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Representations of Islam in the Politics of Mosque Development in Sydney

Representations of Islam in the Politics of Mosque Development in Sydney

REPRESENTATIONS OF IN THE POLITICS OF DEVELOPMENT IN

KEVIN M. DUNN Lecturer, School of Geography, The University of , Sydney, NSW 2052, . E-mail: [email protected]

Received: August 2000; revised January 2001

Abstract The negative constructions of Islam which circulate at (inter)national levels include 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 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 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 and Islamic centres. Two forms of content CONSTRUCTED INTOLERANCE anaylsis were drawn on to reveal the construc- tions 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 – mean- inter-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 (Bon- debates 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 292 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 every- natural 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 material- structed (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 rela- p. 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 Aus- constructions are not just geographically ex- tralia, local and national representations of pressed, they are also geographically (re)pro- Muslims are mutually reinforcing, and pre- duced (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 repro- sentations award, and continually reinscribe, duced in the national media. There is an the power to Anglo- 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 man- AN ACCUMULATED WESTERN HERITAGE agers are those who are empowered to speak OF ISLAMAPHOBIA on the direction of ‘our’ country and voice opinions on who should be allowed into it or Mosque opposition has been a primary ex- excluded, 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 Islama- or 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 instru- through their articulation. Through repeti- mental teeth. They were seen as dirty, treach- tion 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). were officially de- Ordinary and 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 and 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 Mel- workers’ 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 anti- Later, 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 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 wari- Islam generally, have become associated in the ness of, Islam. This has been historically con- media 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 , or Albanians in in the Netherlands (Feirabend & Rath 1996, 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 , 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 there- were 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 re- ported included vandalism or threats against mained a strong ground level legacy of the mosques, schools and centres, assaults of hijab recently dismantled . 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 auth- dren 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-

# 2001 by the Royal Dutch Geographical Society KNAG 294 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, con- ist, misogynist and alien (Said 1981). The tain lengthy sections of rebuttal. These guide- Western 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 book- mobs (Shboul 1988, pp. 20–21). News media shops, and they are advertised in, and sup- construct 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 ortho- tiary 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 stereo- violent and cruel terrorists, who kill and hijack types. As part of these rebuttals, counter- as 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 intel- key 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 (Ab- patriarchal, 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 prece- types 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 what- of 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 diver- 1930, pp. 17, 195). The guidebooks on Islam sity among Australian Muslims, in terms of insist that individual and even nation-state birthplace, , 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 ques- interpretations of Islamic texts are much more tioned. During the Gulf Crises, the media dynamic and diverse than the fundamentalist were particularly eager to depict 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 under- the 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 Financial Review (AFR). The SMH is the only state-wide quality THE AUSTRALIAN MEDIA AND ISLAM broadsheet for NSW, and the AFR is the national business newspaper. They were both The media treatment of 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, jingo- is 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. Represen- referred 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 news- they refer mostly to males. Female Muslims are papers.

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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, peace- between 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 A latent content analysis of the types of descriptions of political violence in Algeria. meanings and imagery within the reports on For example, a small report of a ‘less Algeria was also undertaken. This analysis 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 ‘evalu- being 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 For six years, Australian newspaper reporting a description of ‘Islam(ic)’ or ‘Muslim’, and of these types of violence was juxtaposed with these were coded according to the 14 descrip- Islam and Muslims. tion categories (Table 1). Just under half Manifest content analysis was used to tally (47.7%) of the terms used to describe Islam each word used to describe Islam or Muslims. appeared as a suffix or prefix to the terms Seven negative categories of reference were ‘Islam(ic)’ or ‘Muslim’. Between 1992 and identified: fanatic, intolerant, militant, funda- 1996 negative terms were predominantly mentalist, misogynist, alien, and other nega- (75%) used to describe Muslims or Islam in tives. At the same time a record of all positive articles about Algeria (Table 1). Results of a descriptions of Islam was made. These cat- latent content analysis similarly indicated that

Table 1. Descriptions of Islam, reports on Algeria, 1992–96.

Depictions of Islam Total of all % of total Total of Contiguous % mentions mentions contiguous mentions of mentions

Fanatic 109 12.53 74 67.89 Intolerant 3 0.34 0 53.03 Militant 264 30.34 140 53.03 Fundamentalist 224 25.75 102 45.54 Misogyny 6 0.69 2 33.33 Alien 8 0.92 2 25.00 Other negatives 41 4.71 17 41.46 All negatives 655 75.29 337 51.45 Moderate 94 10.80 35 37.23 Tolerant 12 1.38 10 83.33 Peaceful 75 8.62 22 29.33 Devout 47 5.40 7 14.89 Feminist 15 1.72 3 20.00 Familiar 0 0.00 0 0.00 Other positives 5 0.57 1 20.00 All positives 215 24.71 78 36.28 TOTAL 870 100.00 415 47.70

Source: Manifest content analysis, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Australian Financial Review, 1992–96. Using a data base of 251 articles in the SMH (205) and AFR (46) that made reference to Algeria.

