Prepared by: Kais Al‐Momani Nour Dados Marion Maddox Amanda Wise C
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CONCLUSIONTaken together, these observations suggest that being Muslim, as such, is hardly a major factor in an interviewee’s level of political engagement. More significant factors are length of residence in Australia, facility with English, political socialisation through role models, mentors and family culture, and, in the case of migrants, whether they came from societies with robust democracy or from situations in which political participation was likely to be associated with torture and trauma. Gender and class were also significant, interacting with the foregoing characteristics in various ways. For example, women from very traditional cultures found it harder to engage politically than women who had grown up in communities where their mothers and other female role models had been assertive and publicly‐engaged. Class worked for Muslims in much the same ways as for non‐Muslims, but class disadvantage (for example, attending an underprivileged school or coming from a poorly‐resourced suburb) compounded other problems, such as lack of English fluency and or of familiarity with Australian institutions. The further participants had moved into formal political representation, the more concerned they were not to be seen as a ‘Muslim candidate’, emphasising instead their ability to represent constituents from any part of the community. Similarly, several of the Muslim academics we interviewed valued their capacity to speak on issues other than those to do with Islam, and built their public identity more on their professional and disciplinary qualifications than on their faith. On the other hand, some interviewees whose involvement was more at the community level felt betrayed by what they saw as other Muslims’ disowning of the community once they had achieved recognition in the public sphere. Participants were divided on whether programs to enhance political participation should be directed specifically towards Muslims. Many had benefited from existing programs; but the majority view was that faith is not the most appropriate selection criterion. In practice, ‘Muslim’ often seemed to act as shorthand for a range of other categories, such as ‘recent migrant’, ‘refugee’, ‘member of an ethnic minority’ or ‘person from an outer suburb of Sydney or Melbourne’. Many, but by no means all, members of each of these groups are Muslims; and many Muslims are not members of any of these groups. Consequently, participants generally felt that programs to boost political participation could be better directed toward more relevant criteria. Compounding the problem that ‘Muslim’ is an only partly relevant descriptor is the fact that it is also highly politically charged. Many respondents expressed in very strong terms their sense of having been under assault during the 1996‐2007 Liberal government. Typical comments included ‘I don’t see how anyone could vote Liberal with Howard and Costello’; ‘When senior politicians and your own government keep running down your community, how can you feel Australian?’; ‘Well, I might have considered standing as a Liberal, but certainly not when Howard was there.’ Some participants concluded that intersecting political and media storms, including those to do with asylum‐seekers, terrorism and western Sydney gang rapes, had led to ‘Muslim’ becoming associated in the public mind with criminality. Even when programs directed at Muslims were intended to counter this image, the result could still be that Muslims felt further singled‐out for special scrutiny and social engineering. This was particularly so when the program came from government, rather than from within the community. On the other hand, several specifically Muslim‐oriented programs had made large, lasting and tangible differences to their participants’ level of participation. They included the ‘Believe, Aspire, Inspire’ program run by the Federation of Muslim Students and Youth and Victoria University, the La Trobe Muslim Leadership Program and Australian MADE (Muslim Adolescent Development and Education).Similar results had also come from programs not specific to Muslims, such as Victorian Arab Social Services’ Anti‐Racism Action Band, Victoria’s Ethnic Youth Council, Duke of Edinburgh Awards and the Youth Parliament, although some of these had involved barriers of class and religion (eg availability of halal food) which had taken time to overcome. In addition to provision of culturally‐specific needs such as appropriate food and prayer times, other measures which could boost participation in programs or activities are financial assistance for those for whom costs are prohibitive and childcare for programs likely to attract parents of young children. While programs and activities directly targeted towards political participation can play an important part, our findings also stress the importance of general civic engagement, through such activities as sport, arts programs, music, play groups or participation in school activities like P&C. Activities that support students academically and encourage them to remain at school longer are also important, and include homework clubs, camps, English language support, and work experience with culturally appropriate role models. Many Muslims have run for office, from local government to federal levels. Some expressed frustration at being preselected (like most novice politicians on their early runs) only for unwinnable seats. Few reported specifically religious or racial discrimination in pre‐selection, although some felt that their faith made it particularly difficult for them to accept aspects of party practice. Their reservations ranged over matters of policy, the cut‐and‐thrust of factional politics and the prevalence of alcohol at party events. Historically, Australian Muslims, like members of most other ethnic minorities, have voted Labor. The majority of Muslim representatives in local and state government represent the Labor party. Some Muslim voters, for religious reasons or because of recent persecution, are reluctant to vote, despite its being compulsory in state and federal elections. They negotiate this in various ways, including donkey voting, deliberate informal voting, voting for a party that they do not expect to win (when the reluctance is religious) or making a formal case for exemption from the requirement to vote. Beyond this, our interviews suggest a possible shift in traditional voting patterns among Muslim voters, away from Laborand towards the Greens. Reasons included the feeling that the ALP was taking Muslims’ votes for granted and therefore not responding to their concerns; the similarity of the two major parties’ stances on the key issues of treatment of asylum seekers and Palestinian autonomy; and a preference for the Greens’ position on environmental and social justice issues. For some, the Greens’ stance on same‐sex marriage was a stumbling block; but, for several of these, their reservations were not enough to deter them from supporting the party. Some were happy to support the policy, arguing that when Muslims, as a marginalised minority, defend their own rights, then they should also be ready to defend other marginalised minorities. 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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