Terms of engagement: examining the rhetoric of radicalisation

Abdul Abdullah

UNSW Art & Design

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Surname or Family name: Abdulllah

First name: Abdul Other name/s:

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School: UNSW Faculty: Art

Title: Terms of engagement: examining the rhetoric of radicalisation

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This body of research critically examines and challenges popular rhetoric regarding contemporary understandings of ‘radicalisation’ in reference to Australian Muslim communities. Through the prism of the ‘War on terror’ and its adverse and disproportionate affects on Australian Muslims, Terms of engagement: examining the rhetoric of radicalisation coalesces research on Acculturative Stress and Self-determination theory, anecdotal experience, documented acts of politically-motivated violence, and the reporting of those acts of politically-motivated violence to reassess popular narratives regarding national security. The exhibition is comprised of eleven images that reflect the projection of criminality on marginalised and vilified people in a way that invites the audience to reflect on their own potential personal biases.

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Date 13th June 2017

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Date 13th June 2017 Contents

1. Introduction p3

2. Defining Radicalisation p5

3. My politicisation and understanding of contemporary radicalisation p10

4. Coming to Terms: The rhetoric around radicalisation p25

5. Siege: Combating prejudice with art, and art in response to war p43

6. Conclusion p62

7. Bibliography p66

2 Introduction

This thesis examines my artistic practice through one of its central themes: the phenomenon of ‘radicalisation’ and how it is understood and applied in the contemporary Australian context. It will critically dissect the term’s popular use, and how the rhetoric of radicalisation contributes to and nurtures structures of generational disadvantage and race-based social/caste stratifications that I understand as an effect of the ‘War on Terror’. As such, this body of work critically investigates the rhetoric of radicalisation through the contemporary prism of the ‘War on Terror’, and compares how a selection of relevant artists have responded to experiences of war in the past, contextualising my own body of work within this tradition.

Where many artists have chosen to focus on the atrocities of armed conflict or the military experience, my work instead takes up the social and cultural experience of those on the home front, positioning increased and perception of Muslim

‘radicalisation’ as affects of war. To frame this artistic practice, my research critically examines dominant narratives regarding radicalisation in (that are almost exclusively applied to Muslims). Alongside my artistic practice, it seeks to discursively reframe the conversation about radicalisation, drawing on both social and cultural studies pertinent to the contemporary Australian Muslim experience, and anecdotal evidence describing my own experience of growing up Muslim in a post-9/11 Australia.

It extrapolates the ways in which these streams of research, as well as a comparative analysis of other artists’ explorations of the experiences and effects of war, have informed the way my artistic practice utilises the projections and anxieties that dominate popular understandings regarding Muslims.

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In general, my artistic practice spans painting, photography, video, installation and performance and is concerned with the ‘other’ in society, particularly young Muslims in the context of contemporary, multicultural Australia. It is through this practice that I extrapolate my worldview and explore the ways in which people relate. The research outlined in this text is an extension and reflection of this artistic practice, focusing on two key photographic series, Coming to Terms (2015), which was shown at the Gallery of Modern Art (QLD) as part of the Asia Pacific Triennial, and Siege (2014) and its companion series from 2015, Conciliation (of self), Reconciliation (of self) and Restitution

(of self). These works exist at the intersection of different levels of discourse about

'radical ': government policies and ; media representations; community perceptions; and creative responses. Before discussing my body of work, however, this thesis will explore and define the foundational ideas, events and opinions that inform my practice and have directly contributed to the series under examination with this text.

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Defining Radicalisation

This chapter will provide an account of the social and cultural production of what I refer to throughout this thesis as ‘radicalisation’ in context. This definition will underpin the research and artistic outcomes discussed throughout, providing the framework for my account of the bodies of work submitted for consideration in my

Masters exhibition. I will then go on to extrapolate how this definition is imbricated within my own experience and the aims and questions within my work as an artist.

In 2015, The initiative ‘Living Safe Together: Building community resilience to violent extremism’ launched a website that sought to “provide information on what communities and the Australian Government are doing to build resilient communities that take action against violent extremism”. The website includes a glossary of terms that defines ‘radicalisation’ as:

… The process by which an individual’s beliefs move from the relatively

mainstream to calling for a drastic change in society that would have a negative

impact on harmony, rights and freedoms of . It does not necessarily

mean a willingness to use violence to realise those beliefs, but some individuals

come to believe that violence is justified to achieve ideological, political or social

change.1

The inclusion of a “negative impact on harmony, rights and freedoms of Australians” is incongruent with traditional definitions of radicalisation, which historically are

1 https://www.livingsafetogether.gov.au/resources/Pages/definitions-and-glossary.aspx 5 primarily concerned with “extreme changes in existing views, habits, conditions or institutions”2, without reference to any particular social or cultural group. While the

Australian Government’s definition differentiates between the process of radicalisation and violent action, the British Government’s 2011 Prevent Strategy presented to the

British Parliament by the Secretary of State for the Home Department explicitly associates the two:

… Radicalisation is driven by an ideology, which sanctions the use of violence; by

propagandists for that ideology here and overseas; and by personal

vulnerabilities and specific local factors which, for a range of reasons, make that

ideology seem both attractive and compelling.3

A 2012 enquiry by the British Home Affairs committee into the ‘Prevent Strategy’ goes on to define radicalisation as: “… The process by which a person comes to support terrorism and forms of extremism leading to terrorism.”4

This conflation of radicalisation with violence and terrorism by Governments shifts the popular understanding of the definition away from contrarian, anti-establishment political and cultural ideologies towards existential threat, and in doing so further marginalises and vilifies individuals and groups espousing potentially radical tendencies. Across Australia, the UK, and the US, policies addressing ‘radicalisation’ overwhelmingly focus on terrorism, particularly concerning themselves with the Middle

East and a perception of Muslim radicalism. Seen through the prism of the “War on

2 Merriam-Webster. (2016). Definition of RADICAL. Retrieved from https://www.merriam- webster.com/dictionary/radical 3 British Home Office (2011) Prevent Strategy. British Crown: London. P13. 4 British House of Commons, Home Affairs Committee (2012) Roots of Violent Radicalisation. Nineteenth Report of Session 2010-12, Vol 1. Home Affairs Committee: London. 6 terror”, this conflation adversely and disproportionately affects Muslim communities.

I argue in this thesis that this contemporary definition of radicalisation is a direct and immediate result of the so-called ‘War on Terror’; that its effects on Muslim communities within the nations involved in this war are symptoms of war; and that my artistic expressions of these effects can be most productively understood through the lens of art that explores war, rather than art that explores identity for example, although these things are inevitably entwined.

The ongoing “War on Terror” is an international military campaign that was declared by the United States President of the time, George W. Bush, following the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington on September 11, 2001. The ensuing wars that collectively can be understood as the West’s ‘War on Terror’, involved invasion and occupation in Afghanistan in 2001, Iraq in 2003 and subsequent drone strikes in sovereign countries throughout Africa and the Middle East in the ensuing years. These large-scale military operations remain ongoing, and as of 2016 the war in Afghanistan is the United States’ longest war in its history.5 As the wars were supposedly waged in response to the September 11 terrorist attack, the combatants that came up against

American forces have frequently been considered as terrorists, in spite of a lack of evidence to support this claim.6 This projection of criminality validated the gross and indiscriminate attack on populations in targeted countries the ‘War on Terror’ has

5 Taylor, A. (2014, May 29). These are America’s 9 longest foreign wars. Washington Post. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2014/05/29/these-are-americas-9-longest-foreign-wars/

7 involved, evidenced by unprecedented civilian death tolls, which have exceeded

150,000 at the time of writing.7

The religious identities of the September 11 attackers and the alleged ideological motivations they possessed further fed the conflation of Islam, terrorism and violence.

This conflation played into Australian anxieties towards migrant communities and asylum seekers that are predominantly Muslim, exacerbated by events like the Tampa incident, which the Australian government used to contribute to a growing public sentiment that Australia was under threat from unknown enemies8. Many writers and artists have examined how these effects of fear, otherness, and threat have come to play out in the contemporary Australian imagination, and it is this friction and sense of unease that my work draws on, utilising and conflating associated imagery and perceptions to encourage critical reflection on the often-unconscious operation of these things. These associations of Islam, Muslims, violence, terrorism and radicalisation are demonstrated by the anti-Muslim sentiment expressed by groups like ,

The and politicians like One Nation founder David Oldfield who stated that “not all Muslims are terrorists but nearly all terrorists are Muslims”.9

According to a report authored by Western University Professor Kevin Dunn,

Muslims in Australia feel they have experienced at three times the rate of the

6 Schmid A. P. (2011) The Routledge Handbook of Terrorism Research. Routledge p80 7 https://www.iraqbodycount.org 8 See for example Bertelsen, L. & Murphie, A. (2010) “An Ethics of Everyday Infinities and Powers: Felix Guattari on Affect and the Refrain”. The Affect Theory Reader. Durham: Duke University Press. 9 Rafael Epstein (2003, 28 August) David Oldfield defends website over vilification allegations. PM, Radio National. Retrieved from http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2003/s934404.htm 8 national average.10 Another study by the University of South Australia’s International

Centre for Muslim and non-Muslim Understanding found that one in ten Australians had negative or hostile views of Muslims.11 This thesis draws on studies such as these; anecdotal evidence and theorising; and my artistic practice, to explore the experiences of Muslim Australians and propose a critical rethinking of the way we imagine and impose ideas of radicalisation on these groups, both through the body of work produced as part of my thesis, and through this text and my research practice.

