forty‐seven percent agreed that they would recommend it.
The media training component of the course was considered to be particularly important by all those involved with the course. Participants noted in the evaluation feedback that the media training was very useful and helped them think about how to better support their views and work towards breaking down barriers between Muslims and non‐Muslims. Hass Dellal recalled:
I think that media was always an area that young people spoke about. Because of the continual perception of reinforcing Muslims in a negative light, a lot of young people continually commented that the constant negative media attention coupled with irresponsible comments from high profile leaders both within the Muslim and the wider community, young people felt that this contributed to and was a major cause of creating those feelings of alienation and marginalisation.
Understanding how the media worked meant that participants were better equipped to be able to negotiate having their own voice heard within the public sphere. For a twenty‐year‐old male participant:
What I got out of it – from what the editor from the Sun‐Herald said and the other media workshops that we had – was that the best way to give an alternate voice is to mould yourself within mainstream media rather than provide a competitive force to the existing media because the mainstream is already happy and is too engaged with the current forms of media and sources of media to think about changing and going to other sources. So for example we had Waleed Aly who you might know – a lecturer from Melbourne in politics and so forth. He writes regularly in papers such as The Age I believe and other print media. Now he could have easily started his own journal that nobody would have read but through his involvement and intellect in mainstream media, he’s able to put a case forward and change the perspectives and change the views. Now, obviously that opportunity has got to be provided and it’s not always provided, but, still, I think that’s a better way than simply going and starting a website that has some information that is completely alien to most people out there and no‐one will visit.
During the course, participants were assigned the task of speaking about the course through various media and social outlets. This was considered an opportunity for participants to find ways in which they could inform wider Australian society about the course. A twenty‐year‐old male participant secured a prime time radio interview with journalist Alan Jones of 2UE.

We were given a task to go back after the program and to sort of try and talk about the program through different media sources. Now, I don't think many of us would have done that if the program didn't ask us to. Through the program asking us, it put an onus on us and gave us a challenge to try and express our views about the program and broader community issues. Now I took it upon myself to go and get an interview with Alan Jones. Now if I wasn't encouraged – set the task of promoting and sharing and providing an insight into this program and community issues through the media, I don't think I would have done it. On my behalf it was a good choice to go through talk‐back radio and think of being on the Alan Jones Program. But still I was shown – from that experience I’ve been given the confidence that I can create my own opportunities, rather than say, ‘Look, I’m always denied the opportunity to speak, I’m always denied the opportunity to put the case forward.’ The reality is if you investigate you’ll likely get a go. And that’s what that proved for me.
Just as important as the ability to create one’s own opportunities, was the perception that community attitudes could be changed through dialogue. One seventeen‐year‐old girl, who was still completing Year 12 when she undertook the course, was able to secure an interview with a local community newspaper. In the interview, she discussed the challenges faced by young Muslim men and women because of negative community views about Islam:
A lot of people in society are very ignorant about Islam. There are a lot of negative views about

Islam that stem from people not understanding it.
While the female high school student hoped to be able to go on to do community work that would change those attitudes, the young male participant who organised the interview on talk back radio felt that the dialogue created by the interview had already begun changing some of these negative perceptions.
As somebody who is active in the community, he gave me a very good acknowledgement and credit and also acknowledged the fact to say to his listeners, fourty percent of young Muslims are born in this country. So we need to regard them as young Australians who are facing issues not so different to what other young people are facing from other cultural backgrounds.
In addition to the sense of achievement and of being able to create one’s own opportunities within the wider community, the participants we interviewed noted the appeal of the course for those participants who had not worked closely within their own communities and who found the program especially beneficial in allowing them access and insight to community dynamics. One Muslim female participant, who had been involved heavily involved in youth programs prior to the course but had not worked closely with the Muslim community, found the Islamic focus of the program extremely important.
When you’re looking, not necessarily at becoming a leader, but when you’ve got some sort of responsibility in the community, it’s really important to make sure that whatever values you're upholding are reflected in the way you go about helping the community and that sort of thing. The difference between your normal, run of the mill leadership program or group is that there are some things that it helps to look at from a Muslim perspective. It’s not necessarily something explicit, but there are differences in the way things are run, even the basic morals are definitely Muslim as opposed to be being just your normal morals in a sense. That, and the fact that you're working with people who have the same background and so deal with the same issues and have the same responsibilities in their communities makes it a very good experience.
A significant component of this leadership course was the development of leadership skills through the help of local mentors and the development of future mentors through the course. According to a male participant:

