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Representations of Islam in the Politics of Mosque Development in Sydney

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REPRESENTATIONS OF ISLAM IN THE POLITICS OF MOSQUE DEVELOPMENT IN SYDNEY

KEVIN M. DUNN

Lecturer, School of Geography, The University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia. E-mail: [email protected]

Received: August 2000; revised January 2001

Abstract The negative constructions of Islam which circulate at (inter)national levels include Muslims as fanatical, intolerant, militant, fundamentalist, misogynist and alien. The various constructions of Islam had varying utility for mosque opponents in Sydney, Australia, during the 1980s and 1990s. Fanaticism and intolerance are constructions of Islam which have now had centuries of articulation in the West. These constructions have attained great potency as a result of their reiterative deployment. In Sydney, they were used to influence planning determinations and political decisions within local authorities. The charges of militancy and misogyny did not easily convert into a planning ground for opposing a mosque, but they were used to heighten public unease and widen opposition. Local authorities also refused development consent for mosques on the grounds that the proposals were ‘out of character’ with surrounding development, drawing on the construction of Muslims as alien and ultimately out of place. The discourses of opposition to mosques did not simply rely on the stereotypes of Islam, but also drew heavily on cultural constructions of what constituted a local citizen and the local community. Mosque supporters attempted to deploy counter-constructions, of Muslims as moderate, tolerant, peaceful, clean living, family-orientated, ordinary local citizens. A social construction approach is used to examine the politics surrounding mosque development in Sydney. This reveals both the socio-spatial impacts of identity constructions (of a minority group and the imagined dominant community) as well as the important role of space and locale.

Key words: Islam, Sydney, stereotypes, social constructivism, mosques, citizenship

SOCIALLY AND SPATIALLY CONSTRUCTED INTOLERANCE

and Islamic centres. Two forms of content anaylsis were drawn on to reveal the constructions of Islam. This first involved an assess-
During the 1980s and 1990s, in Sydney, ment of manifest content within Australian Islamic groups repeatedly ran into vociferous media, using as a case study the newspaper opposition to their building of places of wor- reporting of the African Muslim nation ship. Such local level land-use disputes and Algeria. Second, the latent content – meaninter-communal tensions reveal the manner ings – within the discourses surrounding in which stereotypes, and social constructions mosque developments in Sydney was used to generally, are consumed and reproduced. reveal the everyday operation of constructions This paper first reports on the key stereotypes of Islam and local citizenship. Further details of Islam in Australian media. The lineage of on these methods are provided later.

  • these stereotypes is unpacked. Finally, the
  • A
  • social construction, or constructivist,

local utility – deployment and impact – of approach to identity and representation is constructions of Islam are revealed within now well established within Geography (Bondebates over the establishment of mosques nett 1996, pp. 872–877; Jackson & Penrose

Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie – 2001, Vol. 92, No. 3, pp. 291–308. # 2001 by the Royal Dutch Geographical Society KNAG Published by Blackwell Publishers, 108 Cowley Road, Oxford OX4 1JF, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden MA 02148, USA

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KEVIN M. DUNN

1993; Waitt et al. 2000, pp. 96–99). The core Peake 2000; Valentine 1993). The policing of premise of this theoretical stance is that space, and the local deployment and creative identities (nations, ‘races’, classes, genders, articulation of identities and stereotypes, are etc.) are social constructions rather than all crucial to social constructions. The everynatural or biological givens. These construc- day (referred to here as the ‘local’) is where tions should be unsettled or revealed as con- social constructions (trans)form and materialstructed (Bonnett 1996, p. 872; Jackson & ise. In this paper I demonstrate that this Penrose 1993, p. 203; Kobayashi & Peake 1994, materialisation is dependent on power relap. 230). In newspapers, and in other forms of tions, the accumulated strength of stereotypes, media, ethnic minorities and other less power- and the local comprehensibility of social ful groups are constructed as Other, as ‘ethnic’ constructions. The everyday, the local, is a or foreign (Goodall et al. 1994, p. 54). Uneven critical site of symbolic contestation. The local power relations are reproduced in this is not simply a repository for the expression of way. This process if often spatialised. Social meanings constructed from above. In Ausconstructions are not just geographically ex- tralia, local and national representations of pressed, they are also geographically (re)pro- Muslims are mutually reinforcing, and preduced (Bonnett 1996, pp. 875–877). For dominantly negative. Mosque opposition at example, constructions of citizenship are the local level, for example, is (mis)informed spatially articulated. Australian media repre- by the stereotypes of Islam that are reprosentations award, and continually reinscribe, duced in the national media. There is an the power to Anglo-Australians to describe intertextuality between the local and national themselves as ‘us’ and refer to the country as discourses, knitted together in a symbolic web. ‘ours’ (Bell 1993, p. 68). Sites like talk-back The local is the scale at which citizenship is radio are potent places for awarding what observable and measurable. Hage (1998, pp. 42–46) has termed the status of national ‘spatial manager’. Spatial managers are those who are empowered to speak on the direction of ‘our’ country and voice