10 Kearney, J., & Taha, M. (2015, November 30). Sydney Muslims experience three times more than other Australians: Study. Retrieved from http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-11-30/muslims-discrimination- three-times-more-than-other-australians/6985138 11 Riaz Hassan & Laurence Lester (2015) Australian Muslims A Demographic, Social and Economic Profile Of Muslims In Australia. International Centre for Muslim and non-Muslim Understanding, University of South Australia.

9 My politicisation and understanding of contemporary radicalisation

This chapter explores what I characterise as my politicisation; my growing awareness of my position as an active body within a socio-political context and the effects of this on my artistic practice. I discuss it as a process rather than a single transformation from apolitical to political – a rhetoric that risks mirroring that surrounding ‘radicalisation’.

Rather, my politicisation is an ongoing mode of enquiry that seeks to position me as an individual within the complex of global politics; to understand and to utilise the interplay between the personal and the political, something that informs both my sense of self and my artistic practice. Before discussing my practice in this context, I will outline several key moments, ‘flashpoints’ in the formation of my political identity that shed light on the work I would come to make.

The process of the politicisation of my identity began at my parents’ house in East

Cannington in Perth, . East Cannington is a suburb made up of almost

50% foreign-born residents, with almost 40% of the residents speaking a language other than English at home,12 and 11.4% identifying as Muslim.13 This is twice the average migrant population and five times the average Muslim population; according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, on average only 27.7% of Australians were born overseas,14 and Muslims make up 2.2% of the whole population.15 This concentration of migrant and Muslim Australians created an environment where access to a range of

12 Australian Bureau of Statistics (2011) Population, dwellings & ethnicity. Retrieved from http://profile.id.com.au/canning/population?WebID=130 13 Australian Bureau of Statistics (2013) Australia’s population by country of birth. Commonwealth of Australia. Retrieved from http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/[email protected]/Lookup/3412.0Chapter12011-12%20and%202012-13 14 Australian Bureau of Statistics (2011) Religion. Retrieved from http://profile.id.com.au/australia/religion 15 Australian Bureau of Statistics (2011) East Canning, Population. Retrieved from http://profile.id.com.au/canning/population?WebID=130 10

communities was a daily occurrence, and empathy between different minority groups was encouraged. This particular type of Australian experience was not necessarily a white experience, and not an experience that was reflected in popular media. While

70.4% of the residents of the suburb were Australian citizens, in my experience only

Australian-born white residents would identify by the moniker “Aussie”.

At around 9pm on the evening of September 11, 2001 my oldest brother Abdul-Karim and I were in the lounge room playing video games when we got an agitated telephone call from our sister who told us to turn on the news. What we saw was the devastation in the aftermath of American Air Flight 11’s collision with the World Trade Centre’s

North Tower. We watched as news reporters tried to come to grips with the situation, and then watched on as the second plane, United Airlines Flight 75, flew into the

Southern Tower. While the shocking scale and tragedy of the event was immediately apparent, I don’t believe I, or my sister or brother comprehended the lasting global consequences of the strike and how this crime committed by people we had never met in a country on the other side of the planet that none of us had ever visited, would be so adversely formative to our experience as Muslims living in Australia. We turned the television back to the video game we were playing, prematurely and naively convinced that what happened on 9/11 had nothing to do with us.

In fact, the shift in perceptions of Muslims was immediate and palpable. In the days following the , and Islamic centers were vandalised, and in Canning Vale, a suburb not far from East Cannington, a pig’s head was left at the door

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of the local Sikh Temple. It felt like in the popular imagination we were now the bad guys, and somehow posed an existential threat to broader society and democratic secular values; that we were an infection that was dangerous, needed to be vaccinated against, quarantined, and in some cases terminated. It was difficult to open a newspaper, turn on a television, or listen to the radio without hearing about people who looked like us, had names like ours, and who apparently had the same religious beliefs as us, being labelled as the ultimate threat to world peace. Our identities were immediately politicised, and as a fourteen-year-old I found myself on the older cusp of a generation whose entire formative years and transition into adulthood was overshadowed by the newly waged “War on Terror”.

This sudden and unexpected redefinition and reframing of identity was experienced differently by my other older brother, artist Abdul-Rahman Abdullah, who in the 2014 documentary The Bad Guy spoke about our respective approaches, explaining that:

We both look at our Muslim heritage, and our place in the world as from a Muslim-

Australian perspective, but I mean there is a generational gap between him and I. I

am nine years older than him and that outlook changed quite a lot. He is far more

politicised than me. My work looks at a pre-9/11 era… his work is a lot more

politicised.16

This altered perception of identity was further illustrated to me during a conversation in 2015 with a 17-year-old Muslim inmate at the Parkville Juvenile Justice Facility in

16 Dir. Mat de Koning & Brooke Tia Silcox (2014) Abdul Abdullah: The Bad Guy. ABC Arts. Retrieved from http://www.abc.net.au/arts/ArtXWest/video/Abdul-Abdullah-The-Bad-Guy-140808/default.htm 12 , who insisted that “they [white Australians] hate us [Muslims] bro, they’ve always hated us. Since the crusades they’ve hated us. There is nothing we can do.”17

I believe this statement is indicative of the perception of many young Muslims in

Australia who feel alienated from what could be understood as mainstream Australian society. Locally in East Cannington, apart from what I’ve previously called “traditional racism directed at black and brown people in this country”,18 this new form of “othering” was sharply felt by my young Muslim friends. Already feeling a shared, and often humiliating, sense of economic and cultural marginalisation, this further suspicion cast upon us seemed to push many further to the fringes of society. Along with frequent clashes with the growing conservatism of our parents, who were in their own way withdrawing in response to shifting societal attitudes, and our disillusionment with the broader Australian society that appeared eager to reject us, the post 9/11 environment was ripe for what the Australian Government’s Living safe together initiative calls

“radicalisation”.

According to the House of Commons Home Affairs Committee’s report, Roots of violent radicalisation, potential drivers to radicalisation can include social isolation, a perceived conflict between a person’s culture and the dominant culture they exist in, lower income and socio-economic groups, and those who perceive discrimination and have experienced racial or religious harassment.19 The Dutch Coordinator for Security and

17 Conversation with the author, 2015 Parkville Juvenile Justice facility 18 Abdul Abdullah (2015) Combating Prejudice with Art. TEDxYouth@Sydney, 21 May 2015. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZmZSEjPonA 19 House of Commons Home Affairs Committee (2012) Roots of radicalisation. P8 13 Counter Terrorism calls radicalisation a “phenomenon” in response to the significant increase of Dutch nationals leaving the country and going to conflict zones in Syria.20

The phenomenon of radicalisation has been framed as something new, with European,

American and Australian Governments rushing to launch de-radicalisation programs to combat perceived threats from within their own countries. This new emphasis on an internal existential threat reflects a shifting narrative in the “War on Terror” away from distant, foreign, quantifiable armies, to immediate, domestic, covert, unquantifiable enemies. What this change in narrative does is identify markers and anxieties that already exist in vulnerable minority communities, reframe and emphasise them as a new dangerous threat, and then use this new emphasis to create increased related anxieties that go on to amplify the supposed threat.

My 2011 work Them and us engages with a sense of community and social disengagement or ‘isolation’, a conflict between a cultural minority and a dominant culture, a perception of discrimination and a sense of material want or socio economic disadvantage. Rather than examining pathways of ‘radicalisation’ this self-portrait acts as a self-reflection on a personal sense of acculturative stress.

20 The Dutch Coordinator for Security and Counter Terrorism (2013) Global Jihadism: Analysis of the Phenomenon and Reflections on Radicalisation. P5 14 Them and us (2011) Digital Print

Acculturative stress is the tension experienced when a minority group member acculturates to a dominant culture. This form of anxiety is often compounded by ethnic minority stress and poverty stress.21 Other indicators of acculturative stress include but are not limited to feelings of confusion, anxiety, depression, marginality, alienation, psychosomatic symptoms and identity confusion associated with attempts to resolve cultural differences. The key signifier in Them and us is the tattoo on the central figure’s

21 Cathy Roche and Gabriel P. Kuperminc (2012) “Acculturative Stress and School Belonging Among Latino Youth”. Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences. Vol 34, issue 61. pp 62. 15 ribs. The design of the tattoo is an amalgamation of the Southern Cross and the crescent moon and star. The Southern Cross as a tattoo has become an Australian nationalist signifier that is associated with exclusionist and often-racist political ideologies.22 The crescent moon and star is a signifier of Islam. By combining the two symbols I am speaking to a personal identity that challenges exclusionist but also explores the contradictions and obstacles that are symptomatic of acculturative anxieties.