# 2001 by the Royal Dutch Geographical Society KNAG ISLAM IN THE POLITICS OF MOSQUE DEVELOPMENT IN SYDNEY 297 most (83.6%) newspaper reports on Algeria which probably explains the popularity of its presented Islam negatively. usage among media. The underlying meaning The main types of negative term used to and message about Islam in the reporting of describe Islam suggested that Muslims were Algeria was that it was a militant and an alien militant, fundamentalist and fanatical. Mili- faith which is a threat to Western society. tancy accounted for 30% of all descriptive terms (140 instances), including prominent DISCOURSES OF OPPOSITION TO descriptive words such as violent, terrorist and MOSQUES killers (Table 1). ‘Fundamentalist Muslim’ constituted just over a quarter of all refer- The categories of description identified pre- ences, and ‘fanatic Muslim’ comprised 13%. viously (Table 1) were used to examine the There were 109 instances of words being used ‘discourses of opposition’ to mosques in to describe Islam as a fanatical faith, such as Sydney. The use of latent content analysis also ‘extremist’ or ‘fanatic’ (Table 1). This con- allowed for the counter constructions of Islam stituted 12.5% of all positive and negative to be identified within these local disputes. descriptions of Muslims, which was not a great The data sets were compiled from the archives deal more than the descriptions of Islam as of local authorities (referred to as councils in moderate or liberal (11%). Positive descrip- Australia) and from local newspapers. Docu- tions referred to moderate governments, ments analysed included correspondence to political opposition parties and to their local authorities from resident objectors, popularity, and to the peaceful intentions of development applications (DAs), submissions Islamic groups. The negative versions in- of support from Muslim advocates, planner’s cluded references to the spectre of an Islamic reports, council determinations, campaign State or a theocracy. Over two-thirds of these leaflets, letters to the editors of local news- fanaticism descriptions of Islam appeared papers (LTE), as well as media releases and contiguous to the word Islam or Muslims other materials of opposition and support (Table 1). The direct juxtaposition of the groups. Quotations from these documents are terms fanatic or extremist with Islam on 74 provided below to give a sense of how the occasions must have a significant and detri- various constructions were used. mental symbolic impact. Muslims in Algeria The stereotype of the fanatical Muslim was were often described as ‘illegal’ or ‘banned’ or present in the discourses of opposition to associated with criminality (categorised as mosques or Islamic centres throughout Sydney. ‘other negative’ in Table 1). Opponents of mosques made reference to Very few articles (5.7%) were coded in the Muslims having a fanatical belief in their latent content analysis as having portrayed faith. Resident objectors referred to Muslims Islam as fundamentalist in the theological as ‘religious fanatics’ and their ‘extravagant sense. And yet the phrase ‘Muslim funda- enthusiasm and emotional nature’ (letters mentalist’ was often used in newspaper report- to Campbelltown City Council (CCC) 7.8.90, ing, although rarely was the article about 8.8.90, 16.8.90). The main way in which the literalist interpretations of religious texts. In stereotype of fanaticism was locally manifest other words, only eight of those articles that was in discussions of Muslim prayer observ- offered a portrayal of Islam contained a dis- ances. Objection letters would refer to the cussion of literalism or orthodoxy. The term ‘odd hours’ of worship. ‘fundamentalism’ when used in media means the use of the building premises is in reality something very different to theological literal- for religious services. Which to the Com- ism. The phrases ‘fundamentalist Muslim’ or munity may be solemn devotions but to the ‘’ were tediously omni- neighbouring Christians is seen as a wail- present in reporting on Algeria. Indeed, ‘funda- ing, a nuisance and an annoyance (letter to mentalist’ seems to have become a catch-all Liverpool City Council (LCC) 17.1.89, p. 2). trope that evokes all of the stereotypes of militancy, intolerance and violence. The term Muslim prayer performance, particularly its fundamentalism has a deceptive slippage frequency and timing, was constructed as odd