AN ACCUMULATED WESTERN HERITAGE OF ISLAMAPHOBIA

opinions on who should be allowed into it or Mosque opposition has been a primary exexcluded, and about how difference (the pression of the racism suffered by Muslims ‘they’ who are different) should be managed in Australia.1 Anti-Muslim feeling or Islamaor tolerated. The status of manager or citizen phobia in Australia has been chameleon-like, pertains at the local level (Sandercock 1998, evolving and changing its emphases, and p. 3), with members of dominant cultural developing new strains. The Macassan fishers groups typically exercising a greater pro- and Malay pearlers were forcefully excluded prietory confidence than those of cultural or relegated to a lowly labour force and social minorities (Isin & Siemiatycki 1999, pp. 10–13). positions within a ‘racial’ hierarchy (Choo The construction of local belonging and the 1993; Manderson 1988). The Afghans faced a privilege of spatial management is demon- specifically fearful response from Anglo-Celtic

  • strated in this paper.
  • Australia at a time when the White Australia

Social constructions of identity are given life Policy was being given legislative and instruthrough their articulation. Through repeti- mental teeth. They were seen as dirty, treachtion they can achieve a remarkable durability. erous, brutal, non-British and a menace to In a sedimentary-like process the reinscription white women (Stevens 1989, pp. 148–166). of social constructions (Muslims as fanatical, This was a stereotype born of a developing real Australians as white, etc.) can come to be Orientalism and a bloody colonial history of widely accepted as unproblematic, and as a Afghan-British conflict (Stevens 1989, pp. 1, natural given (Butler 1990, p. 140; 1993, p. 10). 6–9, 164–166). Albanians were officially deOrdinary and safe space is then assumed to be fined as enemy aliens (Carne 1984, pp. 186– white/heterosexual space. Deviance, by way of 188). From the 1970s, Muslim migrants from normative transgression, in such spaces is seen Turkey and Lebanon were portrayed initially as ‘unusual’ or ‘out of place’ (Kobayashi & as naive, sexist peasants who at best were factory

# 2001 by the Royal Dutch Geographical Society KNAG

ISLAM IN THE POLITICS OF MOSQUE DEVELOPMENT IN SYDNEY

293 fodder and at worst were welfare bludgers or Sydney and the Werribee College in Melworkers’ compensation rorters (Ethnic Affairs bourne were attacked by arsonists (HREOC Commission of New South Wales 1985, pp. 1991, pp. 146, 152; Trad 1992, p. 7). Racist 164–165; Mackie 1983, pp. 79–82, 132–133). violence against Muslims, and the related antiLater, the Lebanese and other Arab Muslims Muslim feeling that circulated in the media, were constructed as violent and barbaric, a resulted in many Muslims becoming fearful of stereotype that drew on old and new oriental- leaving their homes. These discriminations isms (The Committee on Discrimination were perceived to have constructed ‘a hostile Against Arab Australians 1990; The Human and threatening environment’ for Australian Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission Muslims (HREOC 1991, pp. 145–153). How(HREOC) 1991, pp. 395–396; Kheir 1991, pp. ever, the Islamic Council of NSW (1989, p. 21) 47–48). In the 1980s and 1990s, the main- had concluded before the Gulf Crisis occurred stream Australian media and conservative that there was a ‘deeply in-grained ideological commentators became concerned about the antipathy against Islam’ in Australia (see also status of women within Islam (Sawer 1990, Goodall et al. 1994, pp. 61–63). Indeed, many p. 19). More latterly, African Muslims, and Australians have a deep hostility to, or wariIslam generally, have become associated in the ness of, Islam. This has been historically conmedia with female genital mutilation and structed, but it is also constantly reinforced violent marital breakdown. There is an accu- and reinvented within contemporary media.