The acculturative stress that affects young Muslims in Australia is amplified by the disproportionately discriminating conditions of the “War on Terror”. These conditions limit the perception of agency and self-determination. Edward L. Deci and Richard M.

Ryan’s Self-determination Theory lists the A.B.C. of self-determination: autonomy, belongingness and competence.23 By neglecting these basic elements in young people, they are denied the opportunity for “intrinsic”24 learning and can often suffer experiences of anxiety, boredom, or alienation.25 It has been shown that neglecting the elements of self-determination in vulnerable communities can lead to dysfunctional behavior and increased crime rates.26 It has also been shown that these conditions can have a causal relationship with gang recruitment amongst young people where they

22 Stokes, A. (2014, October 14). The taboo tattoo: Is there a national symbol to challenge the southern cross? Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved from http://www.smh.com.au/comment/the-taboo-tattoo-is-there-a- national-symbol-to-challenge-the-southern-cross-20141013-115lqf.html 23 Deci, E. L., & Ryan, R. M. (2013). The importance of autonomy for development and well-being. In B. W. Sokol, F. M. E. Grouzet, U. Muller (Eds.), Self-regulation and autonomy: Social and developmental dimensions of human conduct (pp. 19-46). Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. 24 Richard M. Ryan and Edward L. Deci (2012) “Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivations: Classic Definitions and New Directions”. Contemporary Educational Psychology. Vol 25, p5. 25 Christopher P. Niemiec & Richard M. Ryan (2009) Autonomy, competence, and relatedness in the classroom: Applying self-determination theory to educational practice. University of Rochester: New York 26 Weaver, Scott R. (2005) The Impact of Neighborhood Problems and Economic Hardship on Psychosocial Maladjustment on Low-Income, Urban Black and Hispanic Young Adolescents: The Mediating Influences of Maternal Psychological Distress and Family Functioning. Dissertation, State University of New York at Albany 16

gain a partial sense of self-determination and self-empowerment.27 These motivational factors mirror the experience of many young Australian Muslims who are believed to have been ‘radicalised’. The stressors of acculturative anxiety amplified by the innate need for a sense of self-determination creates the conditions under which young

Muslim Australians may seek out other marginalised communities, including criminal gangs and “radical” religious groups, to seek the sense of autonomy, belonging and competency denied them in the contemporary Australian socio-political climate.

Many of the young members of my community in East Cannington actively engaged with activities that met the need for a sense of self-determination in often dysfunctional ways.

Being young and brown and having the perception of criminality projected on us, it was easy to fulfil negative expectations. Feeling very much under siege, personally I felt no obligation outside of the home to follow the religious principles observed by my parents, and I equally felt no compulsion to follow the laws of a society that seemed to be weighed against me. This disillusionment was compounded by the ultimate failure of the anti-war protests leading up to the to prevent the war, the racially charged Cronulla race riots in 2005, and closer to home, an assault on my mother by a group of men in the Perth CBD in the months following 9/11.

My mother migrated to Australia from Malaysia in 1972 after marrying my father, and by her own account has suffered steady racism ever since. In the months following the attack on the Twin Towers, she was chased into a store in Perth, assaulted, and had her scarf torn off by a group of young men. She told me that the customers and workers in

27 Saki Cabrera Strait (2001) An examination of the influence of acculturative stress on substance abuse and related maladaptive behavior among Latino youth. Claremont: California pp28 17

the store just looked on, without helping her. After the attack she said she was too shaken, frightened and embarrassed to report the incident to the police, and instead caught the train straight home. On other occasions she has been spat on, abused and had things thrown at her from cars. She has since stopped wearing a hijab or scarf and has found that the abuse has stopped. It seemed that wearing an external signifier that identified her as Muslim was the primary, if not only reason she had been attacked.

The second significant motivation for my politicisation was the series of protests in

Perth against the invasion of Iraq in 2003. At first I primarily went along with my friends to play truant, but soon found myself swept up in a political atmosphere that was surprisingly compatible with my own. I remember feeling a sense of solidarity with the protesters who were from a diverse range of ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds, but primarily white Anglo-Saxon Australians, or ‘Aussies’, who felt compelled to stand up alongside brown and Muslim people like myself, to the unjust and illegal invasion of Iraq.28

We sat with our arms linked in defiance blocking Saint Georges Terrace, the main artery that runs through the city centre, and I watched as other teenagers sitting around me were deliberately ridden into by mounted police. I stood next to a group of other teenagers as they burnt an Australian flag, and was shoved aside by the police as they then wrestled them to the ground and took them away. We felt that we were part of a world-wide peaceful movement that had to succeed because it was righteous and just,

28 MacAskill, E., & Borger, J. (2004, September 16). Iraq war was illegal and breached UN charter, says Annan. The Guardian. Retrieved from http://www.theguardian.com/world/2004/sep/16/iraq.iraq 18

and that the political powers would listen to reason. When Australia joined the United

States in what George W. Bush once called his “crusade”,29 my disillusionment was complete and I began to see the mainstream political discourse as radically opposed to the politically progressive and what I understood to be entirely reasonable support for no war, and no prejudice.

The third significant motivational event occurred in 2005 when I watched on the television as approximately 5000 radicalised white Australians rioted in Cronulla.30

Wrapped in Australian flags, they wore slogans that read “We grew here you flew here”,

“Lebs go home” (sic), “Ethnic Cleansing Unit” and “Fuck off we’re full”.31 As the riots turned violent any person of colour in the area was attacked.32 It seemed clear to me that if I had been on the beach that day, I too would have become a victim of that mob.

Former NSW Police Sergeant Craig Campbell who had been there on the day substantiated this belief. He said in conversation that if I were on the beach during the riot, due to my complexion and “wispy beard”, I too would have been targeted. Hearing this I felt that if it was possible to get that much groundswell of support for that many xenophobic, angry people to violently oppose people like me, our political narrative had been perverted almost beyond redemption.

29 Ford, P. (2001, September 19). Europe cringes at bush “crusade” against terrorists. Retrieved from http://www.csmonitor.com/2001/0919/p12s2-woeu.html 30 Reporting Diversity – Case Study 4: The Cronulla Riots (2005) Retrieved from http://www.reportingdiversity.org.au/cs_four.pdf 31 Dir. Jaya Balendra (2013) Cronulla Riots: The Day That Shocked The Nation. Retrieved from http://www.sbs.com.au/cronullariots/ 32 Liz Jackson (2006, 13 March) “Riot and Revenge”. 4 Corners. Retrieved from http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/content/2006/s1590953.htm 19 These three events directly informed the development of both my political identity and my artistic practice, which draws on these experiences that are both deeply personal and inevitably embedded in global politics.

My politicisation began in a state of disillusionment with societal structures and institutions of authority, a sense of marginalisation and an opposition to the domestic political status quo. This departure from mainstream thought could be misconstrued as a process of radicalisation. For example, I have said in the past “when I was in high

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school, I told my friends that if I didn't find something that I loved by the time I was 27, I would find a war and die fighting in it.”33

In retrospect I can see how I was actually attempting to reinstate my agency, and was looking for a means to do it. The Australian government’s Living Safe Together factsheet on ‘radicalisation’ warns “the radicalisation process is unique to each person who undergoes it, and in most cases will not cause serious harm. In exceptional circumstances, however, the decisions made by a person radicalising can result in a serious and lethal act of violent extremism.”34 What differentiated me from the “violent extremists” who have undergone a process of “radicalisation” was that, like most other politicised people I have met I was motivated by a sense of social justice and geo- political grievances. I felt the kind of radicalisation described on the Living Safe

Together website ignored government policies such as offshore detention, secret free- trade agreements and prejudicial rhetoric that serves to promote imperialist American economic and geo-strategic interests, all of which could be considered radical policy. I found solace in the writings of and , and the songs of Public

Enemy, Immortal Technique and The Herd, seeking allies in contemporary cultural texts.

I railed against the neo-conservatism, free market-capitalism and the militarism of the

Australian Liberal Government of John Howard, the UK Labour party led by Tony Blair, and the Republicans in the United States under then President George W. Bush. I watched on as the acceptable framework for political discussion shifted sharply to the

33 Abbass, R. Artist captures the mood of the marginalised. Retrieved from http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2014/06/abdul-abdullah-australian-artist-marginalised-racism-ara- 201462572052118236.html 34 “Living Safe Together: Building Community Resilience to Violent Extremism”, Australian Government. Retrieved from https://www.livingsafetogether.gov.au/informationadvice/Pages/what-is-radicalisation/what-is- radicalisation.aspx 21

right with pro-war, anti-immigration and exceptionalist policies being reframed as the

‘mainstream’.

Emboldened by John Pilger’s investigative reporting I undertook a degree in Mass

Communication with a major in journalism, and spent my spare time writing and performing politically motivated songs. One example, titled Early Casualties and written in 2005, was reviewed by Triple J’s Hau Latukefu, who said “these sorts of tunes should be blasted everywhere where ignorant Australians reside...” 35

The first verse in the song went:

When the sun comes up I can’t help but reflect

On life and death and what comes next.