# 2001 by the Royal Dutch Geographical Society KNAG 298 KEVIN M. DUNN and unusual. The stereotype of fanaticism drawing on the ‘intolerance’ stereotype of was converted into ‘planning issues’ of traffic Islam, the argument went that Muslims would and parking congestion and noise emission compel non-Muslim residents to sell-up or by making constant reference to ‘unusual’ convert to Islam. Objectors raised the spectre hours of operation and ‘chanting’. For of an ‘enclave of Muslims’, ‘community within example, a local authority warned an Islamic a community’, ‘segregation’ and ‘religious group that: enclaves’ (Chronicle, LTE 18.9.90, p. 8; letter to Warringah Council 11.5.94; letters to CCC investigation of such nuisance revealed that 14.8.90, 24.8.90). Proposed mosques were the premises is being used as a place of portrayed using military rhetoric by objectors. public worship and causing a nuisance by Terms like ‘foothold’, ‘intrusion’, ‘occupied’ generation of a noise nuisance . . . Accord- and ‘takeover’ were used to describe the ingly, you are directed to immediately cease supposed social effects of a mosque (letter to the generation of a noise nuisance from LCC 16.1.89; letter to the premises. Failure to comply with this (FCC) 12.7.85, pp. 1, 3; The Torch 25.5.83, p. 9). directive may result in Council implement- Opponents of mosques warned their neigh- ing appropriate legal action ( bours and political representatives of the City Council, letter to Islamic Association ‘forced transformation of their neighbour- of Western Sydney 16.8.91). hoods’ and of ‘neighbourhood takeover’ (Chronicle, LTE 21.8.90, p. 8; Advertiser 22.8.90, Resident complaints about chanting from p. 6). They also made the conceptual jump to mosques were referred to in council inspector talk of a Muslim lifestyle being imposed on rhetoric as ‘noise nuisances’ or ‘noise emis- local people, and of ‘them’ ‘forcing’ their sions’. The construction of Muslims as fanatics faith on ‘me’. thus found its way into council officer con- siderations. when my neighbours force their beliefs Opponents of Islamic centres or mosques onto me I will wholeheartedly reject their were always keen to stress that a mosque was advances (Advertiser, LTE 3.7.91, p. 18). entirely different to a Christian church, because of this ‘fanatical’ level of usage. This These Moslems are here to force their was to enable a different planning treatment lifestyles upon the Australian people. than would occur for a Christian place of Theirs is a violent intrusion on our way of worship. For example, City Council life; the reverse would not be tolerated in argued before the Land and Environment Turkey. They must learn to assimilate or Court that a mosque was not the same, so far not enter our country (letter to Auburn as town planning was concerned, as a church, City Council 11.9.86). principally because of its different prayer Letter writers in Auburn referred to the regime: ‘Moslem invasion’ and the ‘infiltration of A mosque operates in a different way from Islam’, and of how non-Muslim residents a Christian church . . . It operates from would become ‘aliens in their own land’ sunrise to sunset, with people praying up to (Review Pictorial, LTEs 8.1.86, p. 4; 5.2.86, five times a day (Group Manager, Banks- p. 4). These warnings constructed the nation town City Council, quoted in The Sydney and locality as non-Muslim (as Christian) and Morning Herald 29.10.98, p. 1). generated a sense of threat or loss for residents. On these grounds the Court ruled that the Worries about ‘overwhelmed neighbour- Bangladeshi Islamic Centre could not operate hoods’, and of imposed Islam, influenced within a former Presbyterian Church. the thinking and actions of local authorities. A common suggestion by mosque oppo- For example, Auburn City Council’s Chief nents was that Muslims would residentially Town Planner warned of a likely change to the concentrate around Sydney Islamic centres population structure that would result from and change the ‘way of life’ there. And, by the establishment of Auburn Mosque.

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A ‘Place of public worship’ becomes a focal world wide for violence (letter to Campbell- point and the larger its catchment the town City Council 7.8.90). greater the effect will be in changes in the social and population structure of The letter above equates violence with Islam. the locality. The mosque is nearly double They also stake a claim to local legitimacy in size to that erected in Lakemba and which is discussed later. Objectors also as- indications are that it would operate in a serted that mosques would generate social similar manner, i.e. a regional place of conflict as they would be the target of hate public worship . . . the most appropriate crimes. recommendation should be one of refusal There is anxiety among local residents (Auburn City Council (ACC), Chief Town that the church [Erskineville mosque] Planner’s Report to the Committee of the may become a target for political violence Whole 7.5.85, p. 1). (Petition to South Sydney City Council 21.9.81). Neighbourhood cultural change was accepted by Sydney councils, such as Auburn, as a valid being owned by the Society, it [Green ground on which to refuse development Valley Mosque] could spark racial discrimi- permission. Fear of neighbourhood change, nation and intolerance which could lead to and moral panics about the formation of vandalism of the buildings and property ‘ethnic ghettoes’, have long been weapons (letter to Liverpool City Council 13.1.89). of anti-immigration and anti- politics in Australia (see critiques by Blainey Residents intimated that Muslims were either 1988, p. 18; Hanson 1996, p. 3862). In the case predisposed to violence or that their presence of Muslim settlement, and the establishment would give rise to violence. of mosques, these weapons were fortified by The ‘militant Islam’ discourse of opposition local deployments of the intolerant Islam was most often deployed by making reference stereotype. to events overseas or in the media. The construction of Islam as fundamentalist With declaring holy war against the was not deployed by mosque opponents in West, please don’t dismiss the Minto Sydney. Also, the stereotypes of militancy and people who are genuinely frightened of misogyny did not easily convert into a plan- the prospect of a mosque next door ning ground for opposing the development (Councillor Regan, Campbelltown City of a mosque. However, they were effective Council, Advertiser, LTE 22.8.90, p. 6). critiques of Islam generally. The statements of opposition still drew on associations between The families living in the Green Valley/ Islam and militancy. These included portrayals Hinchinbrook region have been accus- of Muslims as violent and intimidatory. A tomed to enjoying a peaceful and har- Muslim presence was variously described by monious life with their fellow moral and mosque opponents as a ‘potentially disruptive God fearing Christians. To trust these Non- element’, a disturbance, a ‘volatile’ element Christians, who have already shown them- or group, a ‘violent intrusion’, ‘a group of selves to be aggressive and violent as is dissidences[sic]’ intent upon undermining evident from the recent news, into our the neighbourhood, and who make ‘veiled community would be to disrupt the lives of threats’ (letter to ACC 11.9.86; letter to FCC the families in the Green Valley/Hinchin- 30.7.97, p. 2; form letter to LCC 13.1.89; also brook area (letter to Liverpool City Council, various letters 18.1.89; also 6.9.89; The Torch, 10.8.89, p. 3). LTE 7.12.83, p. 10). As a result of such concerns council officers I am a legitimate resident of Minto but asked Islamic groups which sections (or sects) cannot even risk signing my name because their mosques would serve. Councils also of my fear of reprisals from a group of placed inappropriate conditions on develop- religious fanatics who have a reputation ment consents; by insisting, for example, that

