Studying while Muslim: anti-discrimination law, countering violent extremism, and suspect youth

ABSTRACT

As part of the global War on Terror, governments, including in Australia, have increasingly encouraged teachers to spot students ‘at risk’ of radicalisation, thereby turning schools into sites of surveillance. Despite their important intended goal, these programs have been criticised for leading to over-reporting, misinterpretation, and the stigmatisation of Muslim students who have been disproportionately affected by such surveillance practices. In a climate of Islamophobic suspicion that constructs Muslims as ‘potential terrorists’, such outcomes are not surprising, leaving young Muslims vulnerable to discrimination and stereotyping. This article provides a critical reading of Complainant 201822 v Australian Capital Territory (Represented by the Education Directorate) concerning a young Muslim student who was wrongly reported by his school to public authorities due to his supposedly suspicious behaviour. Using the decision as a case study, the article discusses how young Australian Muslims have been caught in a vicious cycle in which anti-terror laws, policing, and surveillance foster their stereotyping as ‘potential terrorists’. At the same time, the decision illustrates how the law offers little protection against the significant harms caused by this manifestation of systemic Islamophobia.

KEYWORDS:

• Anti-discrimination law
• countering violent extremism
• Islamophobia
• War on Terror
• Muslims
• race

Acknowledgements

I am grateful to the two anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments. My thanks to Anne Macduff, Emma Nyhan, Margaret Thornton, and Clarke Jones for discussing ideas and for providing helpful feedback on earlier drafts. All mistakes are of course mine.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Funding details

This research received funding from the Australian National University’s Grand Challenge on Australian Social Cohesion: Exploring New Directions.

Notes

1 BBC News (2015) ‘Jake Bilardi: The Radicalisation of an Australian Teen, 12 March 2015, https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-31845428.

2 Applebaum (2021).

3 Counter-Terrorism and Security Act 2015 (UK) s 26(1).

4 For the different programs and initiatives in Australia see the discussion in section II.

5 Fahid Qurashi (2016) ‘Prevent gives people permission to hate Muslims – it has no place in schools,’ The Guardian, 4 April 2016, https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/apr/04/prevent-hate-muslims-schools-terrorism-teachers-reject.

6 Complainant 201822 v Australian Capital Territory (Represented by the Education Directorate) [2020] ACAT 69 (9 September 2020). Hereinafter Complainant 201822.

7 Systemic Islamophobia manifests in different ways. For the employment context see e.g. Thornton and Luker (2010).

8 Freeman (1978). See also section IV of this article.

9 McGarrity and Blackbourn (2019).

10 Williams (2013).

11 Lynch and McGarrity (2008); Williams (2011), p 1172.

12 Australian Government, Listed Terrorist Organisations (as of 30 April 2022), https://www.nationalsecurity.gov.au/what-australia-is-doing/terrorist-organisations/listed-terrorist-organisations.

13 Sentas (2014); Cherney and Murphy (2016).

14 See e.g. Kabir (2006).

15 Iner (2019).

16 Hillyard (1993).

17 Breen-Smyth (2014), pp 230-31.

18 Pantazis and Pemberton (2009), p 649.

19 Cainkar and Selod (2018).

20 Garner and Selod (2015), p 14.

21 See e.g. Beydoun (2016), p 114. ‘Systemic’ and ‘structural racism’ are often used as synonyms to describe how laws, public policies, institutional practices, and cultural representations entrench racial disadvantage. In this article, I use the term ‘systemic racism’.

22 Westerduin (2020).

23 Said (2003).

24 Aly and Walker (2007), p 204.

25 Poynting (2002).

26 Kabir (2007), p 1284.

27 Harris-Hogan et al (2019), p 732.

28 See e.g. Kundnani (2014); Jones (2017).

29 Ballantyne (2015).

30 Australian Government (2015).

31 ABC News (2015) ‘Parent worried Living Safe Together anti-radicalisation kit for schools will “build division, not cohesion”,’ 24 September 2015, https://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-09-24/radicalisation-schools-kit-teachers-questioned-by-muslim-parent/6803250.

