Non-Muslim Australians’ Knowledge of Islam: Identifying and Rectifying Knowledge Deficiencies

Abstract

It is more than a decade since social geographer Kevin Dunn first described non-Muslim Australians’ ignorance about Islam and its adherents and outlined a series of recommendations about how Australian governments could address this as a pressing social policy issue. Recently researchers have re-assessed non-Muslim Australians’ perceptions of their knowledge of Islam and Muslims identifying while it has improved since 2003, 70% acknowledge they know little to nothing about either. Using data from Australia’s 2016 National Social Survey, this study examines the correlation between non-Muslim Australians’ perceptions of their knowledge of Islam and Muslims and their actual knowledge. We find that perception of knowledge is a reasonable indicator of actual knowledge. Further, we find that tertiary education is the single significant demographic factor impacting actual knowledge. By examining geographical patterns of knowledge, we also find that ignorance of Islam and Muslims is consistent across Australia.

Notes

1. Bilal Cleland, “The History of Muslims in Australia”, in Muslims in Australia, ed. A. Saeed and S. Akbarzadeh, Sydney, NSW: UNSW Press, 2001, pp. 12–32; Regina Ganter, “Muslim Australians: The Deep Histories of Contact”, Journal of Australian Studies, Vol. 32, No. 4, 2008, pp. 481–492; Abdullah Saeed, Islam in Australia, Crows Nest, NSW: Allen & Unwin, 2003.

2. Kevin M. Dunn, Attitudes Towards Islam in Australia. Report for the Australia-Indonesia Institute, Geography Department, University of New South Wales, 2004; Nahid Kabir, Muslims in Australia: Immigration, Race Relations and Cultural History, London: Kegan Paul, 2005; Saeed, Islam in Australia, op. cit.

3. Ghassan Hage, “Racism, Multiculturalism and the Gulf War”, Arena, Vol. 96, 1991, pp. 8–13; Saeed, Islam in Australia, op. cit.

4. International Centre for Muslim and non-Muslim Understanding, Australian Muslims. A Demographic, Social and Economic Profile of Muslims in Australia, Adelaide: University of South Australia, 2015.

5. Dunn, Attitudes Towards Islam in Australia, op. cit., p. 5.

6. Ibid.; Jacqui Ewart, Mark Pearson and Guy Healy, “Journalists’ and Educators’ Perspectives on News Media Reporting of Islam and Muslim Communities in Australia and New Zealand”, Journal of Media and Religion, Vol. 15, No. 3, 2016, pp. 136–145; Kabir, Muslims in Australia, op. cit.; Saeed, Islam in Australia, op. cit.

7. Saeed, Islam in Australia, op. cit., p. vii.

8. Hanifa Deen, Caravanserai: Journey Among Australian Muslims, 2 Ed., Freemantle, WA: Freemantle Arts Centre Press, 2006; Kabir, Muslims in Australia, op. cit.; Saeed, Islam in Australia, op. cit.

9. Saeed, Islam in Australia, op. cit., p. v.

10. Ibid.

11. Dunn, Attitudes Towards Islam in Australia, op. cit.

12. Ibid.

13. Kate O’Donnell and Jacqui Ewart, “Australians’ Baseline Knowledge of Islam and Muslims”, Manuscript Submitted for Publication, 2016.

14. Dunn, Attitudes Towards Islam in Australia, op. cit.

15. Australian Bureau of Statistics, “Basic Community Profile”, in 2011 Census Community Profiles, 2011; Pew Research Center, The Future of World Religions: Population Growth Projections, 2010–2050, 2015 http://www.pewforum.org/2015/04/02/religious-projections-2010-2050/ (accessed 22 February 2016).

16. Jacqui Ewart and Halim Rane, “Talking about 9/11: The Influence of Media Images on Australian Muslims and Non-Muslims’ Recollections of 9/11”, Australian Journal of Communication, Vol. 40, No. 1, 2013, pp. 137–151.

17. Cleland, “The History of Muslims in Australia”, op. cit., pp. 12–32; Kabir, Muslims in Australia, op. cit.; Saeed, Islam in Australia, op. cit.