  • mulated heritage of Islamaphobia in Australia
  • The city of Sydney is the capital of the State

(Mograby 1985, p. 32; Shboul 1988, pp. 18– of New South Wales (NSW) and is the largest 19). This has manifest as a historically devel- metropolis in Australia. Sydney has long been oped set of negative stereotypes and attitudes a focus of migrant settlement in Australia. The which resurface in contemporary media and earlier Muslim presences in Australia did not also in local disputes, such as debates over the tend to involve Sydney. Between 1911 and development of mosques. The frustration of 1947, there were relatively few Muslims in attempts to build mosques has also been Australia: official census statistics indicate they experienced by Muslims in other Western hovered between 2,000 and 3,000 in total over nations. This has been examined for example that period (Dunn 1999, pp. 275–276). These in cities like Toronto in Canada (Isin & Muslims were principally Afghans found in Siemiatycki 1999) and Rotterdam and Utrecht South and Western Australia, or Albanians in in the Netherlands (Feirabend & Rath 1996, Queensland and rural NSW. It was with the

  • p. 246).
  • arrival of Turkish and Lebanese migrants,

Muslims are one of the groups that have from the 1970s, that a significant presence of suffered from a worrying degree of racist Muslims in Australia was established. The violence in Australia (Cleland 1993, p. 112; focus of settlement of these migrants has been HREOC 1991, p. 362; Omar & Allen 1996, in the state capitals of Sydney and Melbourne, p. 11). Mosques have been opposed, but also especially Sydney. Indeed, according to the physically attacked. During the initial Gulf 1996 Census of Population and Housing, Crisis of 1990, the Anti-Discrimination Board almost 50% of all Australian Muslims reside in the State of New South Wales was made in the city of Sydney (96,792 of 200,253) aware that Arab and Muslim Australians (Dunn 1999, pp. 268–278). Sydney was therewere being ‘vilified daily in our streets’, and fore a focus of land-use disputes regarding that Muslim women particularly were being mosque applications in the 1980s and 1990s harangued and verbally abused (Mark 1990, (Interdepartmental Committee on Religious p. 10). The forms of violence that were re- Developments 1990). In the 1980s, there reported included vandalism or threats against mained a strong ground level legacy of the mosques, schools and centres, assaults of hijab recently dismantled White Australia Policy. At wearing women, telephone or mail threats to the same time, councils in Sydney have been community leaders, and verbal abuse of chil- among the most progressive of local authdren at schools (HREOC 1991, pp. 146–159). orities in terms of recognising a diverse For example, the Mount Druitt mosque in citizenry and developing appropriate trans-

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KEVIN M. DUNN

lation and interpreting systems. In the 1990s, foreign to Western or democratic society the NSW State Government enacted legis- (ICNSW 1989, pp. 12–13, 17–18; Lowe 1985, lation and guides that compelled local auth- p. 55; Shboul 1988, pp. 18–20). Newspaper orities to pay regard to the service access photographs and headlines directly ask readers difficulties that residents of a non-English whether Islam can be accommodated within speaking background experience (Dunn et al. Western society.

