Being an Aussie Mossie: Muslim and Australian identity among Australian-born Muslims

Abstract

The topic of Muslim integration in Western societies such as Australia has generated much interest and comment. Despite factors that might promote Muslim inclusion in Australia, there has been an unofficial policy swing back to promoting monoculturalism, which threatens to establish a two-tier Australian national identity. This article criticizes the notion of an inherent conflict between Australian and Muslim identities and examines how a group of 200 Australian-born practising Muslims living predominantly in New South Wales and Victoria value their Muslim and Australian identities. It finds they strongly value being Muslim, while also valuing a concept of Australian identity that is affirming and inclusive and consists of achievable attributes, despite also struggling with perceptions of discrimination and prejudice.

Keywords:

• Australian-born Muslims
• identity
• social inclusion
• multiculturalism
• second-generation Australians

Acknowledgements

The data analysed in this article comes from two research projects. The first is an ARC Linkage project, ‘Muslim Voices: Hopes and Aspirations of Australian Muslims’ headed by Professor Gary D. Bouma and Professor Shahram Akbarzadeh, and with funding and support from the Australian Multicultural Foundation, the Islamic Council of Victoria, the Victorian Multicultural Commission, and the Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC). A second related project for gathering data in Sydney using the same questionnaire was funded by DIAC.

Many thanks to Professor Gary D. Bouma and Dr Pete Lentini for their comments on the draft of this article. I would also like to acknowledge Mr Irfan Yusuf for having introduced me to the term ‘Aussie Mossie’.

Notes

Umma carries a number of connotations. Here it refers to the ‘community of faith’ that transcends all other boundaries of belonging, including geographical ones (al Faruqi 2005; Roy 2004, 197–200).

This refers to the belief that ‘rich’ asylum seekers who arrive on Australian shores, buying their way through the services of people-smugglers, are illegally jumping ahead of ‘genuine’ refugees patiently waiting in refugee camps to gain legal entry to Australia.

A large, enveloping wrap that covers the head and body, held closed by a woman's hand or her teeth.

Costello was presumably using the word ‘Shariʿa’ to refer to interpretations of religious law implemented by Muslim majority states such as Saudi Arabia, or models of interpretation advocated by religious fundamentalists who reject the separation of religion and state. However, as with Catholic canon law and Jewish halakah, Shariʿa is a broad Islamic concept referring to the divine will expressed through revelation that governs every aspect of the lives of Muslims (Calder and Hooker 2006). Shariʿa is thus interpreted through the activities of religious lawyers, and has historically encompassed a wide diversity of thought and opinion.

To borrow Marshall G.S. Hodgson's term, ‘Islamicate’ refers to ‘a culture, centred on a lettered tradition, which has been historically distinctive of Islamdom the society … I thus restrict the term “Islam” to the religion of the Muslims, not using that term for the far more general phenomena, the society of Islamdom and its Islamicate cultural traditions’ (Hodgson 1974, 58).

It used to be argued that terrorists only came from the dispossessed margins of society, but it seems that militant groups are attracting a number of middle-class and well-educated individuals (Lentini 2008, 199). Thus, research has identified the phenomenon of blocked aspirations amongst such individuals (Awan 2008, 14–15; Choudhury 2007, 9; Lentini 2007, 48). This is where Muslims who believe that the very structures of the societies in which they live prevent them from being able to fulfil their aspirations, because of institutionalized racism and unrecognized Islamophobia (Modood 2006, 46). They thus withdraw from the goal of living as full citizens of the societies they perceive are rejecting them (Crocker and Major 1989, 622).

To properly fulfil the requirements of daily obligatory prayers according to religious law, they must be performed at their correct times, the exact details of which vary slightly between the various schools of law. I asked this question in an attempt to minimize social desirability bias in assessing observance of prayers in levels of religiosity. That is, failure to live up to the stricture of praying at the correct time is not as stigmatizing as failing to pray altogether. Thus, a person who does not regularly perform the daily obligatory prayers is given the face-saving option of indicating they do not perform their prayers ‘on time’.

Of the 200 Australian-born participants whose responses are discussed in this paper, only 17 nominated both parents born in Australia. A further 18 nominated one parent born in Australia and one parent born overseas. Five participants with overseas-born parents had British ancestry. Two participants did not provide details of their parents' places of birth or ancestry.

Meaning ‘peace’, a traditional Muslim greeting.

Human error in completing the questionnaire may also explain at least three of the negative responses as some affirming statements were made in the textual replies, despite the participant having indicated disaffiliation with Australian identity.