In my life so far I’ve had several regrets,

But I’ve made it this far so I rate it a success.

Especially compared to the kids I grew up with.

Not the rich kids in high school I grew up with,

But the other kids, the kids from Al-Hidayah,

The kids from Malek Fahd, all the kids from the Masjid.

Whatever happened to these brave young soldiers?

Bolder than most, but destined to fold with the world on their shoulders.

A few years older, a few years colder

Unable to communicate their hate, years ago I could have told ya

If you get a Muslim kid and constantly abuse him

Fuck, of course we’ll grow up to be angry young Muslims.

35 https://www.triplejunearthed.com/artist/abdul-abdullah 22

And of course society’s to blame

Because ever since September eleven, 2001

It’s been okay to call a Muslim a name

While I enjoyed song writing, I experienced it as a political echo-chamber, where even those with a public profile were only reaching like-minded people who already agreed with their political positions. While journalism still seemed open to me to pursue effecting positive change, I found that the new-media and online content I was being drawn to was being produced by journalists who hadn’t necessarily studied a tertiary course on journalism. I also found that the content being produced in local print wasn’t congruent with my political understandings and beliefs.

Disturbed and once again disillusioned by what I saw as establishment-supporting journalism that worked exclusively in a narrowly defined Overton window36, I took up an elective in Art. I thought this pursuit would allow me to satiate non-political curiosities that I had, and for a short time it did. On being introduced to the history of politically-driven art and the many ways contemporary practices are used to explore, critique and redefine political narratives, however, I realised that art could satisfy more than a curiosity; it could provide me with a language with which to be political and to shift and expand the Overton window in new ways. In 2006 I changed course and took

36 “The Overton window is a political theory that refers to the range (or window) of policies that the public will accept. The idea is that any policy falling outside the Overton window is out of step with public opinion and the current political climate, and formulated to try and shift the Overton window in a different direction, or to expand it to be wider.”

“What is the Overton Window” (2015, 27 April) Retrieved from http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2015/04/what-overton-window 23

up the study of Art full-time, dedicating myself to being a professional practitioner.

Since graduating from my Bachelor of Arts in Art in 2008 I have been specifically interested in exploring the experience of young Muslims in the contemporary multicultural Australian experience. This body of research and creative outcome seeks to shift the Overton window, and to contribute to the redefinition of the narrative in regards to radicalisation and what it means to be a Muslim who has grown up during the era of the “War on terror”.

24

Coming to Terms: The rhetoric around radicalisation

Per the late political scientist Joseph Overton from the Macinak Center for Public Policy: public policy is developed in an agreed window of political correctness. The website for the Center states:

Joseph Overton observed that in a given public policy area, such as education,

only a relatively narrow range of potential policies will be considered politically

acceptable. This "window" of politically acceptable options is primarily defined

not by what politicians prefer, but rather by what they believe they can support

and still win re-election. In general, then, the window shifts to include different

policy options not when ideas change among politicians, but when ideas change

in the society that elects them.37

It is believed by many that the Overton Window has shifted considerably to the right in terms of national security since the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington on

September 11, 2001.38 With this shift being led by groups and politicians such as the

Tea Party, News Corp and in the US, and the ,

Reclaim Australia and the Q Society in Australia, acceptable speech regarding Muslims now includes the mass condemnation of all Muslims in reaction to the actions of a few.

Donald Trump, Reclaim Australia, The Australia First Party39 and the Q Society advocate

37 “The Overton Window: A Model of Policy Change”. The Mackinac Centre for Public Policy. Retrieved May 15, 2016, from http://www.mackinac.org/OvertonWindow 38 “The Overton Window's right-shift and dilemma of the self-defeating compromise: how to solve this?” Daily Kos, retrieved May 15, 2016, from http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/5/23/1211270/-The-Overton-Window-s- right-shift-and-dilemma-of-the-self-defeating-compromise-how-to-solve-this 39 “Immigration harm”, Australia First Party, retrieved May 15, 2016, from http://australiafirstparty.net/category/immigration-harm/stop-islamic-migration/ 25

for the banning of Muslim immigration into Australia and the US,40 and many from these

Australian organisations advocate the banning of the religion all together.41 On the second of June 2016 I presented a talk at the NSW Reconciliation Council event titled I’m not racist but…42 where I spoke about how, although Islam is not a race, stating the fact doesn’t mean you are not a racist. Although the crowd was considered politically progressive, it was heard amongst members of the audience who disagreed with my position after my talk that “[Abdul] just doesn’t understand some cultures [Islam] are just not compatible with Australian values”.43

This redefinition of acceptable speech in otherwise progressive circles is indicative of how the Overton Window has shifted unfavourably for Muslims. Further evidence of this shift was demonstrated by the reporting of the 2015 shooting of a civilian police finance worker outside of a police station in Parramatta. At 4:30pm on Friday the second of October 2015 Curtis Cheng was shot as he left work at the Parramatta Police

Station by 15-year-old Farhad Jabar Khalil Mohammad. Following the shooting then

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, Foreign Minister Julie Bishop and NSW Premier Mike

Baird held talks with Muslim community leaders. Ms. Bishop said, “it's the families that will be a frontline of defence against radicalised young people ... so we will be working very closely with them”. 44

40 PIlkingrton, E. (2015, 8 December) “Donald Trump: ban all Muslims entering US”, The Guardian Newpaper, retrieved May 15, 2016, from http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/dec/07/donald-trump-ban-all-muslims- entering-us-san-bernardino-shooting 41 Bianca Hall (2016, 1 January) “Restore Australia: the party that would ban Islam”, The Sydney Morning Herald, retrieved May 15, 2016, from http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/restore-australia-the-party- that-would-ban-islam-20160101-glxsfh.html 42 “I’m not racist, but…” New South Wales Reconciliation Party, accessed June 5, 2016, http://www.nswreconciliation.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/FINAL-INRB-Media-Release.pdf 43 Anonymous, overheard at an even by author, “I’m not racist but…” Event. Giant Dwarf Theatre, June 2, 2016 44 Fogarty, S. (2016, March 30). Police search Parramatta in shooting investigation. Retrieved from http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-10-04/parramatta-shooting-police-search-mosque-in-shooting-probe/6825882 26

The shooting of Cheng became a touchstone for the shift in national conversation to focus on the possible radicalisation of young Muslim Australians by groups like ISIS, which former Prime Minister Tony Abbott repeatedly labelled a “death cult”.45 By charging exclusive responsibility for the “radicalisation” of young Muslims on a foreign and universally reviled group like ISIS, our government was able to legitimise radical policies, including our treatment of asylum seekers, our support for tyrannical regimes in the Middle East, and our military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, which purportedly sought to address what they had deemed a foreign problem rather than the domestic symptoms of acculturative stress. These specific government policies disproportionately affect Muslim populations, and the interventionist and exclusivist nature of the policies have lead to genuine grievances within the Australian Muslim community. By focusing on the external threat and links to domestic Muslim communities, the Australian government could discredit the integrity of these grievances and distance itself from any implicit causal relationships.46

Complicit in this re-framing of the narrative in regards to radicalisation is the mainstream media. James Mathison said in an interview with Osher Gunsberg, “if your business model is getting people to read your product, then it is in your interest to provoke emotion… that’s pretty much every newspaper on Earth”.47 When The Daily

Telegraph reported on the Parramatta shooting on the day following the incident, the

45 Olding, R. (2015, May 12). Tony Abbott’s obsessive use of the phrase “death cult” fails to resonate with half of Australians. Retrieved from Political News, http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/tony-abbotts- obsessive-use-of-the-phrase-death-cult-fails-to-resonate-with-half-of-australians-20150512-ggzoce.html 46 Rane, H. (2015, October 13). Muslim Radicalisation: Where does the responsibility rest? Retrieved from http://www.abc.net.au/religion/articles/2015/10/13/4330670.htm 47 Osher Günsberg (2015, August 30) “Episode 100: James Mathison”. The Osher Günsberg Podcast. Retrieved from http://podbay.fm/show/711028488 27

first line of their story read: “The gunman who shot dead a police staffer was a 15-year- old who had visited Parramatta Mosque on his way to commit murder.”48 This sort of media effect and the ways in which these narratives play out in the contemporary

Australian consciousness are critical factors in the reading of my work that this thesis argues for. Through understanding how these ideas of radicalisation (as a result of war) filter into the popular psyche and are played out in effects of fear and unease, is to understand the effects at play in my art work.