  • 2001).
  • The stereoypes above have now had cen-

An orientalist discourse, which relies on a turies of articulation in the West. They are so
West and East opposition has depicted Islam well rehearsed that Islamic guidebooks, and as fanatical, intolerant, militant, fundamental- other introductory material for converts, conist, misogynist and alien (Said 1981). The tain lengthy sections of rebuttal. These guideWestern stereotype of Islamic fanaticism has books are important community texts within included portrayals of Muslims as mindless Australian Islam (see, for example, Ahmed or dogmatic followers of faith. Muslims are 1988; Abdalati 1975; or Sarwar in the case of shown in the media undertaking ritualistic the UK). They are found in the book stalls at performances, in marches, or as chanting Islamic community events, in Islamic bookmobs (Shboul 1988, pp. 20–21). News media shops, and they are advertised in, and supconstruct Muslims as subservient to anti- ported by, the Muslim press in Australia. democratic, often theocratic, regimes in which These texts tend to be written in apologistic the leaders are described as mullahs or tones, devoid of a critical perspective, and are Ayatollahs (Deen 1995, p. vii). The intolerant subsidised by large religious bodies, such as Islam media stereotype conjures the image of conversion groups or the Saudi Government ‘conversion by the sword’ in historical con- (Deen 1995, p. 174). For example, Abdalati’s texts. There is a powerful set of Western media text is published by The Muslim Convert’s imagery that construct Islam as intolerant of Association of Singapore. In Australia, and other faiths and other ways of life. Many elsewhere, these influential guides tend to contemporary Islamic movements have been advocate more formalist and conservative ascribed the title of fundamentalist, not schools of Islamic thought (Deen 1995, necessarily implying a literalist interpretation p. 175; Mohammad 1999, pp. 226–227). Deen of texts, but evoking instead the images of described the guides thus: militancy, intolerance and other negative inexpensive publications, mostly, directed stereotypes. There is also a construction of at people, especially women, without ter-
Islamic practice as being confined by orthotiary education who might want to teach doxy, of being strict and rule-bound. The themselves more about Islam and prime image and therefore the stereotype of a themselves with ready-made arguments to militant Islam is almost ubiquitous in Western try and convince their critics that Islam was media. Magazine covers and television images not an oppressive religion (Deen 1995, make a direct symbolic association between p. 175).
Islam and bearded men with guns (Deen

1995, p. 167; Dunn 1999, pp. 419–422; Shboul These guidebooks provide the ‘defences of 1988, pp. 20–21). Muslims are portrayed as Islam’ to be used against the Western stereoviolent and cruel terrorists, who kill and hijack types. As part of these rebuttals, counteras part of Jihad. They are sensationally asso- constructions of Islam and of Muslims have ciated with stonings and whippings of non- been articulated. In opposition to the fanatical Muslims, women and dissidents. One of the Muslim is the moderate Muslim. The intelkey Western stereotypes of Islam is that it is lectual, liberal or philosophical contributions ‘specifically and peculiarly repressive to women’ and traditions of Islamic societies are de(Dwyer 1993, p. 156). Islam is portrayed as ployed against the fanatical stereotype (Abpatriarchal, and associations are often made dalati 1975, pp. 19, 34, 107–108; Ahmed 1988, between Islam and specific violences such as pp. 3–5, 86–89). To counter the intolerance female genital mutilation. The media stereo- stereotype the Qur’an and historical precetypes of Islam portray Muslims as alien and dents are cited to demonstrate that Islamic

# 2001 by the Royal Dutch Geographical Society KNAG

ISLAM IN THE POLITICS OF MOSQUE DEVELOPMENT IN SYDNEY

295 societies have given official sanction to reli- portrayed quite differently. Chafic described gious diversity, and how Islam transcends the construction through which she becomes ethnic chauvinism (Abdalati 1975, pp. 34–36, ‘one of four wives, she wears a chador or veil 49, 52; Pickthall 1930, p. 16). These aspects which covers her from head to toe – like a are core to the counter construction of Islam potato sack, she is permanently two steps as a cosmopolitan and tolerant faith. In con- behind her husband, a person worthy of ill trast to the images of militant Islam are those treatment at home, who has no rights whatof peacefulness and pacifism, which are held soever’ (Chafic 1985, p. 52; see also Ahmed to be guiding principles of Muslim behaviour 1991, p. 10). Among other problems, the (Abdalati 1975, pp. 142–143, 152; Pickthall narrow presentations conceal the great diver1930, pp. 17, 195). The guidebooks on Islam sity among Australian Muslims, in terms of insist that individual and even nation-state birthplace, language, affluence and religious aggression is prohibited (Abdalati 1975, pp. performance (Dunn 1999, pp. 270–274). 138–139). There are two forms of response Rarely does the media have the space, or to the charge of fundamentalism. The first is the desire, to present Muslims as ‘ordinary’ that the accusation of fundamentalism is a Australians or the ‘Self’ (Deen 1995, pp. vii– cynical twist of what is actually devoutness and viii; ICNSW 1989, pp. 18–19). The status of commitment. The second defence is that the Muslims as ‘one of us’ is consistently quesinterpretations of Islamic texts are much more tioned. During the Gulf Crises, the media dynamic and diverse than the fundamentalist were particularly eager to depict Arabs and label suggests (Abdalati 1975, p. 103). Con- Muslims as the ‘Other’, or as ‘not us’, as siderable portions of the guidebooks on terrorists and likely traitors who should ‘go Islamic practice are dedicated to questions of back home’ (Goodall et al. 1994, pp. 61–65; gender relations (Abdalati 1975, pp. 165– Hage 1991, p. 9). The media recognise and 191). The dominant response to the stereo- reinforce different levels of citizenship in type of misogyny, has been to argue that Islam Australia. Those with lesser citizenship, and accords different – rather than uneven – roles ‘more questionable loyalties’, are ultimately to men and women (Abdalati 1975, pp. 35, more vulnerable to accusation and criticism.

