Voices Shaping the
Safety, Belonging and Displacement
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Safety, Belonging and DisplacementSafety and belonging are two key dimensions of social inclusion for immigrant minority youth (Collins et al 2000). One key stakeholder who attended the Campsie workshop felt that integration was a slow process that improved generation by generation. If you want to get the Muslim people … integrated and accepted in the wider Australian community. … I have maybe to show I’m a very good person … So I’m accepted. Just like the Italians. They used to think all Italians are in the Mafia. Or they used to hate Greeks. And then one generation to another, it’s another community. They forgot about the previous one and they moved on. It’s a part of the Australian culture ... There’s that segregation and then how long it’s going to take the wider community to accept the smaller communities. We know from the quantitative research that the overwhelming majority of the survey respondents were Australian citizens, who felt good about living in Australia and who had mixed friendship networks. Yet ‘citizenship’ or ‘passport identity’ and ‘felt’ belonging can be different things. One stakeholder talked about the importance of travel for young people, as a way of learning about themselves and their identity. … You know, it’s a great experience to go overseas as a young Muslim Australian with that passport, and people ‐ doesn’t matter who you are ‐ people go, ‘so where are you from? Australia?’ The guy doesn’t ask you, ‘oh so your parents are from Lebanon, you Lebanese’. And they get asked the question: ‘Where are you from?’ And the kid from Bankstown can’t say, ‘I’m from Lebanon’ ... All of a sudden he has to say, ‘I’m Australian’. And he’s going through that inner experience of being seen as Australian… Some young Muslim Australians who worked in refugee services, and professionals who worked with community members, regarded safety and belonging as keys to successful and healthy development and success in society. Young people working with refugees wanted to assist them to achieve ‘normalization from trauma’, within the confines of an environment sometimes perceived as difficult. One young person stated: And our inspiration – obviously our inspiration does come from religion, because you know, we are Muslim here. But, I guess it comes from the understanding that there is a common struggle, and that’s regardless of ethnicity, regardless of religion, regardless – it’s the common struggle of trauma and then settlement and then trying to get, to return to that kind of … that normalization from trauma – and how do you do that? And how do you do it when there’s such a hostile environment towards refugees? I think that’s what we all understand exists, and that’s what we all want to correct. Refugees consulted as part of the research process felt thankful to be in Australia. This was especially so for the young women interviewed in Darwin, who had witnessed the kidnappings of other young women in refugee camps and the theft of personal property (including clothing items). They recalled the fear and terror they experienced sleeping at night. They spoke of police in the refugee camps that could not be trusted to assist in such matters and who in some cases were regarded as implicated in such crimes. They told of their male relatives and residents of the refugee camps who would send out rescue parties to retrieve women, and sometimes young men, from kidnappers although young men were regarded as having a good chance of freeing themselves. Australia was regarded a freeing them from such terror, where they could sleep safely. Refugee elders were however concerned about the intermittent incidents of violence experienced by some African refugees in Darwin and their perception of problematic police attention to such matters. Many young people and stakeholders consulted were concerned about the way in which ‘Islam’ and ‘Muslims’ are labeled as problematic or ‘alien’ due to the actions of a few unrepresentative individuals. Despite the difficulties young people encountered in practicing Islam, they were happy to hold on to their religious beliefs and traditions, many talking about embracing conciliatory and harmonious ways of living within the wider community. Some young people interviewed were concerned that they would not be accepted fully in society, as most Australians do not understand what it is to be religious. One young person said: Yes they’re never going to make us one of them, you know brothers, like we are in Islam. We have a special relationship with God; you know what it is, under God we serve. Most Aussies don’t know about that, they’re not religious like us… You know the problem is tolerance and acceptance. We have our way of doing things that is the best way that we have found. The average Aussie wants us to be like them. It’s like we have no choice. But we do have a choice. We want to be Muslims; no one is making us do this. I like my life here, even though there’s not a lot of tolerance around for us. Indeed some of the young Muslim Australians consulted were concerned with being marginalised within Australian society. They do not ascribe to themselves a ‘minority’ status, but rather saw themselves as part and parcel of the Australian community. Stereotypes, media and political narratives shaped by national and international events, create a ‘defensive’ approach in some young people, forced to deal with controversial identity constructions