According to the inverted pyramid principles of mass media writing, articles should begin with the prioritised and most essential facts of the story.49 Applying this principle to The Daily Telegraph’s story on the Parramatta shooting, the reader is made to believe that Mohammad’s visit to the mosque on the Friday afternoon was an integral element in his criminal act, thereby tying the shooting to ‘Jummah’,50 a common weekly practice of many Muslims. Revelations have since come out that Mohammad met co-conspirators on visits to the mosque, but these facts were not known at the time of The Daily

Telegraph’s publication. It seems the inclusion of Mohammad’s mosque visit in the opening line of the article was not intended to provide the most essential facts of the story, but rather to play to growing fears in Australia of “Islamification” and “Shariah law”. This is reflected on the United Patriots Front website in its description of “phase 5” of the “spread of Islam”:

48 Fife-Yeomans, J., Bashan, Y., Harris, L., Morris, C., & Auerbach, T. (2015, October 3). Teen’s mosque visit before shooting. Retrieved from http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/parramatta-shooting-multiple-shots-fired- outside-police-hq-on-charles-street/story-fni0cx4q-1227554454582?sv=de59bf553bfbf0e202db38f4fc15b1aa 49 See for example https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/735/04/ 50 Friday prayers 28

When the Muslim population becomes the majority and/or Islam gains control of

a nation (e.g., Taliban in Afghanistan), law is imposed on the host society,

which is then locked down against non-Islamic influences, including Christianity.

The ideal Islamic state is Saudi Arabia, where Sharia law is the only law of the

land and enforced without mercy.51

According to the Australian Government’s Living safe together website:

Radicalisation happens when a person’s thinking and behaviour become

significantly different from how most of the members of their society and

community view social issues and participate politically. Only small numbers of

people radicalise and they can be from a diverse range of ethnic, national,

political and religious groups.52

By this definition the UPF and their “nationwide movement, opposing the spread of Left

Wing treason and spread of Islamism”, would be considered a radical group. The factsheet goes on to say that when, “a person radicalises they may begin to seek to change significantly the nature of society and government. However, if someone decides that using fear, terror or violence is justified to achieve ideological, political or social change – this is violent extremism.” By his own admission, the leader of the UPF Blair

51 “The spread of Islam”, The United Patriots Front. Retrieved October 16, 2015, from http://www.unitedpatriotsfront.com/styled/islam/spread.html 52 “What is radicalisation?” Living Safe Together Initiative, accessed October 4 2015, https://www.livingsafetogether.gov.au/informationadvice/Documents/what-is-radicalisation.pdf 29

Cottrell uses “violence and terror” to ‘manipulate women’, and should therefore be considered a violent extremist.53

The UPF joins other radical Australian groups that oppose Islam, including but not limited to: Reclaim Australia, The Australia First Party, The Australian Defence League and , which describes itself on its homepage as a “not-for-profit civil rights organisation run by a dedicated group of volunteers. Our supporters come from different ethnicities and creeds - all bound by a common goal - to inform

Australians about Islam.” 54 Each of these groups warn of the spread of Islam and align themselves with their European equivalents including in Germany, Stop

Islamisation of Europe (SIOE) in Denmark, The (EDL) from the

UK and the Greek . A common belief among these European and Australian far–right radical groups is the belief in the “ conspiracy”55 or “Shariah creep”56, where apparently a combination of left wing policies, European and Arab political elites and unmitigated immigration will lead to the deliberate Islamification of Europe, application of Shariah (Islamic law), and the enslavement of non-Muslims. In efforts to oppose this “Islamification” these groups have undertaken to pressure governments to cease Muslim immigration, protest certification, protest the building of mosques and even petition councils to deny proposed Muslim cemeteries.57

53 Bachelard, M., & McMahon, L. (2015, October 17). New Aussie “patriots” leader wanted Hitler in the classroom. Retrieved from National, http://www.smh.com.au/national/blair-cottrell-leader-of-aussie-patriots- upf-wanted-hitler-in-the-classroom-20151016-gkbbvz.html 54 “The Q Society”, accessed November 12, 2015, http://www.qsociety.org.au 55 Bat Ye’or (2005) Eurabia: The Euro-arab Axis. Fairleigh Dickinson University Press 56 McCullough, K. (2017). Kevin McCullough - Sharia-Creep. Retrieved from http://townhall.com/columnists/kevinmccullough/2015/05/31/shariacreep-n2006013/page/full 57 “Campaign to stop Muslim cemetery”, Australia First Party, accessed November 12, 2015, http://australiafirstparty.net/news/against-the-culture-bust-muslim-cemetery-plan-for-hawkesbury/ 30

In the United States apart from anti-Muslim groups such as Stop Islamisation of America

(SIOA)58 and Act! For America,59 which promotes similar principles to their European and Australian counterparts, explicit opposition to Islam has become acceptable mainstream political discourse. During his 2016 Republican Primary Campaign, presidential candidate Donald Trump announced that he planned to ban all Muslims entering the United States: “until we are able to determine and understand this problem and the dangerous threat it poses, our country cannot be the victims of horrendous attacks by [Muslims] that believe only in Jihad, and have no sense of reason or respect for human life.”60 Early in the year, fellow Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson told interviewers that a practicing Muslim should never be allowed to be president, because Islamic teachings are inconsistent with the US Constitution.61 This distrust of

Muslim communities in the United States has created an environment where the Muslim identity has been both politicised and criminalised. This US-based anti-Islamic sentiment has found a global audience, having been seized on by media outlets and amplified, such as in the case of Ahmed Mohamed, who found himself inadvertently at the centre of an international debate.

58 Pamela Geller, “Stop Islamization Of America”, accessed May17, 2016, http://pamelageller.com/category/sioa- stop-the-islamization-of-america/ 59 “Act! For America”, accessed May15, 2016, https://www.actforamerica.org 60 Pilkington, E. (2015, December 8). Donald Trump: Ban all Muslims entering US. The Guardian. Retrieved from http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/dec/07/donald-trump-ban-all-muslims-entering-us-san-bernardino- shooting 61 Rula Jebreal, “America's embrace of Islamophobia is new – but not surprising”, The Guardian, accessed May 15, 2016, http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/oct/16/america-islamophobia-republicans-politics- trump-carson 31

On Monday the 14th of September 2015, 14-year-old Ahmed Mohamed was arrested at his Texas school after bringing a homemade clock to class to show his teacher.62 CNN quoted him saying, "I built a clock to impress my teacher but when I showed it to her, she thought it was a threat to her… it was really sad that she took the wrong impression of it." It was reported that his teacher thought the clock looked like a bomb and reported the incident to the police. After the police took Ahmed into custody and questioned him, they determined the clock was an actual clock and that there was no evidence to suggest that he intended to create alarm.63 While there was an outpouring of support for Ahmed following the story, including from founder and CEO

Mark Zuckerberg, then President Barack Obama, and Secretary of State Hilary Clinton, there were still several prominent voices that spoke out against the boy and his intentions.

Evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins questioned the motives of Ahmed Mohamed on

Twitter, 64 and attached a YouTube video clip titled Mohammed [sic] Clock is a FRAUD.65

The Republican Party nominee for Vice President in the 2008 Presidential election

Sarah Palin wrote on a post on her Facebook page: “yep, believing that's a clock in a school pencil box is like believing Barack Obama is ruling over the most transparent

62 Fantz, A., Almasy, S., & Stapleton, A. (2015, September 16). Muslim teen Ahmed Mohamed creates clock, shows teachers, gets arrested. CNN. Retrieved from http://edition.cnn.com/2015/09/16/us/texas-student-ahmed- muslim-clock-bomb 63 Fernandez, M., & Hauser, C. (2015, September 17). Handcuffed for making clock, Ahmed Mohamed, 14, wins time with Obama. U.S. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/17/us/texas-student-is-under-police- investigation-for-building-a-clock.html?_r=0 64 Dawkins, R. (2015, September 20). If this is true, what was his motive? Whether or not he wanted the police to arrest him, they shouldn’t have done so https://t.co/LtOFAAmVxK Retrieved from https://twitter.com/RichardDawkins/status/645519286082138112?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw 65 Thomas Talbot (2015, September 18). Ahmed Mohammed clock is a FRAUD Retrieved November 16 2015 from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CEmSwJTqpgY 32

administration in history… Right. That's a clock, and I'm the Queen of England.” 66 One of the comments that I found most concerning was by self-proclaimed Liberal

Commentator Bill Maher who on his show Real Time justified the suspicion cast on

Ahmed: “… because for the last 30 years it’s one culture who has been blowing shit up over and over again”.67

The implication of this statement is that Muslims are predisposed to violence because of their culture and are therefore more likely to bring a bomb to school or act out a violent threat. This example of American egocentric exceptionalism greatly exaggerates

Ahmed’s proven non-existent threat, ignores the statistical evidence of violence in

American schools, and doesn’t take any account of the United States’ extremely powerful and influential military-industrial complex that manages to promote a culture of military spending that annually is close to the combined military spending of the rest world. 68 If there were one culture that was responsible for ‘”blowing shit up over and over again” over the last 30 years, it would unequivocally be that of the United States.69

According to the Council of Foreign Relations’ Micah Zenko the United States dropped

23,144 bombs on Muslim-majority countries in 2015 alone.70

66 Klausner, A & De Graff, M. (2015, 21 September) “Anger as Richard Dawkins becomes the latest celebrity to attack Texas schoolboy Ahmed Mohamed over his homemade clock after Sarah Palin says it DID look like a bomb”, Daily Mail Australia. Retrieved on November 12, 2015 from http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article- 3242198/Richard-Dawkins-lays-Texas-schoolboy-Ahmed-Mohamed-claiming-clock-invention.html 67 “Real Time with Bill Maher”, HBO. Season 13, Episode 27, 2015 68 Kearns, A. & Cohen, A. (2014, 30 January) “How much stronger is the US military compared with the next strongest power?”, Military 1. Retrieved March 12, 2016 from https://www.military1.com/all/article/402211-how- much-stronger-is-the-us-military-compared-with-the-next-strongest-power 69 Blum, W. (2005) “United States bombings of other countries”, Rogue State. Common Courage Press. Retrieved from https://williamblum.org/books/rogue-state 70 Johnson, A. (2016, January 10). U.S. Dropped 23, 144 bombs on Muslim-Majority countries in 2015. Retrieved June 20, 2016, from http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/us-dropped-23144-bombs-muslim-majority- countries-2015 33

The broader implication of Bill Maher’s statement is that Muslims are irrationally violent and aggressive, and that their culture is the primary reason for this behaviour.