  • 184; Omar & Allen 1996, pp. 16–17). These
  • Content analyses of newspaper reporting of

roles are argued to be those most suited to Algeria between 1992 and 1996 was underthe different natures of men and women. In taken in order to demonstrate the circulation summary, these counter constructions portray of the key constructions of Islam in Australian Muslims as moderate, tolerant, peaceful, clean media. The reporting of Algeria in Australian living, family-orientated and ordinary citizens. media is a focused case study that amassed a Together, these counter constructions and the data set on international news about troubles stereotypes outlined above, were the construc- in a mostly Muslim country.2 The two daily tivist tools, or symbolic raw material, that have newspapers selected for analysis between 1992 been used in debates over the establishment and 1996 were The Sydney Morning Herald of mosques and Islamic centres in Sydney.

(SMH) and The Australian Financial Review

(AFR). The SMH is the only state-wide quality broadsheet for NSW, and the AFR is the national business newspaper. They were both

THE AUSTRALIAN MEDIA AND ISLAM

The media treatment of Islam in Australia is owned by the Fairfax publishing stable. problematic (Bowman 1992; Hage 1991; Politically they are seen as right of centre HREOC 1991; ICNSW 1989; Lowe 1985; on economic and industrial issues, and to Shboul 1988). The images of Muslims and the left on social and cultural matters. Both Arabs are quite narrow. The dominant image newspapers have a less sensationalist, jingois that of the fanatical and foreign terrorist istic and stereotypical manner than do the (Cleland 1993, p. 106). Deen (1995, p. 45) metropolitan tabloid newspapers. Represenreferred to this Western image as the ‘Ice-Age tations of Islam are likely to be at their Muslim’. These images are of course gendered; most generous in these two Australian newsthey refer mostly to males. Female Muslims are papers.

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KEVIN M. DUNN

By early 1998, the estimates of the death toll egories were the counter constructions of the for the six-year conflict in Algeria hovered negative categories: moderate, tolerant, peacebetween 75,000 and 80,000 people (The Aus- ful, devout, feminist, familiar, and other tralian Muslim News (AMN) October 1996, p. 7; positives. An additional count was also taken Benzegala 1996, p. 7; SMH 24.1.98, p. 24). Not of those instances where the descriptive word surprisingly then, between 1992 and 1996, was contiguous to ‘Muslim’ or ‘Islam’. world media carried some very harrowing descriptions of political violence in Algeria. meanings and imagery within the reports on For example, small report of ‘less Algeria was also undertaken. This analysis
A latent content analysis of the types of

  • a
  • a

significant’ act of violence in early 1998 went: provided additional data on the way Islam is constructed in the media. An assessment was
In Algeria, in the latest violence, a dozen made of whether the overall image of Islam
‘terrorists’3 cut the arms and legs off in each article was mostly negative, mostly four children, then slashed their throats positive, neutral, mixed, or no mention at all as their parents watched helplessly before
(often described as an assessment of ‘evalubeing killed in their turn . . . (SMH 24.1.98, ative tenor’, see Bell 1993, p. 13). p. 24).
A total of 870 instances were recorded of

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    Queensland Health CCoommmmuunniittyy PPrrooffiilleess for Health Care Providers Acknowledgments Community Profiles for Health Care Providers was produced for Queensland Health by Dr Samantha Abbato in 2011. Queensland Health would like to thank the following people who provided valuable feedback during development of the cultural profiles: • Dr Taher Forotan • Pastor John Ngatai • Dr Hay Thing • Ianeta Tuia • Vasanthy Sivanathan • Paul Khieu • Fazil Rostam • Lingling Holloway • Magdalena Kuyang • Somphan Vang • Abel SIbonyio • Phuong Nguyen • Azeb Mussie • Lemalu Felise • Nao Hirano • Faimalotoa John Pale • Surendra Prasad • Vaáaoao Alofipo • Mary Wellington • Charito Hassell • Rosina Randall © State of Queensland (Queensland Health) 2011. This document is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial 2.5 Australia licence. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.5/au. You are free to copy, communicate and adapt the work for non-commercial purposes, as long as you attribute Queensland Health. For permissions beyond the scope of this licence contact: Intellectual Property Officer Queensland Health GPO Box 48 Brisbane Queensland 4001 email [email protected] phone 07 3234 1479 Suggested citation: Abbato, S. Community Profiles for Health Care Providers. Division of the Chief Health Officer, Queensland Health. Brisbane 2011. i www.health.qld.gov.au/multicultural Table of contents Acknowledgments............................................................................................................
  • Health Promotion with Australian Afghan Community