# 2001 by the Royal Dutch Geographical Society KNAG 300 KEVIN M. DUNN mosque committees not conduct activities that provided a rationale for objectors to generate gave rise to violence. public fear of Islam. Those fears and concerns The opposition to some mosques drew were the stereotypes of Islam, including those upon constructions of Islam as particularly that had no direct planning application. The sexist and oppressive of women. An opponent key local impact of the misogynist and mili- of the Bass Hill mosque argued that Islam tancy stereotypes was to heighten public ‘believes that women are ‘‘objects’’ or ‘‘things’’ unease and widen local opposition. that can be bought and sold, married then Muslims proposing mosques and Islamic divorced by merely saying three words’ (The centres in Sydney were portrayed as alien Torch, LTE 8.2.84, p. 11). Opponents of ‘Others’: as unknown, unfamiliar, foreign, mosques referred to how women lacked free- mysterious and as threatening. Objectors in dom of movement and the choice of marriage Auburn argued that the ‘customs and con- partner in Muslim countries like , ventions of Islam have no place in Australia’, how women were sexually enslaved, how and they specifically insisted that Muslims multiple wives were sanctioned for men, and could not be assimilated into ‘Christian dom- yet women were beheaded for adultery (Review inant Auburn’ (Review Pictorial, LTEs 5.2.86, Pictorial, LTE 22.10.86, p. 9; The Torch, LTE p. 4; 20.8.86, p. 5; 26.11.86, p. 6). Islam was 8.2.84, p. 9). Female genital mutilation and portrayed by objectors as too alien to the child abduction were raised as reasons to fear ‘Australian way of life’ and ultimately irrecon- Islam and to oppose mosques: cilable with Christianity. Muslims were just too different, too alien. In recent months we have read about child mutilation, in the name of Islam. We have We resent the imposition of this alien read about abduction and rape, in the on our daily lives and front door name of Islam (Review Pictorial, LTE step (letter to Campbelltown City Council 20.8.86, p. 5). 8.8.90) Councils across Sydney refused consent for These mosques are not used on a once a the construction and alteration of mosques on week basis like conventional churches, but the basis that such developments were ‘not in three times a day, seven days a week in most the public interest’. Mosque opponents would cases. If these mosques functioned like a make the claim that their concerns and normal church there would be little or no objections were representative of the public protest (letter to Fairfield City Council will. These assertions of popular will, sup- 12.7.85, p. 4). ported by petitions and objection letters, would be taken as the public view. Mosques The objectors quoted above overtly associate would be determined as against the public normality and convention with Christianity, interest. and alien-ness with Islam. The Christian resident is very much ‘us’ or ‘our’, while the In view of the number of objections ‘other’ is Islam. received the subject proposal is not in Mosques and Islamic centres were opposed the public interest (Hurstville Municipal on the grounds that they were ‘out of Council, Chief Town Planner’s Report, character’ with surrounding development Health & Building Committee meeting and would dramatically alter the social make- 5.10.83, item 2). up of a locality. In view of overwhelming opposition to the A mosque is totally out of place in a nice proposal, approval of the application would suburb like South Creek Road (letter to not be in the public interest (Marrickville Warringah Council 23.5.94). City Council, Notice of Determination of DA, DA 75/94, 18.5.94: 1). We believe a development of this type would be inconsistent with the character This scope for the construction of popular will of our neighbourhood [Minto] (letter to to be deployed against mosque proposals Campbelltown City Council August 1990).