18. Katharine Bartsch, “Building Identity in the Colonial City: The Case of the Adelaide Mosque”, Contemporary Islam, Vol. 9, No. 3, 2015, pp. 247–270; Ganter, “Muslim Australians: The Deep Histories of Contact, op. cit., pp. 481–492; Riaz Hassan, “The Muslim Minority-Majority Relations in Australian Society: A Sociological Analysis”, Institute of Muslim Minority Affairs Journal, Vol. 12, No. 2, 1991, pp. 285–306; Saeed, Islam in Australia, op. cit.; Peter Scriver, “Mosques, Ghantowns and Cameleers in the Settlement History of Colonial Australia”, Fabrications – The Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, Australia and New Zealand, Vol. 13, No. 2, 2004, pp. 19–41.

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20. Commonwealth of Australia, “Part IV – Religions”, op.cit.

21. Scott Poynting and Victoria Mason, “The Resistible Rise of Islamophobia: Anti-Muslim Racism in the UK and Australia before 11 September 2001”, Journal of Sociology, Vol. 43, No. 1, 2007, p. 66; Saeed, Islam in Australia, op. cit.

22. Ibid., p. 66.

23. Cleland, “The History of Muslims in Australia”, op. cit.

24. Kabir, Muslims in Australia, op. cit., pp. 5–6; Scott Poynting and Victoria Mason, “The Resistible Rise of Islamophobia”, op. cit., p. 66.

25. Kabir, Muslims in Australia, op. cit., p. 6; Saeed, Islam in Australia, op. cit., p. 209.

26. Elsa Koleth, Multiculturalism: A Review of Australian Policy Statements and Recent Debates in Australia and Overseas. RESEARCH PAPER NO. 6, 2010–11, Canberra, ACT: Parliament of Australia, 2010.

27. Ibid.; Andrew Markus, James Jupp and Peter McDonald, Australia’s Immigration Revolution, Sydney, NSW: Allen & Unwin, 2009.

28. Koleth, Multiculturalism, op. cit.

29. Ibid., p. 11

30. Saeed, Islam in Australia, op. cit., p. 210.

31. Markus, Jupp and McDonald, Australia’s Immigration Revolution, op. cit.

32. Koleth, Multiculturalism, op. cit.; Markus, Jupp and McDonald, Australia’s Immigration Revolution, op. cit.

33. Koleth, Multiculturalism, op. cit.

34. Saeed, Islam in Australia, op. cit.

35. Ibid.

36. Markus, Jupp and McDonald, Australia’s Immigration Revolution, op. cit.

37. Pauline Hanson’s One Nation Political Party, “Islam”, in One Nation Policies, 2015, http://www.onenation.com.au/policies/islam (accessed 14 July 2016).

38. Poynting and Mason, “The Resistible Rise of Islamophobia”, op. cit., p. 61.

39. Hage, “Racism, Multiculturalism and the Gulf War”, op. cit., pp. 8–13; Kabir, Muslims in Australia, op. cit.; Robert Manne, “Yes, Virginia, There Is a Clash of Civilisations: Islamism, Islamophobia and Australia”, The Monthly, August 2006, pp. 32–41; Poynting and Mason, “The Resistible Rise of Islamophobia”, op. cit., pp. 61–86; Saeed, Islam in Australia, op. cit.

40. Dunn, Attitudes Towards Islam in Australia, op. cit., p. 4.

41. Kabir, Muslims in Australia, op. cit.; Poynting and Mason, “The Resistible Rise of Islamophobia”, op. cit., pp. 61–86.

42. Australian Bureau of Statistics, “Australia to Reach 24 Million”, Media Release, 2016 http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/[email protected]/mediareleasesbyReleaseDate/BA93C4A707F25020CA257F57002287FC?OpenDocument (accessed 1 March 2016); International Centre for Muslim and non-Muslim Understanding, Australian Muslims, op. cit.

43. International Centre for Muslim and non-Muslim Understanding, Australian Muslims, op. cit.

44. Dunn, Attitudes Towards Islam in Australia, op. cit., p. 5; Poynting and Mason, “The Resistible Rise of Islamophobia”, op. cit., pp. 61–86.

45. Kabir, Muslims in Australia, op. cit.; Manne, “Yes, Virginia, There Is a Clash of Civilisations”, op. cit .; Poynting and Mason, “The Resistible Rise of Islamophobia”, op. cit.; Scott Poynting and Greg Noble, “‘Dog-Whistle’ Journalism and Muslim Australians since 2001”, Media International Australia incorporating Culture and Policy, Vol. 109, No. 1, 2003, pp. 41–49.