32 Australian Multicultural Foundation, Community Awareness Training Manual – eLearning Module, https://amf.net.au/entry/community-awareness-training-manual-elearning-module/.

33 NSW Department of Education (2016). See also NSW Government, Anti-social and extremist behaviour – school response, Legal Issues Bulletin 57, March 2018, https://education.nsw.gov.au/about-us/rights-and-accountability/legal-issues-bulletins/anti-social-and-extremist-behaviour-school-response#Who_4.

34 Harris-Hogan et al (2019), p 4.

35 Counter-Terrorism and Security Act 2015 (UK)

36 Ibid.

37 Human Rights Watch UK (2016), p 10.

38 In Anderson (2015), p 77.

39 Sian (2015), p 187.

40 In Anderson (2015), p 78.

41 Human Rights Watch UK (2016), p 5.

42 Jones (2019).

43 Abdel-Fattah (2019), p 23.

44 Complainant 201822 at [21]-[22].

45 Complainant 201822 at [63]-64]

46 Complainant 201822 at [79]

47 Complainant 201822 at [81]

48 Complainant 201822 at [85]-[127]

49 Complainant 201822 at [111]

50 Complainant 201822 at [124].

51 National Security Hotline, Statistics (last updated 11 November 2021), https://www.nationalsecurity.gov.au/WhatAustraliaisdoing/Pages/TheNationalSecurityHotline.aspx

52 National Security Hotline, Report Suspicious Behaviour (last updated 11 November 2021), https://www.nationalsecurity.gov.au/what-can-i-do/report-suspicious-behaviour.

53 Complainant 201822 at [221]-[222].

54 Complainant 201822 at [143]-[154].

55 Complainant 201822 at [193].

56 Complainant 201822 at [161].

57 Complainant 201822 at [172-173].

58 Complainant 201822 at [176].

59 Discrimination Act 1991 (ACT) s 8(2). See also Prezzi v the Discrimination Commissioner [1996] ACTAAT 132 (affirmed by the Federal Court in Edgely v Federal Capital Press of Australia Pty Ltd [2001] FCA 379 at 54-57).

60 Complainant 201822 at [200] citing Cooley v Australian National University [2007] ACTDT 2 at [44].

61 Complainant 201822 at [213].

62 Complainant 201822 at [220].

63 Complainant 201822 at [225]-[226].

64 Complainant 201822 at [235]-[236].

65 Complainant 201822 at [244].

66 Complainant 201822 at [250].

67 Complainant 201822 at [252].

68 Complainant 201822 at [269].

69 Complainant 201822 at [269].

70 Gaze and Smith (2017), p 146.

71 Complainant 201822 at [241].

72 On the gendered racialisation of Muslims see Selod (2018), pp 5-11.

73 Patel and Koushik (2017), p 15.

74 Available from https://www.brennancenter.org/sites/default/files/CVE%20Chart%20Terrorism%20Indicators_final.pdf.

75 Complainant 201822 at [136].

76 On the involvement of private citizens in the surveillance of Muslims see Selod (2018), ch. 3.

77 National Security Hotline, https://www.nationalsecurity.gov.au/WhatAustraliaisdoing/Pages/TheNationalSecurityHotline.aspx.

78 Complainant 201822 at [75].

79 Complainant 201822 at [76].

80 Complainant 201822 at [80].

81 Complainant 201822 at [237].

82 Complainant 201822 at [244].

83 During the Chilcot inquiry into the UK’s involvement in Iraq in 2010, the former head of MI5, Lady Eliza Manningham-Buller argued that the invasion of Iraq increased the risk of domestic terrorist attacks and was a contributing factor in the radicalisation of young Muslims in the UK, see Norton Taylor (2010).