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Mosques were considered abnormal and COUNTER-CONSTRUCTIONS ultimately out of place within residential areas. Development Committees and Chief Planners In controversies over mosque development, from throughout Sydney councils refused the supporters of associations, and Sydney development consent for mosques on the Muslims themselves, were compelled to en- grounds that the proposals were ‘out of gage with the discourses of opposition out- character’ with surrounding development. In lined above. One set of responses was to assert other words, social or cultural change in the their rights and stake a claim to local citizen- composition of a suburb had been taken as a ship, these are described later. The other set valid ground for either refusing a mosque of responses, the deployment of counter development or for acting to constrain the constructions, are the focus here. activities of existing centres. In opposition to the ‘fanatical Islam’ dis- Muslims were portrayed as deceptive and dis- course of opposition, mosque supporters engenous, this echoed the historic construc- stressed the moderate, reasonable and even tion of Afghan-Australians as untrustworthy stoic nature of Sydney Muslims. and treacherous (Stevens 1989, pp. 148–166). A lot of attention was focused by objectors on We speak loosely of the fanatic Muslim. Yet how Sydney Islamic groups had acted ‘illegally’, the only fanaticism evident on the night or had conducted an ‘illegal operation’, by [Council meeting regarding mosque appli- ‘flouting’ planning injunctions or zonings cation] was that of the jeering crowd and (petition to FCC 22.3.83; letters to LCC a number of aldermen . . . I, for one, was 25.8.89, 10.4.92, 22.4.92; letter to Hurstville ashamed to stand among so many small Municipal Council (HMC) 9.1.85). minded people (Advertiser, LTE 26.9.90, p. 10). Past experience leads us to believe that the congregation will simply flout any council Supporters of mosques also engaged with the direction and they will keep what ever intolerance stereotype. hours they please and will cram in as many I have found the Moslems to be a very people as possible, regardless of safety or caring people who put others before hegyne [sic] concerns . . . They have dis- themselves. My religion is Church of regarded previous council decisions and England, but I have never been discrimi- become aggressive and hostile when ques- nated against or been made to feel any less tioned or challenged (letter to Fairfield welcome amongst the Moslems because of City Council 24.7.97, pp. 1–2). this (The Torch, LTE 15.6.83, p. 10). Prior unauthorised uses or building works These counter constructions asserted the were often noted in Planner’s reports to tolerance of individual Muslims and of Islamic council committees regarding development teaching. Mosque supporters presented con- consents. Planners would feel empowered to structions of Muslims as peaceful and neigh- make value judgements about the veracity of bourly (AFIC to HMC 1.5.85; Ethnic Affairs statements made by Islamic Associations in Commission of NSW to HMC 9.9.83). their development applications. Resident objection letters, whether to coun- Living next door as we do to the mosque, cils or to local newspapers, were rich with the we are the people most affected by the pro- stereotypes of Islam. The constructions of posed development, but we have no objec- Muslims as fanatical, intolerant, illegal and tions. I made contact with the community alien were converted into planning grounds very early on and found its members to be for opposing mosques in Sydney. However, courteous and friendly and more than will- stereotypes of misogynist and militant Islam ing to correct any problems we had. I am were used to enhance the fears of non- welcome to enter the grounds at any time, Muslims and widen public opposition. The and find the children who attend the ser- construction of Islam as fundamentalist ap- vices a delight to hear (Manly Daily 19.5.94, peared to have little local utility. p. 5; letter to Warringah Council 12.5.94).

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The Islamic Society of Liverpool argued that constructed as ‘good citizens’, ‘community- mosques, and architectural tropes like minarets minded’ and in possession of a moral code. and domes, symbolised peace: Islam teaches its followers to take good care Dome and minaret are an integral part of of the country where it exists; it encourages institutions and embodies culture, artefacts such good things in the human soul as and also symbolises peace and harmony . . . honesty, modesty, being a hard worker and The change will enhance the centre in its fighting everything that might harm society, outlook and create an environment of such as alcohol, drugs, corruption, bribery much serenity (Islamic Society of Liver- and so on (The Torch, LTE 15.2.84, p. 11). pool, Application for Modification of Con- sent, LCC 20.4.95, p. 4). The ‘clean living’ and ‘anti-vice’ Muslim was constructed. However, an unfortunate exist- Associations and their supporters would stress entialist effect of this counter construction is that Muslims in Australia were ‘law-abiding’ that it implied that non-Muslims are not clean and honest citizens (CCC, DA 319/90 Attach- living and are in the grip of vice. More overtly, ment 3–4; The Torch, LTE 15.2.84, p. 11; some Muslims, incensed by the defamation of Yugoslav Consul-General letter to HMC their faith in these local debates, began to 15.8.83). outline what they saw as the general vice and Having travelled through Islamic countries corruption of the ‘Australian way of life’ (The and taught Muslim children, I can say that Torch, LTE 18.1.84, p. 13). Muslims are gentle, honest and law abiding The most common positive construction of citizens – more than I can say about many Islam, especially in terms of gender relations, Australians (Review Pictorial, LTE 8.10.86, was that of ‘family orientation’. Letter writers p. 4). and peak bodies, such as the Australian Feder- ation of Islamic Councils (AFIC), stressed this Not only was the counter construction of family-orientation. Muslims as peaceful deployed, but some supporters contrasted that pacifism with the Muslims are family orientated people and behaviour of ‘most Australians’. The letter I welcome them into our community (Re- writers above troubled the dichotomies out- view Pictorial, LTE 8.10.86, p. 4). lined earlier – of Muslims as the alien threat – Muslims, particularly in Australian society, by identifying non-Muslims as the problem. are a peaceful people quite conservative in Personal experiences and knowledges were their attitude to family life and with the out- also used to undo generalisations, such as the look on life and attachment to values quite stereotype of intolerance. Stereotypes are similar in many ways to Christian values sweeping symbolic claims and are therefore (AFIC letter to Hurstville Municipal Coun- vulnerable to examples of real-world circum- cil 1.5.85). stances that confound the generalisation. There were no overt instances of Muslims A few mosque supporters asserted that ‘women being described as devout or spiritual people. in Islam have more rights than men’ (The These had been anticipated as the most Torch, LTE 15.2.84, p. 10). This was rarely obvious counter constructions to the stereo- attempted, however. Most defenders of Islam type of fundamentalism. Instead, Islamic relied on the ‘family-values’ rhetoric as a associations and their supporters stressed that counter construction to that of misogyny. mosques were places of education where In their applications before councils, Mus- children were taught ‘responsibility’, ‘respect’ lim groups would often stress the similarities and ‘moral and community values’ (Blacktown between Islam and Christianity. These were City Council DA 88/782 Attachment 3; FCC, attempts to construct a sense of sameness with Application for Modification of Development a presumed mainstream, and to be positioned Consent, 39/97: 3; South Western Sydney within the symbolic ‘us’ or ‘self’. These were Turkish Islamic Culture & Mosque Association counter constructions to the stereotype of letter to Premier NSW 25.1.90). Muslims were ‘Alien Islam’ and the associated charge that

