‘We’re Not Multicultural, but … ’

ABSTRACT

This article reconsiders the 2005 Cronulla riots after ten years. We begin by examining three examples of events misread ten years ago, to illustrate some key changes that have since shaped Australian racism. The first two, concern the rallying call to ‘Leb and wog bashing day’ at Cronulla in December 2005, and the attack there on two Bangladeshi students. These are shown to be indicative in a shift in the focus of racist Othering in Australia, from the ‘Arab Other’ to the ‘Muslim Other’, as Islamophobia becomes increasingly mainstreamed in Australian culture following the trend throughout the global West. Second, the incongruous chivalry-cum-feminism of the beachgoers who participated in the riot and were interviewed in the 2006 Four Corners television documentary, Riot and Revenge, illustrates some key features of Islamophobia as it has developed and become entrenched: such as accusing Muslims of hyperpatriarchy, and purporting to ‘rescue’ Muslim women while targeting them for racist vilification. We trace these and related ideological elements of Islamophobia inherent in the Cronulla riots, and show how these have unfolded in the Australian mainstream in the ten years since, becoming further enfolded into the commonsense as part of the ‘new normal’.

KEYWORDS:

• Islamophobia
• racism
• race riots
• multiculturalism
• far-right nationalism

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Shakira Hussein is an Honorary Fellow in the Asia Institute at the University of Melbourne.

Scott Poynting is Adjunct Professor in the School of Social Sciences and Psychology at Western Sydney University and in the School of Justice, at Queensland University of Technology.

Notes

1. This apt label was used by Sydney University researcher Ben Moffitt (Marszalek 2013), but the president of a local surf club also used the same vernacular noun in connection with the riots (Flanagan 2007). ‘Boofhead’ is a longstanding Australian colloquialism: ‘A fool or simpleton, a stupid person, an uncouth person … popularised by the use of Boofhead as the name of a dim-witted comic strip character … introduced in … May 1941’ (Australian National Dictionary Centre, ANU).

2. Lakemba is a suburb of south-western Sydney, some 13 km from the centre, in the Canterbury-Bankstown area. Some two-thirds of residents in the 2011 census were overseas-born, and a third Australian-born. The suburb is extraordinarily ethnically diverse, with significant numbers of the population originating from each of Bangladesh, Lebanon, Pakistan, Vietnam, India, China and Indonesia, with other Arab and South-East Asian countries represented, along with Greece, New Zealand and other nations of origin. It is highly linguistically diverse and also has people from many religions, of which Islam comprises about 52 per cent. It is the site of the Lakemba Mosque, Masjid Ali Bin Abi Taleb, reputedly the largest mosque in Australia.

3. These words were included in a widely circulated and manifestly influential mobile phone text message, as reported, among many other places, in The Daily Telegraph (see McIlveen and Downie 2005).

4. Journalist Richard Ackland (2016) remarked, ‘We’re all susceptible to swallow our own agendas – but Paul Sheehan has form’.

5. A Sydney suburb adjacent to Lakemba.

6. The local government area, or ‘shire’, in which Cronulla is located.

7. The ALA is a political party founded by the Q society – their website says that Australian Liberty Alliance will seek to enact the policy proposals outlined in the paper ‘Practical Steps to Stop Islamisation’, first published by Q Society of Australia Inc in February 2014.

8. See Deen (2008).

9. Breaking of the Ramadan fast.

10. The Prime Minister’s official Sydney residence.