84 Abdel-Fattah (2019), p 21.

85 Abdel-Fattah (2019), p 26.

86 Complainant 201822 at [238].

87 Complainant 201822 at [247].

88 Complainant 201822 at [247].

89 Complainant 201822 at [247].

90 Abdel-Fattah (2019), p 24.

91 Australian Human Rights Commission (2021).

92 NSW Department of Education (2016), p 11.

93 Sian (2015), p 191.

94 Thornton and Luker (2010), p 3.

95 Thornton (1990), p 1.

96 Gaze and Smith (2017), p 23.

97 Sturm (2001), p 471.

98 McCrudden (1991), p xvi–xviii. See also the discussion of the different approaches in Gaze (2002), pp 333-336.

99 Freeman (1978).

100 Freeman (1978).

101 Freeman (1978, pp 1053-1056. See also McCrudden (1991), p xvii.

102 Complainant 201822 at [200]. On the different approaches to defining ‘unfavourable treatment’ see Campbell and Smith (2015), pp 94-95.

103 [2007] ACTDT 2 (14 February 2007), at [44].

104 Complainant 201822 at [171]-[176].

105 Complainant 201822 at [213].

106 Complainant 201822 at [143-154].

107 Complainant 201822 at [148].

108 Complainant 201822 at [151] and [154].

109 See e.g. Blackwood et al (2011), p 1097.

110 Blackwood et al (2015).

111 Blackwood et al (2015), p 150.

112 Complainant 201822 at [244].

113 Complainant 201822 at [217].

114 Thornton (1995), p 84.

115 Freeman (1978), p 1056.

116 Moreau (2020), p 196.

117 Gelber and McNamara (2016), p 333.

118 Sue and Spanierman (2020), p 8.

119 Sue and Spanierman (2020), p 8.

120 See e. g. s 67A of the Discrimination Act 1991 (ACT).

121 Vata-Meyer v Commonwealth [2015] FCAFC 139 concerning racially derogatory remarks in the work place. See also the discussion in Swannie (2020), p 185.

122 Complainant 201822 at [264].

123 Complainant 201822 at [269].

124 For a victim-centred perspective see e.g. Wotton v Queensland [No 5] (2016) 352 ALR 146. See also the discussion in Swannie (2020), p 187.

125 Mythen et al (2012).

126 Choudhury and Fenwick (2011).

127 Cherney and Murphy (2016).

128 Complainant 201822 at [207] citing ZG v Director General, NSW Department of Education and Training [2006] NSWADT 344.

129 Purvis v New South Wales (Department of Education and Training) (2003) 217 CLR 92. See e. g. the critique by Dickson (2005), p 216.

130 Rattigan (2004) p 533. The DDA has since been amended to include the unjustifiable hardship exemption.

131 Mohamed Elhassan Mohamed, M. v Irving Independent School District, 252 F. Supp. 3d 602 (N.D Tex. 2017), at 625-626. Emphasis in original.

132 See e.g. ACT Human Rights Commission (2021), p 38.

133 Abdel-Fattah (2021); see also Cherney and Murphy (2016) on the experiences of Muslim adults.

134 Foucault (2003), p 19.

135 Section 8(3) Discrimination Act 1991 (ACT).

136 Complainant 201822 at [182].

137 Moreau (2018), p 128.

138 Moreau (2018), p 131. n

139 Section 4 of the Discrimination Act 1991 (ACT) states that “a condition or requirement does not give rise to indirect discrimination if it is reasonable in the circumstances.” In considering reasonableness, attention must be paid to the nature and extent of the disadvantage, the feasibility of overcoming or mitigating it, and the disproportionality of the disadvantage in relation to the result sought, s8(5) DA. See also the discussion in Moreau (2020), pp 188 and 192.

140 The Tribunal indeed commented that the reporting was ‘an appropriate precautionary action’, see Complainant 201822, at [213].

141 Thornton (1990), at 245.

142 Religious Discrimination Bill 2022 (Cth) s37(2A). My thanks to the reviewer for this point. Thornton and Luker (2010), p. 3 also note that tribunals and courts have afforded significant weight to the nexus of national security, counter-terrorism, and Islam for justifying discriminatory actions by employers.

143 Spade (2015), p 11.

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Mareike Riedel

Mareike Riedel is a Lecturer at Macquarie Law School, Sydney, and a Visiting Fellow at the School of Regulation and Global Governance (RegNet) at the Australian National University. Her research focusses on law and religion in multicultural societies, the racialisation of religion in law, and questions of religious and racial discrimination.