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Muslims were incompatible with other Austra- and Associates P/L, architects for the lians. Mosque supporters sent reminder letters Islamic Society of Hurstville, to Hurstville to councils explaining that Christian churches Municipal Council 23.4.85: 8). had steeples that were often higher than the minarets they were proposing, that there were To be the ‘self’ in planning parlance required early morning and evening services at such Muslim groups to demonstrate how their churches, and that many Christians prayed at Islamic centre or mosque was ‘in character’ home, or other places not zoned for religious with the locality. worship. The project is designed to blend and Muslim groups with Asian or European integrate with the rest of the developments cultural heritages would stress how they were in the area and we undertake to ensure not Arabs. it will be a source of pride for the people This group of people has nothing in of Liverpool in creating an example of common with migrant groups who came harmonious community relations (Islamic from the or from Asia and, in Society of Liverpool, LCC, DA 38/91, cover particular, nothing in common with the letter). groups from Palestine, Lebanon and Syria Town planners commented favourably on except for the fact that they belong to the ‘toned-down’ proposals. same religious system (Suburban Islamic Association, letter to CCC 1990). considerably different to the previous proposal . . . The subject building’s form, the Yugoslav people are of European siting and materials of construction are descent, come from Europe, and have no more in sympathy with the surrounding affiliation or sympathy with the Arab world development. The minaret and dome have or its problems on the other continent been deleted and the building style is (Alexander Mack & Co, for Islamic Com- contemporary, without the emphasis on munity of Sydney, letter to Camden City the mid-European Islamic style as evi- Council 13.9.90). denced in the previous application (Hurst- One of the problems with these rhetorical ville Municipal Council, Chief Town strategies is the way it draws a dichotomy Planner’s Report, Health & Building & between the good, often ‘Western’ Muslim, Development Committee, meeting 22.5.85, and the bad, usually ‘Arab’, Muslim. Indeed, item 9:25). this counter construction does not chal- Planners, council committees and court asses- lenge the core stereotypes of Islam, it locates sors responded favourably to design altera- the ‘bad Muslim’ eslewhere, but confirms tions which ‘de-Islamised’ the appearance of a them. mosque or Islamic centre. Mosques that were A strategy of many Sydney Islamic groups called ‘cultural centres’ and that did not look was to insist that their proposed centre would like mosques were deemed more acceptable to not be a mosque, but that it would be a the local cultural palate. The limitation of ‘cultural centre’ or ‘community centre’. Other these attempts to capture the mantle of ‘self’ associations stressed how their mosque or is that they endorse cultural repression and Islamic centre would be a low-scale affair, assimilation as the strategic responses to countering the images of the ‘massive’ and intolerance. ‘monstrous’ mosque. The proposed development comprises the CONSTRUCTIONS OF LOCAL erection of a low key residential scale sub- CITIZENSHIP urban community centre to be known as the Gazi Huzrevbeg Centre. The building The discourses of opposition and support for has been fractured and reduced to sym- mosques did not simply surround the stereo- pathetically integrate with the surrounding types of Islam, but also drew heavily on residential neighbourhood (Colin McFadyen cultural constructions of what constituted a