I think this aspect of the course was effective in that it made me aware of the importance of having a mentor and since I've had very close and much older friends as mentors...people I can ask for advice, discuss with my plans and goals, run by projects etc. While I didn't consciously aim to satisfy this aspect of the program, it was highlighted to such an extent that I have taken it upon myself throughout the last few years to run things by people very close to me of great life and professional experience.
The fact that the course provided a forum where Muslim leaders of the future could meet each other, interact and discuss issues of importance to them was also a key achievement of the course. A female participant told us:
One of the big things that I think the Muslim community in Australia is missing is that sense of leadership or those really strong leaders and so it’s really important to have the foresight into developing a group of Muslim leaders who are all connected with each other and bringing them all together in a forum like this and getting them to interact with each other and to share ideas and that sort of thing. It makes a bigger difference than you would think, just creating that network of leaders and strengthening that core within the Muslim community in Australia I think is extremely important.
Perhaps most importantly, the course demonstrated that helping young Muslims develop leadership skills can lead to unanticipated opportunities. The young Muslim male we spoke to went on to run in local council elections shortly after completing the course as an independent candidate. Although he had always been interested in such challenges, the course provided the encouragement and support to take advantage of that opportunity. What was important to him, however, was not simply politics, but the opportunity to make a difference, whatever the field:
Definitely it’s a passion. But look, so much politics as I often say – and this is really hard to explain to people – but for me it’s more of an opportunity – wherever an opportunity to make a difference comes, I’ll take it. So if it’s in politics it’s in politics. If it’s in diplomacy, if it’s in involvement with the United Nations, if it’s involvement on a local organisation level – whatever it might be, I’ll take it, rather than sort of say, ‘Well, look, politics is my path and I want to be the minister for this or that.’ It’s more like well, wherever the opportunity arises to make a difference, I’m going to take it.

CHALLENGES

There appear to have been few downsides with this course. Although not discussed in negative terms, one of the things the participants did grapple to deal with was the diversity of views within the Muslim community that the course forced them to confront. For the twenty‐year‐old man:
The main challenge was that I felt often that I was in a tussle and battle with myself and the ideas that were put forward by my fellow participants and even the ideas that were put forward by the presentations. So that was the challenge – I think a lot of the participants had that challenge – you know, being able to accept the ideas, the issues, the solutions that were put forward and discussed. I think that was the key. There were a lot of ideas and a lot of dialogue between the participants and the presenters. I think we all have a different perspective. That was the challenge for me and I’m sure it was a challenge for everybody else. Tacking those [ideas onto], filtering that into something that is constructive and that you can take as a person to implement as a leader in the community. I think most of us did that really well because some of us came from completely different – it’s a perfect example of why you can’t group the Muslim community – even though we came from different spectrums, we were able to engage and share those ideas and even though it was challenging, I think we were able to get something out of the program.

It is interesting to note that this was reflected in the responses documented by the organisation’s evaluation with sixty‐two percent of participants agreeing that the program was thought provoking.

In addition, and although the provision of mentoring was found to be very valuable amongst the participants we interviewed, one female participant noted that greater advice and direction in locating and developing mentoring relationships would have been extremely helpful for those involved.
Further, there were some concerns raised by participants through the feedback that the length of the program needed to be extended as the two‐day format sometimes meant that the information that was delivered seemed to be rushed.

ORGANISATIONAL AND SUSTAINABILITY ISSUES

The course was run three times over two years (2008 and 2009) with funding under the National Action Plan. Long term funding to continue the program is something that course co‐ordinators are currently considering although they are optimistic about the possibilities. Dr Hass Dellal reflected on a future role for the course’s graduates:
We’ve now got an alumni and it’s about sustaining it. I’m hoping to rerun these programs in a different way or reintroduce them to a new audience of young people who are totally isolated and marginalised to help develop their leadership qualities and skills so that they have an opportunity to participate and be engaged. Particularly those young people who have been seriously disenfranchised ‐ I will use the alumni graduates as mentors. So funding and resources are always an issue, but I believe that if the will is there, and the interest is there, you can produce results and find the resources.

MAIN CONCLUSIONS

This was a positive initiative. Both the participants we interviewed who both spoke highly of it. It is an important example of a leadership program for young Muslim Australians that facilitates further engagement in community work, media, politics and the public sphere. In addition to young Muslims who are active in the Muslim community, this initiative also appealed to Muslim Australians who had not previously worked closely with their own communities. This initiative provided opportunities for women to train in leadership roles.
The program demonstrates the capacity to promote political participation amongst young Muslims, like the alumnus who went on to run as an independent in council elections in Sydney.

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