    Health Promotion with Australian Afghan Community

    Health Promotion with Australian Afghan communities; how building relationships with community groups assists with health promotion activities Higher prevalence of CHB Key challenges of the Afghan-born population among Afghan-Australians: Afghan-born population in Australia: in Australia: In Australia, the prevalence of CHB is significantly higher Afghans have a long history of living in Australia (since 1860) among people born in certain countries including Afghanistan. • Prevalence of viral hepatitis B among Afghans-born More than 30 years of war in Afghanistan resulted in The Afghan community is one of the most vulnerable Australians is significantly higher than that of communities in Victoria with limited resources about hepatitis general population. millions of refugees in different countries. B in their own languages. Most members of the community • Low level of community knowledge regarding HBV. Total Afghan population in Australia: around 29,000 are unaware that they are living with the disease. Misconceptions and myths about the disease. • Total Afghan Population in Victoria: around 10,000 In Australia the prevalence of chronic viral hepatitis B in • Poor history of healthcare in their country of birth the Afghan-born population is the highest after those born (Afghanistan) and in refugee camps. Most Afghan Victorians are living in south east Melbourne in Taiwan, Vietnam, China and Cambodia. • Poor history and recording of vaccination in the City of Casey and Greater Dandenong Figure 1: Estimated prevalence of chronic hepatitis B Low health literacy Figure 2: Geographic distribution of Afghan-born people in infection in Australia by country of birth. • • Language barriers and cultural differences metropolitan Local Government Areas, Victoria: 2011 • Lack of access to and difficulty using qualified interpreters.
  • Accepted Manuscript

    Accepted Manuscript

    Swinburne Research Bank http://researchbank.swinburne.edu.au Hopkins, Liza. (2008). Young Turks and the new media: the construction of identity in an age of Islamophobia. Media International Australia incorporating Culture and Policy. 126(Feb.) : 54-66. Copyright © 2008 University of Queensland. This is the author’s version of the work. It is posted here with the permission of the publisher for your personal use. No further distribution is permitted. If your library has a subscription to this journal, you may also be able to access the published version via the library catalogue. Young Turks and new media: the construction of identity in an age of Islamophobia Abstract The place of Islam in a multicultural society is high on the agenda of every western nation at the moment. In the wake of a series of local and global events, Australia’s Muslims have found themselves in the glare of media scrutiny over what it means to be Australian and a Muslim. Increasingly that media discourse contributes to a rising tide of anti-Islamic feeling, also known as Islamophobia, in the community. Diasporic communities across the globe are using new technology to overcome some of the structural difficulties inherent in being cast as ‘outsiders’, even of the country in which they were born. This paper examines the use of communications and media technologies to establish, assert and define social groups and notions of social identity, using a research project with Melbourne’s Turkish community as a case study. The qualitative research, which forms part of a broader study of the Turkish community in Melbourne, focuses on the experiences of a small cohort of young people of both first and second generation Turkish background, who are completing their education in the Australian university system.
  • Masterarbeit / Master's Thesis