By divesting them of political and cultural agency, the statement reduces their humanity and justifies violence against them. The devaluing of communities based on religious beliefs or race continues a colonial tradition that relies on pseudo-scientific justification for the continued invasion, occupation, exploitation and murder of those communities that have been deemed inferior by colonial powers. Apart from the Ottoman imperial ambitions and colonisation of Greece that ended in 1821, the Ottoman occupation of the

Balkans that ended just prior to the outbreak of World War One, and the later invasions by the now independent nation of Turkey in the region, including the 1974 invasion of

Cyprus, in the past 250 years no other Muslim majority country has invaded a Western country, and the only Muslim majority country to invade a non-Muslim country with the intention to occupy was Indonesia when it invaded East Timor in 1975. In that same time period each of the 47 Muslim-majority countries that claim sovereignty in 2016 have been attacked, invaded, and often occupied and colonised by non-Muslim

“Western” countries. In the past 30 years alone the United States has bombed or occupied at least 14 Muslim-majority countries. The suggestion that Muslim countries or cultures are inherently more aggressive than other nations or ethnic groups is quantifiably wrong.

It is my position that, while Muslim groups like ISIS, Al-Qaeda and the Taliban subscribe to extreme atypical views and practices, they do not represent the majority of Muslims.

This unrepresentative status is at odds with the perception of Muslims by many in the

West, whose own elected governments, officially representing the will of their

34

constituents, hold and act on policies that I understand to be radical and violently extreme. In Australia, these policies include indefinite offshore detention for asylum seekers who are mostly Muslim, the illegal invasion and occupation of Muslim majority countries like Iraq and Afghanistan, the retention of meta-data and mass surveillance of domestic Muslim communities, and the implicit support of the United States and their radical foreign policy. The radical foreign policies of the United States includes enhanced interrogation techniques, indefinite detention without trial, assassination without trial, covert bombing in places like Yemen, , Algeria and Syria, and the support of tyrannical regimes.71 Most disturbing about the exceptionalism practiced by many Western critics of Muslims is the lack of empathy exhibited, and the resolute denial of causal links between their actions, the actions of their representatives, and the current situation in much of the Muslim world.

In an interview with Salon, Neuroscientist Sam Harris said, “the fact that we invaded

Iraq is merely a background condition for this local explosion of jihadist triumphalism and horror—one that is fully explained by a commitment to a specific interpretation of

Islamic scripture”.72 By absolving themselves of any personal responsibility they deny any genuine political, social or cultural grievances justifiably held by many in the

Muslim community. This lack of regard for and projection of criminality on Muslims was explicitly demonstrated by two news stories that were the impetus for my 2015 photographic series Coming to terms. Both stories involved the death of infants and children at the hands of non-Muslim occupying forces in Muslim-majority countries.

71 Scahill J. (2013) Dirty Wars: The World is a Battlefield. New York: Nation Books. 72 Illing, S. (2015, November 26). Sam Harris talks Islam, ISIS, atheism, GOP madness: “We are confronting people, in dozens of countries, who despise more or less everything that we value.” Retrieved June 20, 2016, from http://www.salon.com/2015/11/25/harris_and_illing_correspondence/ 35

In July 2015 an 18-month-old Palestinian boy was burned to death after Israeli settlers set fire to his family house in the West Bank73 in what is known as a “price tag” killing. 74

Following the attack, footage from an Israeli wedding showed guests stabbing photos of the murdered boy.75 The second story in The Guardian Newspaper revealed some of the language and attitudes exhibited by United States Drone pilots who flew on active missions in Afghanistan.76 According to the article, children in combat zones were often called “fun-size terrorists”, in reference to smaller “fun-sized” chocolate bars. On both these occasions the disregard for the humanity of innocent human beings was explicit.

The projection of violence and criminality reframed these children as legitimate objectives for targeted killing guilty of crimes it was imagined they had the potential to commit. Rather than reconstruct the violence of targeted killing or explicitly portraying children in any way in the work, the body of work I created in response refers to the tradition of wedding photography.

The wedding as a ritual has been used to act as an almost universally understood celebration of optimistic union. By exploiting the shared cultural understanding and signifiers of the wedding, the series draws the viewer into a familiar space that most can relate to. In the same way that children and infants can be understood as universal

73 Palestinian baby burned to death in settler attack. (2015, July 31). Retrieved November 15, 2015, from http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/07/palestinian-baby-burned-death-extremist-attack-150731035331224.html 74 Anti-Defamation League (2015, December 23). Price tag and extremist attacks in . Retrieved November 15, 2015, from http://www.adl.org/israel-international/israel-middle-east/content/backgroundersarticles/price-tag- attacks.html 75 Reuters (2015, December 24). Wedding video shows Jewish extremists celebrating the death of Palestinian baby | VICE news. Retrieved March 15, 2016, from https://news.vice.com/article/wedding-video-shows-jewish- extremists-celebrating-the-death-of-palestinian-baby 76 Pilkington, E. (2015, November 19). Life as a drone operator: “Ever step on ants and never give it another thought?” The Guardian. Retrieved March 15, 2016, from http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/nov/18/life-as- a-drone-pilot-creech-air-force-base-nevada 36 signifiers of innocence, weddings can commonly be understood as traditional precursors to the production of children, and therefore the production of innocence. In this series, conventional depictions of weddings have been subverted through the use of balaclavas on the pictured brides and grooms. Another device used to conflate superficial readings of the images is lighting arrangements that reference cinema and painting in a way that divorces the mood of the images from traditional wedding photography.

Wedding (Conspiracy to commit) (2015) Digital print

37

Bride II (Subterfuge) (2015) Digital Print

Groom II (Stratagem) (2015) Digital Print

38 Wedding (Conspiracy to commit), Bride II (Subterfuge) and Groom II (Stratagem) depict a bride and groom in traditional Malaysian-Muslim wedding attire. The Malaysian wedding attire has a personal relevance to my personal cultural heritage and familial ties to the country. The balaclavas worn by the figures signify the projection of criminality. Their use in this series is designed to speak to the audiences’ personal experiences with the depiction of criminals such as terrorists or burglars, in cinema, literature or in the media. When planning the compositions and lighting arrangement, I was influenced by the symmetry and colour palette of Nicholas Winding Refn’s 2013

Only God Forgives.77 While the themes in the film do not lend themselves to the reasons

I made this series, I found that the otherworldly atmosphere created by the lighting and colour choices in the film emphasised a sense of discomfort that helped disrupt the audience’s expectations.

77 Nicholas Winding Refn (Dir.) (2013) Only God Forgives. USA: Space Rocket Nation 39 The final two wedding themed images in the series Coming to terms also feature a bride and a groom, but reference the nineteenth Century English Gothic novel by Charlotte

Dacr titled Zofloya (AKA The Moor). The works are called Groom I (Zofloya) and Bride I

(Victoria), and are named after the titular character in the book and his accomplice

Victoria. The character Zofloya is described as “black Moor” and a slave, and Victoria is a malicious rich woman from a noble class who is seduced by the Moor. In the final scene

Zofloya reveals himself to be Satan, reinforcing for the reader a conflation of blackness, otherness and a Muslim identity with evil, deceit and violence. In addition to exploring ideas of the projection of criminality on a wedded couple, these works reference the

European anxieties of the threat of miscegenation, and the strength of the Muslim

Ottoman Empire that appear to be reflected in the unfolding narrative of Zofloya.78

78 Sophia Rose Arjana (2015) Muslims in the Western Imagination Oxford: New York. P114 40

.

Groom I (Zofloya) (2015) Digital Print

Bride I (Victoria) (2015) Digital Print 41 Popular depictions of abstract, distant, foreign threats have fed into Western anxieties of the imagined racialised other since the racialised other was first imagined. From works of Gothic literature to depictions of the brutality of war in contemporary cinema, creative approaches to representations of conflict have shaped our historical narrative and our contemporary geopolitical context. In the following chapter I will examine different examples of visual artists whose work responds to the realities of conflict, and how my practice, which has been informed by the “War on Terror” fits into that context.

