Prepared by: Kais Al‐Momani Nour Dados Marion Maddox Amanda Wise C
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STANDING FOR ELECTIONOur research identified only two Muslims, Adem Somyürek MLC (Victoria) and Shaoquett Moselmane MLC (NSW), who currently sit in any Australian parliament. Both of these are at state level, both are in the upper houses of their respective parliaments, and both are with the Labor Party. Somyürek is of Turkish background, but does not actively promote himself among Victoria’s Muslim communities as representing them in particular. Moselmane is of Lebanese background, identifies as Muslim and has been involved with the Lebanese community. He chaired the Australian Lebanese Friends of Labor group, and is an honorary member of the Arab Business Network. He was elected Mayor of Rockdale four times between 2001 and 2009. Moselmane was pre‐selected to stand for the NSW Lower House seat of Rockdale in 2003 but was asked to stand aside to make way for Frank Sartor. In 2010 he was selected to fill a casual upper house vacancy caused by the departure of Henry Tsang. After this research was completed, but before the study’s release, Ed Husic became the first Muslim elected to federal parliament, as the Labor Member for Chifley. The study identified a number of other Muslims preselected for federal or state parliaments. They included Silma Ihram (Democrats – pre‐selected but did not run), Mohammed El‐Leissy (Greens) and Michael Hawatt (Liberal). We also identified several local councillors of Muslim background, some of whom we interviewed for this study. Past councillors or contenders include Saeed Khan (Marrickville, Greens, 2003‐2008); Samira Batik; Sam Almaliki (ran unsuccessfully as an Independent in Hurstville, 2008) and former Mayor of Hobson’s Bay Bill Baarini. Councillors currently holding seats are listed in the following table.
Table 4: Listing of current Muslim councillors identified in the study. Apart from Marrickville, all of the listed local government areas have high numbers of Muslim residents. Victoria had many fewer Muslim councillors, despite much higher levels of community and political engagement with multiculturalism and the greater funding for anti‐racism and anti‐discrimination programs in that state compared to NSW. Being elected to local government is easier, because each council has multiple councillors and representation by wards means that strong ties to a geographically‐clustered ethnic or religious community can potentially assist a candidate’s chances. Further, by and large, local government preselection is less influenced by the major parties’ ‘machine politics’ and there is less fear of targeted anti‐Muslim scare campaigns, such as those in the 2004 election in the seat of Greenway (involving Muslim candidate Ed Husic) and Lindsay in 2007 (involving allegations about a non‐existent Muslim extremist group). All elected representatives interviewed for this study emphasised that they represented all their constituents, rather than just the Muslim community. For example: I don’t think I sit there in my chamber as a Muslim…. I sit there as a citizen of this country who lives in Liverpool and who is there to look after the interests of the people who have put their trust in him. … A lot of Muslim people identify with me, they relate with me more because I’m a Muslim. They kind of feel more encouraged to speak with me and bring their problems to me… I help them if I can, but that doesn’t mean that they’re the only customers I have. (Liverpool councillor) Being elected – I was voted for unanimously, by everyone, so at the end of the day I represent party, one; two, I represent the whole community, and I’m not in it to say I’m a Muslim candidate for the Muslim people. I’m an Australian candidate for the Auburn community. (Hicham Zraika – Labor Mayor of Auburn) Mayor Zraika said that he cannot hide the fact that he is Muslim, and indeed, does not wish to ‘run away’ from his religion. However he emphasised that his identification with his religious community put a particular onus on him to be consciously fair and equitable at all times and demonstrate that he is not just speaking for Muslims. This is particularly so when issues such as development applications for religious facilities come up for debate at council. To gain someone’s trust is not easy, particularly for us of Islamic background. We’ve probably got to work extra hard to prove ourselves and say “Look, I’m open and fair with everyone”. But I have taken decisions before that are not popular with the Muslim community ... That’s the way it is. You have to look at the interests of the whole community. But, generally, ... you are known, and people assume that you make decisions based on your religion. You can’t run away from it. You’ve just got to leave it, and keep going. (Hicham Zraika – Labor Mayor of Auburn) Candidacy at state and federal levels is a fraught business, particularly when it comes to the major parties. It often involves long years of networking and deal making, with compromises along the way which make it harder to explicitly represent a particular community such as Muslims. Some of these challenges will be discussed in Chapter Four. In this next section, we outline some alternative forums through which Australian Muslims have found effective political voice. 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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