46. Dunn, Attitudes Towards Islam in Australia, op. cit.; Kabir, Muslims in Australia, op. cit.

47. Poynting and Mason, “The Resistible Rise of Islamophobia”, op. cit., pp. 61–86.

48. Dunn, Attitudes Towards Islam in Australia, op. cit.

49. Ibid.

50. Ibid.

51. Ibid.

52. Ibid.

53. Ibid., p. 15.

54. Ibid.

55. O’Donnell and Ewart, “Australians’ Baseline Knowledge of Islam and Muslims”, op. cit.

56. Ibid.

57. Ibid.

58. Ibid.

59. Dunn, Attitudes Towards Islam in Australia, op. cit.

60. O’Donnell and Ewart, “Australians’ Baseline Knowledge of Islam and Muslims”, op. cit.

61. Central Queensland University, National Social Survey, 2016 https://www.cqu.edu.au/industry-and-partnerships/services/population-research-laboratory/research/national-social-survey (accessed 14 July 2016).

62. Dunn, Attitudes Towards Islam in Australia, op. cit.; Dunn, “Australian Public Knowledge of Islam”, Studia Islamika, Vol. 12, No. 1, 2005, pp. 1–40.

63. Barbara G. Tabachnick and Linda S. Fidell, Using Multivariate Statistics, 6 Ed., Boston, MA: Pearson, 2013.

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65. Poynting and Mason, “The Resistible Rise of Islamophobia”, op. cit., p. 81.

66. Dunn, Attitudes Towards Islam in Australia, op. cit., p. 15.

67. O’Donnell and Ewart, “Australians’ Baseline Knowledge of Islam and Muslims”, op. cit.

68. Dunn, Attitudes Towards Islam in Australia, op. cit.

69. Ibid.; Dunn, “Australian Public Knowledge of Islam”, op. cit., pp. 1–40; O’Donnell and Ewart, “Australians’ Baseline Knowledge of Islam and Muslims”, op. cit.

70. Ibid.

71. Dunn, Attitudes Towards Islam in Australia, op. cit.

72. Ibid.

73. Alison Flood, “Tennessee Mother Calls for Removal of School History Book ‘Promoting Islamic Propaganda’”, The Guardian, 2016, https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/nov/10/tennessee-mother-calls-removal-school-world-history-textbook-pearson-complaint-islam-islamic-propaganda (accessed 11 November 2016).

74. Dunn, Attitudes Towards Islam in Australia, op. cit.

75. Tanja Dreher, “Listening Across Difference: Media and Multiculturalism Beyond the Politics of Voice”, Continuum, Vol. 23, No. 4, 2009, pp. 445–458.

76. Ibid., p. 452.

77. Ibid.

78. Ibid.

79. Dunn, Attitudes Towards Islam in Australia, op. cit.

80. Dreher, “Listening Across Difference”, op. cit., pp. 445–458.

81. Elizabeth Poole, “The Effects of September 11 and the war in Iraq on British Newspaper Coverage”, in Muslims and the News Media, ed. E. Poole and J.E. Richardson, London: I.B. Tauris, 2006, pp. 89–102.

82. Tahir Abbas, “Media Capital and the Representation of South Asian Muslims in the British Press: An Ideological Analysis”, Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs, Vol. 21, No. 2, 2001, pp. 245–257; Kabir, Muslims in Australia, op. cit.; S. Khan, R. Saloojee and H. Al-Shalchi, Today’s Media: Covering Islam and Canadian Muslims, Ottawa: CAIR-CAN; 2004; Kevin M. Dunn, Natascha Klocker and Tanya Salabay, “Contemporary Racism and Islamaphobia in Australia Racializing religion”, Ethnicities, Vol. 7, No. 4, 2007, pp. 564–589; Saeed, Islam in Australia, op. cit.; John Strawson, “Islam and the Politics of Terrorism: Aspects of the British Experience”, in Fresh Perspectives on the ‘War on Terror’, ed. M. Gani and P. Mathew, Canberra, ACT: The Australian National University E Press, 2008, pp. 9–26.

83. Ewart, Pearson and Healy, “Journalists’ and Educators’”, op. cit., pp. 136–145.

84. Ibid.

85. Ibid.

Additional information

Funding

This research was funded by the Commonwealth Government of Australia.