42

Siege: Combating prejudice with art, and art in response to war

The role of art has significantly changed in the last two centuries, and it would be hard to imagine the contemporary context without the advent of critical and socially conscious art practices. This chapter explores key examples of contemporary artist practices that seek to engage with and impact on a broader social or political arena, using these examples to contextualise my own practice.

According to Jessica Kline from the New York Public Library, art really began to develop a more blatant social conscience in the nineteenth century when depictions of the plight of the poor and criticism of the government became more frequent.79 One example of this shift in the role of art of this period can be seen in the transformation of Francisco

Goya’s (1746 – 1828) practice at the turn of the century. While always maintaining a self-awareness and willingness to subvert his images, prior to the 1808 Dos de Mayo uprising and the subsequent Peninsula War, Goya’s public practice had primarily focused on the commissioned depictions of members and scenes of the Spanish Court.

As war engulfed Spain, the focus of Goya’s work shifted to the victims of war, the atrocities committed in the conflict, and permanent psychological trauma that is inflicted on individuals and communities affected by war.

Two bodies of work that reflect this shift are a set of aquatints titled The Disasters of

War (1812-1815) and his final series of Black Paintings that were painted directly onto the walls of his house in the years before he died. The Disasters of War chronologically spans three linked Spanish events: the chaos of war and the terrible and graphic consequences of when soldiers came into conflict with civilians, the ensuing famine that

79 Cline, J. (2013, June 17). Art Guide: Socially conscious art. Retrieved from https://www.nypl.org/blog/2013/06/17/art-guide-socially-conscious-art 43 gripped Madrid in 1811, and finally the civil discontent in regards to the political situation in Spain after the war. Goya’s Black Paintings, while heavily influenced by his own experience of war, are more allegorical and reference Greek and Roman mythology.

Amongst this final series is Goya’s arguably most famous work Saturn devouring his son

(1819 – 1823), which depicts the God Saturn as a crazed, naked, bearded man, graphically tearing flesh from a headless child. While Goya may not be remembered as a radical or an activist for social justice, by depicting the true horrors of the conflict, and later the darkness of the human condition, he empowered the victims of war by telling part of their story.

44 I came across a different and telling method for empowering victims of war at the

Whitney Museum in New York with Howard Lester’s 1970 work titled One week in

Vietnam. In this film photographs of the faces of every American soldier who died in one specific week during the Vietnam War are flashed on the screen one after the other.

Both Goya and Hester have used their work to bring attention to the atrocities of war, but their perspectives are entirely different: Goya depicts the war from the point of view of the subjugated, occupied people, whereas Hester, even though sympathetic to the victims of war and opposed to the war itself, protests the war exclusively from the position of power as the invading, occupying force. While I believe that the work effectively demonstrated the cost of war to an American audience, and was referencing the 1969 LIFE Magazine article ‘The Faces of the American Dead in

Vietnam: One Week’s

45

Toll’,80 the absence of any mention of the Vietnamese dead, which would have numbered in their thousands, as problematic, and an example of American exceptionalism. That week’s toll of the Vietnamese victims of war may have been an impossible work to make, but the omission of those casualties demonstrates a one-sided agitprop that devalues the causes it promotes. This problematic process of creating socially conscious art, which seeks to illustrate the negative aspects of war exclusively from the perspective of the invading, occupying aggressor, is likewise demonstrated in the work of Ben Quilty and Shaun Gladwell in their roles as official war artists for the

Australian War Memorial.

Both Quilty and Gladwell have demonstrated a clear willingness to make socially conscious work, and as war artists they both completed significant projects that successfully engaged entirely different aspects of the Australian military stationed and fighting in Afghanistan as part of the “War on Terror”. Conspicuously absent from both projects, however, were the central players in the Afghan conflict: the Afghans. The absence of the local population from the artists’ narrative calls into question their role in the occupying force. They are actors in an invasion and occupation of a Muslim- majority country, and are complicit in the displacement, deaths and ill treatment of

Muslims in that country. This disproportionately adverse effect on Muslims because of the conflict is reflected in the experience of Muslims living in Australia. While most

Australians would relate to the Australian soldiers stationed in Afghanistan, as a Muslim

I see myself reflected in the faces of the Afghan people. In the case of the war in

Afghanistan I do not feel like the invader, I am instead the invaded.

80 ‘Cosgrove, B. (2014, May 15). Faces of the American dead in Vietnam: One week’s toll, June 1969. Retrieved from http://time.com/3485726/faces-of-the-american-dead-in-vietnam-one-weeks-toll-june-1969/ 46

The critical question at the heart of my inquiry into these practices is: as artists embedded in the military experience of this conflict, is it possible for Gladwell and

Quilty to prioritise their artistic integrity and social conscience over the interests of the

Australian military? In both cases the ‘Australian soldier’ becomes the central figure, with Gladwell examining the role of the camera in war, and Quilty viscerally depicting the effects of post-traumatic stress syndrome on returning soldiers. Like many embedded journalists, the critical distance between the artists and their subject was dissolved, and I argue they instead became philosophical appendages of the military. In an interview with Scott Bevan at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, when Quilty was asked what he thought the role was of the contemporary Australian war artist was he said, “I hope to make works that examine the way these young people feel when they’re there and what happens to them when they get back.”81 In a later interview published by the Australian War Memorial, he expanded on his intentions by saying: “I wanted to know what they were feeling – how they were surviving emotionally and physically – really the basics of humanity. Life and death right there in your face. The biggest themes an artist could ever imagine.”82

By looking exclusively at the after effect of war on Australian soldiers without critically examining the effect the soldiers had on the local population, Quilty, by act of omission, legitimises Australia’s role in the conflict. He justifies his apolitical approach as an official Australian war artist in the artist statement for the touring exhibition After

Afghanistan: “As an official Australian war artist my job wasn’t to ask questions about

81 Art Gallery of NSW (2012, January 30). Art.Afterhours - Ben Quilty with Scott Bevan, the role of the artist at war Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1Yzs0xJwuo 82 Australian War Memorial (2013, February 20). Ben Quilty: After Afghanistan Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPBL78IfLY0 47 Australia’s involvement in a war far from our shores, and it wasn’t to climb on a fence and shout my views about old act of combat. My job was to tell the story of

Australian men and women who were at war in Afghanistan.”83 Associate Professor Rex

Butler expressed his concern for the work when he critiqued After Afghanistan for

Panoptic Press in 2015:

The real experience of the work is in fact an empty expressiveness – the signs of

expressivity without anything actually being expressed. That not only do we

come not to know what the soldiers went through but that what the paintings

ultimately offer the viewer, and I sense hence their public success, is precisely a

way of avoiding any real confrontation with the real consequences of the war.84

In Quilty’s narrative, the Afghan becomes the phantom other that haunts and harasses our soldiers.

83 Quilty B (2014) Ben Quilty: After Afghanistan. Canberra: Australian War Memorial 84 Panoptic Press (2015, June 24). Rex Butler “Ben Quilty: The fog of war” Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dr3ie4DT1qg 48 Shaun Gladwell’s response to his time in Afghanistan is another step removed from violent realities of war and Australia’s questionable presence and involvement in

Afghanistan. Like Quilty, Gladwell’s work uses the Australian soldier as the central subject, but rather than seek empathic relations, he instead critically examines notions of the gaze and the role of technology in war. By specifically examining the complex role of the camera in war that he describes as having an “almost lethal role… a kind of weapon”,85 Gladwell is uncritical of who that “weapon” is “lethal” to, and why that

“weapon” being used at all. Australia’s 15-year, and potentially illegal presence in

Afghanistan goes largely unquestioned.

85 Messham-Muir, K. (2014, July 31). Two artists go to war – Shaun Gladwell and Ben Quilty. Retrieved from https://theconversation.com/two-artists-go-to-war-shaun-gladwell-and-ben-quilty-29901 49

The careful circumvention of any deeper engagement with the morality, meaning, and impact of war by Quilty and Gladwell stands in stark contrast to the war art of George

Gittoes. While never being an official Australian war artist, Gittoes travelled with

Australian and United Nations peacekeeping forces to conflict zones around the world.

Over the span of his career he visited conflicts in Nicaragua, the Philippines, Somalia,

Sinai, Southern , Israel, Gaza, , , Laos, Mozambique,

South Africa, Congo, , Yemen, Bosnia, Northern Ireland, Russia, Bougainville,

China, Taiwan, Tibet, Timor, Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan.86 His practice involves painting, photography and filmmaking, and he began his engagement with conflict zones in a similar way to Quilty and Gladwell: by documenting the peacekeeping soldiers he was travelling with.

In 1995 this changed. Gittoes was travelling with the Australian Army Medical Force in

Kibeho, Rwanda, when he witnessed the overnight massacre of 4000 people. This tragic incident changed the artist’s perspective and caused him to shift his focus from the soldiers and perpetrators of war to the civilians affected and victimised by the conflicts.