# 2001 by the Royal Dutch Geographical Society KNAG 304 KEVIN M. DUNN local citizen and the local community. Those By implication the proponents of mosques opposing Islamic centres consistently asserted were not locals, Muslims were new-comers or that there were no local Muslims. It was non residents. In the debates over mosque argued that there was therefore no need for development in Sydney there was an overt an Islamic centre in that locality. dichotomising across an axis of who was and was not a local citizen. I would suggest that only a very small In order to counteract the argument that percentage of the worshippers attending there were ‘no local Muslims’, Sydney Islamic the proposed mosque would be locals; groups would stress the ‘localness’ of their rather it would be serving Moslems from a membership in their applications before wide ranging area, but in our backyard (The councils. Reference was made, for example, Torch, LTE 4.1.84, p. 13). to ‘several thousand Muslims/Ratepayers’ (Con- There are few people in the Green Valley/ feggi, Advertiser, LTE 26.9.90, p. 10; FCC, Hinchinbrook region that are of the Islam Application for Modification of Development religious convictions. Therefore there is Consent, 39/97 20.6.97, Attachment 3). no justification for a Community Centre they [Auburn Islamic Society] represent in Green Valley/Hinchinbrook (letter to most of the Turkish population in Auburn Liverpool City Council 10.8.89: 2). of the Islamic faith and . . . their existence is As there are no residents in South Creek an on going one for generations to come Road to my knowledge who are Muslims & (Keith Williams & Partners, letter to ACC I don’t know of any living in this area [Dee 14.4.80: 2). Why], I strongly object to a Mosque being We, as a segment of the community of St built in this area (letter to Warringah George area appreciate your understand- Council 17.5.94). ing of our needs, and are looking forward Resident objectors argued that the members to ever improving public relations (Islamic of Islamic groups who proposed mosques were Society of Hurstville, letter HMC 12.4.84). ‘outsiders’ (petition to FCC 6.5.86; letter As you are well aware, our clients [Islamic 17.8.89). Muslims were constructed as the Society of Hurstville] have more support non-locals, as ‘they’. At the same time, op- for their request on record than the ponents of mosques often made very direct objections that the Council have received, claims to local citizenship. This was done by and as in any democratic society, we would describing, identifying and naming themselves hope that the concerns of the many be as ‘citizens’. looked at more seriously than the concerns of a few (Keast, Hussain & Williams, letter As a resident and ratepayer, I request that to FCC 29.8.90: 2). Council not allow any more Islamic Society Meetings to be held (letter to Hurstville The Islamic community represents a sig- City Council 16.1.85). nificant and growing part of the residents of the City of Fairfield that must be recog- Letter writers would sign their objections or nised and catered for (Australia Bosna begin sentences with descriptions such as Hercegovina Islamic Society, Application ‘concerned citizen’, ‘concerned Christian’, for Modification of Development Consent, ‘legitimate resident’, ‘locals’ and ‘rate payer’. 39/97, FCC 20.6.97, Attachment 3). Resident objectors would make reference to their duration of residence in the LGA (letter The above assertions of localness were often to CCC 8.8.90; letters to LCC 23.10.88, accepted within councils. As part of the 13.1.89, 18.1.89). assessment of development applications for Islamic centres, council planning staff would It should be noted that myself and my sometimes undertake analyses of the number neighbours have occupied our homes of Muslims in the Local Government Area and for over thirty years (letter to Warringah in the specific neighbourhoods concerned. Council 14.3.94). Islamic groups and their supporters argued

# 2001 by the Royal Dutch Geographical Society KNAG ISLAM IN THE POLITICS OF MOSQUE DEVELOPMENT IN SYDNEY 305 that local Muslims constituted significant Some stereotypes of Islam were more easily portions of the local community or citizenry, made understood by the audiences involved in and that their needs had to be addressed. disputes over mosques in Sydney. The various Muslims were described as ‘residents too’. The constructions are unequally endowed. Some claimants insisted on a widening of local or have the benefit of legibility and of common urban citizenship, confronting the legacy of parlance. Militancy, fanaticism and intoler- the White Australia Policy in which only white ance are constructions of Islam that have now Christians retained that symbolic mantle. had centuries of articulation in the West. Australians can play video games, watch SPATIAL INTERTEXTUALITY motion pictures and television programmes, read pulp fictions and visit websites that all Islamaphobia may circulate globally but it rehearse the figure of the Muslim terrorist. impacts locally as opposition to Islamic places These stereotypes are therefore widely legible of worship. The specific stereotypes of Islam in Australia, and therefore easily deployed have uneven utility, whether this be for media as discourses of opposition to mosques. The products or for deployment in land-use same cannot be said for ‘literalist or doctrinal disputes. For example, in the reporting of Islam’: the charge of fundamentalism. This Algeria there was little utility in citing the stereotype is not widely comprehensible. stereotypes of misogyny and intolerance. In a This also explains why fundamentalism only largely Muslim country it was difficult to figured within the reporting of Algeria as a report on expressions of religious intoler- catch-all term, a term which has actually ances, and gender relations were not a focus become a code-word for intolerance, fanati- of the media. In the discourses of opposition cism and militancy. There is a symbolic capital to mosques the various stereotypes also had stored within the constructions of Islam as differing applicability and roles. The ‘violent fanatical, militant and intolerant. This capital and misogynist ’ were useful devices for has accumulated as a result of their reiter- stirring public concern and rallying the ative deployment, and helps explain both popular will. The image of fanatical Islam their frequency and potency. Through each was used to convince residents and decision- citation, in a sedimentary like process, they makers that Muslim performances were suffi- have become naturalised as symbolic struc- ciently ‘different’ that their activities should tures. be constrained or proscribed. The intolerant Those who deployed counter constructions Islam stereotype was applied in such a way in mosque debates faced a difficult task in- that many councils intervened to prevent a deed. These deployments resemble a ‘chip- supposed take-over of neighbourhoods by ping away’ at the solidified stereotypes. Muslims. The ‘alien Islam’ stereotype was used Nonetheless, the presentation of counter to convince councils that Muslims were in- constructions and juxtapositions that unsettle compatible with existing residents, and that stereotypes are essential. Anti-racism and anti- mosques were too aesthetically disparate and vilification projects must reconcile to a tedious out of character with suburban Sydney streets. and continual battle against not only the A stereotype identified within the Algeria case purveyors of insult but the stereotypes them- study was that of ‘illegal and deceptive Islam’. selves, which have accumulated a significant This construction has been manifest within degree of legibility. Those involved in anti- council officers’ doubting and dismissive re- Islamaphobia in the West, and anti-racism sponses to statements made by Islamic associ- generally, must commit themselves to battles ations. This stereotype echoed the that are on-going and dynamic. accusations of treachery and treason which Unsettling stereotypes, through the deploy- were laid at Afghan and Albanian Muslims in ment and cultivation of counter constructions Australia. The deployment of this construc- has attendant risks. Counter constructions tion reveals the constantly shifting nature of must be considered carefully. Some of those the cultural imperialism faced by minority outlined above have negative side effects. For cultural groups. example, constructing the ‘good Muslim here’