    Masterarbeit / Master's Thesis

    MASTERARBEIT / MASTER’S THESIS Titel der Masterarbeit / Title of the Master‘s Thesis „Patterns of Consciousness Formation among Women belonging to the Dari-speaking Afghan Diasporas of Austria and Pakistan.“ verfasst von / submitted by Mechthild Geyer, BA MSc angestrebter akademischer Grad / in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts (MA) Wien, 2019 / Vienna 2019 Studienkennzahl lt. Studienblatt / A 066 805 degree programme code as it appears on the student record sheet: Studienrichtung lt. Studienblatt / Masterstudium Globalgeschichte und Global Studies degree programme as it appears on the student record sheet: Betreut von / Supervisor: Univ.-Prof. Dr. Margarete Maria Grandner Acknowledgements This is dedicated to all who have contributed to the realization of this project. Of course, I need to apologize that I cannot mention every person who participated in this research - especially, the 57 women in Austria and Pakistan who were content to fill my questionnaires. So, everyone mentioned down below represents some greater background and network. Although this work has tried to make obvious, that representations always fail to depict the reality, it needs to make use of these representations. Knowing that life is much more than that: more amazing, more colorful and more diverse than any of our representations can articulate. Thank you and tashakkor besior siod for supporting me learning this! Kobra Gol Ahmadi, pharmaceutical assistant in Vienna, mother of one cheerful daughter, my friend, for her advice, the distribution of ten questionnaires and her energizing spirit. Elaine Alam, Secretary General of FACES Pakistan, for her openminded attitude and for facilitating my entire research stay in Lahore.
  • Afghanistan Bibliography 2019

    Afghanistan Bibliography 2019

    Afghanistan Analyst Bibliography 2019 Compiled by Christian Bleuer Afghanistan Analysts Network Kabul 3 Afghanistan Analyst Bibliography 2019 Afghanistan Analysts Network (AAN), Kabul, Afghanistan This work is licensed under this creative commons license: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/legalcode The Afghanistan Analysts Network (AAN) is a non-profit, independent policy research organisation. It aims to bring together the knowledge, experience and drive of a large number of experts to better inform policy and to increase the understanding of Afghan realities. It is driven by engagement and curiosity and is committed to producing independent, high quality and research-based analysis on developments in Afghanistan. The institutional structure of AAN includes a core team of analysts and a network of contributors with expertise in the fields of Afghan politics, governance, rule of law, security, and regional affairs. AAN publishes regular in-depth thematic reports, policy briefings and comments. The main channel for dissemination of these publications is the AAN web site: https://www.afghanistan-analysts.org/ Cover illustration: “City of Kandahar, with main bazaar and citadel, Afghanistan.” Lithograph by Lieutenant James Rattray, c. 1847. Coloured by R. Carrick. TABLE OF CONTENTS Bibliography Introduction and Guide ..................................................................... 6 1. Ethnic Groups ...................................................................................................
  • Muslim Australians: Their Beliefs, Practices and Institutions

    Muslim Australians: Their Beliefs, Practices and Institutions

    Muslim THEIRAustralians BELIEFS, PRACTICES AND INSTITUTIONS A Partnership under the Australian Government’s Living In Harmony initiative by Professor Abdullah Saeed DEPARTMENT OF IMMIGRATION AND MULTICULTURAL AND INDIGENOUS AFFAIRS and AUSTRALIAN MULTICULTURAL FOUNDATION in association with THE UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNE (c) Copyright Commonwealth of Australia 2004 This work is copyright. Apart from any use as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, no part may be reproduced by any process without prior written permission from the Commonwealth available from the Department of Communications, Information Technology and the Arts. Requests and inquiries concerning reproduction and rights should be addressed to the Commonwealth Copyright Administration, Intellectual Property Branch, Department of Communications, Information Technology and the Arts, GPO Box 2154, Canberra ACT 2601 or at http:www.dcita.gov.au Design and layout Done...ByFriday Printed by National Capital Printing ISBN: 0-9756064-1-7 Muslim Australians:THEIR BELIEFS, PRACTICES AND INSTITUTIONS 3 CONTENTS Introduction . 4 Muslim Community in Australia: A View from the 2001 Census . 5 Muslims in Australia . 7 Beginning of Islam . 12 Key Beliefs of a Muslim . 17 The Five Pillars of Islam . 21 Commonalities and Differences . 26 Muslim Family Life . 30 The Milestones in a Muslim’s Life . 32 Muslim Women . 35 Holidays and Holy Days . 42 Sacred Places . 43 Sacred Texts . 45 Determining Right and Wrong . 48 Food and Drinks . 52 Mosques and Religious Leaders . 53 Community Organisations . 55 Islamic Schools: Weekend and Regular . 56 Islamic Banking . 58 Islam and Violence . 59 Islam and Other Religions . 62 Stereotypes and Misconceptions . 66 Islam, State and Australian Citizenship . 73 Contact Details Mosques in Australia .