This is exemplified by paintings like The Preacher (1995), which “captures a moment of hope before the massacre, when a local preacher pleaded the cause of peace and understanding”.87 Gittoes’ unflinching approach forces the viewer to confront the horrors of war to which he has been witness and is unapologetically opposed to. This type of engagement, while reactionary, sometimes self-regarding and often sentimental

86 Gittoes, G. Biography. Retrieved from http://gittoes.com/bio/ 87 McDonald, J. (2014, June 2). George Gittoes exhibition depicts graphic images of war. Retrieved from Art and Design, http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/art-and-design/george-gittoes-exhibition-depicts-graphic-images- of-war-20140602-zrv2r.html 50 to the point of appearing contrived, maintains the artist’s assertive role in the narrative: war is bad, and he, as a socially conscious artist, will prove it. Although both Gladwell and Quilty faced dangers during their time in Afghanistan, they were relatively safe ensconced inside Australian Army barracks. Gittoes, on the other hand, deliberately positions himself on the other side of the blast walls. The art and film studio he now runs in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, Yellow House, is a sanctuary for Afghans in the city who wish to express themselves creatively.88

Although I have not travelled into conflict zones to create my work, I position it as more in line with Gittoes’ approach than that of Quilty or Gladwell. Like Gittoes, I take up the

88 See http://yellowhousejalalabad.com 51 experience of the other, the invaded, the feared, however I do this in relation to the experience of these groups back on the home front. My 2014 photographic series Siege engaged with the “War on Terror” by contesting, conflating and subverting images of the ‘other’. In Art Monthly I described this process as “going to war”.89 The series was made of ten images, with each title making up a line in a ten-line didactic poem. The poem reads:

You see monsters

We are blood and bone

We are sweat and tears

From the beginning you told us we were shit

We are the ones that look back from the abyss

They silence us in darkness

The disaffected byproducts of the colonies

Someone else’s king and someone else’s country

Watch it burn

For peace

89 Cooke, R. (2015) Lover, Fighter. Art Monthly Magazine. April edition. Pg. 24 52 You see monsters (2014) Digital Print

We are blood and bone (2014) Digital Print

53

We are sweat and tears (2015) Digital Print

From the beginning they told us we were shit (2014) Digital Print

54

We are the ones that look back from the abyss (2014) Digital Print

They silence us in darkness (2014) Digital Print

55

The disaffected byproduct of the colonies (2014) Digital Print

Someone else’s king and someone else’s country (2014) Digital Print

56

Watch it burn (2014) Digital Print

For peace (2014) Digital Print

57

The images in Siege seek to engage and reflect the anxieties and frustrations felt by young, marginalised people, with a specific focus on young Muslims. I drew visual cues from the documentation of the 2011 London riots and news footage of the 2010 Arab

Spring, as well as incidental, realistic depictions of young Muslims in European films including La Haine (1995)90 and Un Prophete (2009)91. The mask featured throughout the series plays a dual role as an abject representation of the ‘other’, whilst also making a comparison between the depiction of contemporary marginalised youth and the depiction of the ‘other’ in the film franchise Planet of the Apes. Rudabah Abbass wrote in the article Artist captures the mood of the marginalised that “[the photographs] explore themes of belonging and alienation to give a voice to disenfranchised and disillusioned youth.” 92 Robert Cooke wrote when describing the series that “he is participating in a kind of stylistics of international protest while commenting on layers of focused and unfocused violence and the stereotypes that drive them.”93

The 2015 epilogue to Siege consisted of a series of three self-portraits where I again wore the ape mask from Tim Burton’s Planet of the Apes (2001)94. In these images taken in Malaysia I posed holding a macaque against a black background. In each composition

I held the monkey in different ways, each of which suggested a paternal relationship.

The titles of the works are Conciliation (of self) (2015), Reconciliation (of self) (2015) and Restitution (of self) (2015). They reflect a conciliatory follow-up and conclusion to

90 Mathieu Kassovitz (Director) (1995) La Haine. France: Studio Canal 91 Jacques Audiard (Director) (2009) Un Prophete. France: Why Not Production 92 Abbass, R. (2016, June ). Artist captures the mood of the marginalised. Retrieved from http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2014/06/abdul-abdullah-australian-artist-marginalised-racism-ara- 201462572052118236.html 93 Cooke, R. (2015) Lover, Fighter. Art Monthly Magazine. April edition. Pg. 28 94 Burton T (Dir.) (2001) Planet of the Apes. USA: 20th Century Fox 58

the series Siege (2014). Here the subject beholds and cradles an example of the reality of zoomorphism that has been projected onto him. In this way, by recognising, possessing and consoling the projection the subject reclaims his agency. He is a man in a monkey mask, holding a monkey and seeing his own reflection.

Conciliation (of self) (2015) Digital Print

59 Reconciliation (of self) (2015) Digital Print

Restitution (of self) (2015) Digital Print

60

In this body of work, I wanted to reposition the role of the artist when responding to war. Rather than documenting the atrocities of armed conflict like Goya or Gittoes, or examining the peripheries of the military experience like Gladwell or Quilty, or even occupying a space that fits somewhere in between, like Hester’s One week in Vietnam

(1970), I wanted to examine the position of the marginalised, supposedly ‘radical’

Muslim ‘other’, a politicised identity formed in the contemporary West by “The War on

Terror”. In a climate of fear where radicalised Australian groups like The One Nation

Party, Reclaim Australia, The United Patriots Front, The Australian Defence League, The

Australia First Party and the Q Society are drawing battle lines in every city in Australia, and the Australian government is exercising radical policies overseas, on our borders, and at home, I have become an unwitting participant in the conflict. As an active participant, however unwitting that position might be, I have an obligation to address inequities that are suffered by the diverse communities I belong to, and to call out the inaccuracies, fabrications, hypocrisies and racism levelled at them.

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Conclusion

Since the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington on September 11, 2001 the

Muslim identity has been politicised. Through my research I have outlined how that political identity has informed the conversation regarding Muslims in the west, and how the ensuing “War on terror” disproportionately and adversely affects Muslims. By examining my own personal journey and formative periods I have provided a personal context to an alternative Australian experience that runs parallel to the typical

Australian experience. My artistic practice has always sought to address the social and cultural underpinnings of the experience of the ‘Other’ in society. The bodies of work discussed in this thesis are both reflective of the socio-cultural context of young Muslim

Australians in our post-9/11 society, a context that I argue is an effect of war. As such, this thesis has sought to contextualise my work amongst other Australian ‘war artists’ including Ben Quilty, Shaun Gladwell and George Gittoes.

The events of 9/11 resulted in an ongoing period of unforeseen consequences for

Muslims in Australia. The negative effects were felt immediately and were formative to the experience of young Muslims Australians who felt alienated by growing anti-Muslim sentiments. I have described how the official government language and rhetoric regarding radicalisation has shifted the context to almost exclusively relate to Muslims, and how the perception of Muslims in the popular imagination is now largely negative.

These negative perceptions have led to further marginalisation, which is compounded by political groups that actively oppose Islam. These groups, including Reclaim Australia,

The United Patriots Front and the Australia First Party, advocate the banning of Muslim

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migration to Australia, oppose halal certification on food products, and believe there is a

Muslim conspiracy to implement ‘Shariah Law’ on unwitting non-Muslims in Australia.

These groups and their anti-Islamic rhetoric and imagery have formed the basis for much of my recent work, particularly the series explored in this text, and have compelled the central question these series’ ask: how can we prompt a critical re- examination of the ways in which Muslims, particularly young Muslim men, are perceived in Australia and the West more broadly?

The research for this thesis demonstrates how the contemporary understanding of radicalisation, as a critical concept within the perception of Muslims, is informed by the adverse effects of alienation, and is in fact symptomatic of a broadly experienced acculturative stress, compounded by a sense of lack of self-determination. Much of my work, and certainly the Coming to Terms and Siege series, have sought to redress this lack of self-determination through an explicit reclaiming of negative tropes applied to

Muslim Australians. The creative outcomes produced alongside this research deliberately illustrate the projection of criminality on the ‘racialised other’, and how this erodes potential for empathy between different cultural groups.

The perception of Muslims in Australia and broadly in the West is often monstrous, and this misperception of a diverse community can lead to ill treatment of that community.

With specific reference to artists who have dealt with first-hand experiences of war, including Francisco Goya, Howard Lester, Ben Quilty, Shaun Gladwell and George

Gittoes, I have positioned my practice in relation to the “War on Terror”. This

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relationship has defined my political identity since the events of 9/11, and I now understand that it also defines the parameters of my artistic practice. Reflecting on my research and creative outcomes for this thesis, I have come to understand the trajectory of my creative, intellectual enquiries, and now better appreciate how my practice fits into a broader conversation. This appreciation is especially pertinent at the time of writing with the recent election of Donald Trump in the United States. His new brand of fundamentalist extreme right-wing politics has immediately made life more difficult for

Muslims living in the US, and has emboldened the far right in Australia to align themselves with his policies. Muslims in the West have been under siege since

September 11, 2001, and there are no signs of letting up.

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