# 2001 by the Royal Dutch Geographical Society KNAG 306 KEVIN M. DUNN and the ‘bad Muslim elsewhere’ will be ulti- turn’, the symbolic or the textual is critically mately self-defeating. It may have a local stra- important. Indeed, I am increasingly con- tegic effect, but it is parochial, anti-coalitional, vinced that cultural imperialism is the funda- and serves only to generally confirm the mental oppression from which all others stereotypes. Different problems can arise from spring. Once Muslims were constructed as the ‘moral Muslim’ and ‘immoral Australian’ different, as alien and treacherous, they could dichotomy, which some Islamic groups and then be treated as non-citizens. They could be individuals have deployed (Hage 1998, p. 34). refused their freedom of religion and their Such constructions of moral superiority among rights under multiculturalism to cultural British Muslims have been found to more maintenance and expression. Representation tightly define group boundaries, reinforcing clearly matters, and to paraphrase the post- exclusive and internally oppressive processes structuralist Lyotard (1984, p. 10), to speak (Mohammad 1999, p. 238). There is also the is to fight. The conceptual division between concern that counter constructions carry the ‘material’ and ‘symbolic’ may itself be an seed of the stereotype they confront. Hence, exhausted binary, especially as this binary has assertions of the ‘peaceful’ Muslim may usually implied that ‘material matters’ were implicitly remind audiences of the militancy those of greatest importance. stereotype. These positive constructions can be complex bearers of that which they Notes criticise. At the same time, these stereotypes 1. Islamic private schools have also faced similar have a remarkable durability and cannot be levels of opposition to those of mosques and ignored. The stereotypes of ethnic minorities Islamic centers (Buckley 1991). must be confronted. It is also clear that they 2. The reporting of Algeria was chosen as a case retain an inconsistency or incoherence that study for this analysis for a number of specific can be exploited. As generalisations they reasons. Algeria is a predominantly Muslim possess an internal flaw through which every- country, and reporting of that country has not day deployments can be troubled. been the subject of serious inquiry by Australian Within human geography, and the social researchers. Australia has not received many sciences more broadly, there seems to be a migrants from Algeria and there are limited recurrent need to justify the political merits of economic and especially cultural contacts. intellectual inquiry into matters of represen- Therefore events in Algeria are sufficiently tation (Dunn 1997, p. 4–7). Some critics have removed from Australian politics that it is very argued that such work has sanctioned or at difficult for the Australian media to conflate least encouraged a politics of the surface, or reports on Algeria with a domestic angle. the politics of recognition, rather than the 3. The use of quotation marks around the word more ‘substantive’ politics of redistribution ‘terrorists’ is noteworthy. This is a qualification or anti-exploitation (Badcock 1996, pp. 92–96; that stemmed from accusations in early 1998 Fraser 1995, p. 68; Gregson 1995, p. 139; that much of this type of violence against Harvey 1996, p. 438). The politics surround- villagers had actually occurred under the direc- ing mosque development in Sydney reveal the tion of the security services, not by rebels, with material impacts of identity constructions (of the aim of portraying Islamic groups in a both ‘minority’ and ‘dominant’ groups) as damaging light. By January 1998, news media well as the important role of space and locale. had become suspicious of the notion that a The representations of Islam lie at the core of ‘massacre equals Muslim terrorism’. The inter- the problems that Muslims in Sydney have national press, and therefore the Australian encountered in establishing places of worship reporting, became more wary of the Algerian (Feirabend & Rath 1996, pp. 257–258). The Government’s claims. discourses of opposition to mosques do not simply draw on the myths of Islam, but also REFERENCES draw heavily on cultural constructions of what constitutes a local citizen and the local ABDALATI, M. (1975), Islam in Focus. Singapore: The community. Contra the critics of the ‘cultural Muslim Converts’ Association of Singapore.

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