that are imposed upon them, and not of their own making. Well they’re treated like a minority group, which is quite bizarre because I know from Muslims per se they’re not seeking out this idea of being marginalised; they’re not seeking out the status of being a minority group. It’s something that’s almost been constructed upon them, been imposed upon them. So automatically, we become, and we being Muslims Australians, become defensive to this construction… So it’s almost difficult you know, when we do try and develop our own sense of identity because it never is our own, it’s always a response to external forces as such. … I mean that can be quite detrimental to their own self‐esteem, their own self‐development process at that stage in their lives… I can speak from experience, as a young Australian Muslim you do to some extent feel alienated, you’re made to feel that way... As one young person commented, reflecting on his understanding of the mainstream media: I think Muslims are never in the media for a good reason. I’m pretty sure there are a lot of good stories out there that make Muslims look good but doesn’t make good stories, doesn’t get news. When something bad happens – so, the people, the public – only see bad, they don’t see good sorts of thing. It’s all bad. A sense of displacement may also result from a continual interrogation of their identity, their loyalties and allegiances. Being Muslim has taken on a whole new ‘politically embedded dimension’ particularly in Australia post 9/11, post the two Bali bombings and the Madrid and London bombings (Marr and Wilkinson 2004; Manning 2006). Those consulted in our research describe a situation where anything a Muslim does seems to become covered under ‘a blanket of politics’, whether it is related to choices of dress, or activities such as comedy. One Muslim key stakeholder puts it as follows: Because we are so scrutinized, I think that by definition it means that everything we do has become politicized. And so, when I look at some of the activities that my friends are involved in, whether it be an art exhibition or the comedy stuff that my friends do or whatever…. Young women who reject stereotypical views of Muslim women, within the wider society, sometimes experience alienation. They may indeed be constrained by their parents’ fears for them in what may be perceived as a more hostile Australian society and workplace. You know whenever you think of Islamic communities or Islamic societies, ideas of women’s rights always pop into mind … and that has almost tainted other aspects of the community, internationally as well as domestically … So you’re trying to fight against that stereotype and also the stereotype that men have in your community, so it’s almost like a twofold, multiple levels of discrimination you face as Muslim woman and so that can be quite difficult… Another young woman contributes her perspective on Islamic interpretation saying: A lot of people assume that the woman is under the man and should do exactly what the man says. But our religion actually says the opposite. I went to a lecture and the sheikh said that the lady is not obliged to do anything for her husband if she doesn’t want to. She does things for him because she loves him. … There’s nothing in Islam that says that women should be locked up in the house and should never see daylight. Given the key role that alcohol plays in Australian youth culture, young Muslim Australians, who choose not to drink, sometimes feel displaced when it comes to socialising with others. As one young man commented, the engagement with non‐Muslim peers at high school started to drift off when they left school. He would not go to bars, and he now sees his friends much less often, meeting them in more comfortable environments. For some, these sorts of structural and cultural differences become more heavily embedded after adolescence, although it would be fair to say that young people regardless of background may move in different trajectories to each other after high school, especially if their post secondary work or education opportunities are different. Other young people find creative ways of dealing, such as the example mentioned in Darwin where alcohol cannot be avoided in cafes or restaurants. Some young people choose to socialize in environments where alcohol is served, but will refrain from drinking even though others will ‘have a go’ at them. Another example of displacement can be found in the dynamics that created the Cronulla riots (Collins and Reid 2009) and its retributive aftermath. While competitive male aggression played a part in this conflict, much of it can be attributed to the fact that there was widespread ignorance and anxiety on all sides. Despite ongoing debate about the causes of the events, the Cronulla riots still have great salience among young Muslim Australians, especially in Sydney with many young people and community stakeholders seeing it, variously, as an indication of deep‐seated Islamophobia, of a youth riot over turf, and as a wake‐up call to building better community relations through breaking down walls of ignorance and hostility in both directions. 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 -> Muslim Voices – Hopes and aspirations of Muslim Australians Centre for Muslim Minorities & Islam Policy Studies 01 2014 -> Prepared by: Kais Al‐Momani Nour Dados Marion Maddox Amanda Wise C 01 2014 -> Editors: Kerry Download 1.05 Mb. Share with your friends:
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