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Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/10361/11485

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Muslims in Australia: the double edge of terrorism
(© 2007 Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies., 2007-11) Kabir, Nahid Afrose; Department of English and Humanities
Self-improvement is often seen as the driving force behind international migration. In other cases, people are forced to depart because of social or political upheaval, oppression or national disaster. Finally, people may migrate for family reunion. Immigrants acquire new identities as they settle into the new society and learn to refer to themselves as, for example, 'Australians' or 'British'. In doing so, a former national identity may become an 'ethnic identity'. As they settle into a new country, migrants face numerous challenges as ethnic or religious minorities. In this paper, an historical perspective is given to settlement issues of various religious migrant groups in Australia, with a special focus on Muslims. The paper examines how a religious group can become the victim of resistance from the wider society when the group is perceived to be a direct or an indirect threat. It concludes that Muslim Australians have become the 'current enemy' because the perceived international threat of militant Islam is negatively impacting on them. This paper relies on both primary and secondary sources, including oral testimonies.
What does it mean to be un-Australian? views of Australian Muslim students in 2006
(© 2007 People and Place., 2007) Kabir, Nahid Afrose; Department of English and Humanities
Recent political and media debates have focused on Australian values, Australianness and being un-Australian. The current war on terror and the Cronulla riots in December 2005 have raised the question of whether Muslim Australians are willing to adopt Australian values. This paper reports on sixty in-depth face-to-face interviews with Muslim students in Sydney and Perth. The main topic of the interviews was: what it means to be 'Australian'and 'un-Australian'. The study focuses on the students' outlook. It concludes that these youthful participants hold very positive views about Australian values, but most of them were very distressed by the Cronulla riots.
Muslims in a 'White Australia': colour or religion?
(© 2006 Immigrants and Minorities., 2006-07) Kabir, Nahid Afrose; Department of English and Humanities
Muslim migration to Australia took place over three distinct periods - the Colonial, the 'White Australia' and the Multicultural periods. This article discusses the settlement issues of Muslims during the 'White Australia' period (1901-73). It particularly focuses on five distinct ethnic groups - Indians, Afghans, Malays, Javanese and Albanians - in Queensland and Western Australia. It questions whether these groups were treated 'differently'because of their Islamic beliefs. The study draws upon both primary and secondary sources, including archival materials and oral testimonies. From the evidence presented, it is clear that a hardening attitude against Muslims has been apparent and that historical antipathies and long-lived antipathies have grown in the specific context of the current geopolitical climate.
Mackay revisited: the case of Javanese-Australian Muslims, 1880-1999
(© 2007 Scalabrini Migration Center., 2007) Kabir, Nahid Afrose; Department of English and Humanities
The development of Queensland's sugar industry in the nineteenth century led to an influx of non-European laborers, such as Melanesians, Cingalese and Javanese. Years later, under the Immigration Restriction Act, 1901, many Asian people were expelled from Australia, but some Javanese remained in Mackay. This paper examines the Javanese settlement pattern during the colonial, "White Australia," and multicultural periods in terms of race, ethnicity, culture and religion. These accounts were derived largely from interviews with Australia-born second, third and fourth generation Muslims of Javanese origin in Mackay.
Muslims and the Australian labour market, 1980-2001
(© 2002 Frank Cass Publishers., 2002-11) Kabir, Nahid Afrose; Evans, Raymond; Department of English and Humanities
The unemployment of Muslims in Australia was 28 and 25 per cent compared to the national total of around nine per cent in 1986 and 1996 respectively (Australian Bureau of Statistics). This article conceptually analyses the disadvantaged position of the Muslims in the Australian labour market from 1980 to 2001 within a framework of 'structural racism'. It studies the Muslims from three perspectives: first, a comparative study of the qualifications and unemployment of the Muslim labour force in relation to the dominant population. Secondly, it examines the extent of this disadvantaged position in comparison with other ethnic minorities within an historical context. Finally, the basis of structural racism is explored to demonstrate how the Muslims have become systematically victimized. The analysis concludes that Muslims are significantly disadvantaged in Australia on the basis of their ethnicity and religion.
Are young Muslims adopting Australian values?
(© 2008 Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER)., 2008-11) Kabir, Nahid Afrose; Department of English and Humanities
Recently politicians in Australia have raised concerns that some Muslims are not adopting Australian values to a sufficient extent In this paper I explore the notion of Australian values with respect to immigrant youth. By analysing interviews with 32 Muslim students who are 15-18 years of age and of diverse backgrounds in two state schools in Sydney, I focus on the extent to which these young people seem to be adopting Australian values. I discuss the factors that hinder the adoption of Australian values, and whether such hindrance can lead to a possible jihadi threat This paper relies on oral testimonies and secondary sources, including international literature.
Not friend, not foe: the rocky road of enfranchisement of Muslims into multicultural nationhood in Australia and New Zealand
(© 2008 Immigrants and Minorities., 2008) Kolig, Erich; Kabir, Nahid Afrose; Department of English and Humanities
This paper compares the images of citizenship available through multicultural policy provisions to the Muslim minority in Australia and New Zealand. Its enfranchisement is fraught with difficulties in both countries. A comparison between the two nations, however, shows some striking differences. Not only is there a considerable discrepancy between the images of citizenship and the images projected by this minority, but despite many similarities that both nations have in common, but this discrepancy also appears to be much larger in Australia. Some explanations for this difference will be offered.
To be or not to be an Australian: focus on muslim youth
(© 2011 National Identities., 2008) Kabir, Nahid Afrose; Department of English and Humanities
In 2001, 67% of Australians identified themselves as Christians and only 1.5% as Muslims, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics. Other Australians are Jews, Buddhists and Hindus - to name just a few of the religious minorities. Since 1975 until recently when the Anti-Discrimination Act was legislated, multiculturalism has been the official policy of the Federal Government. Yet in these terror-ridden times, the policy - however interpreted - has well and truly fallen into disfavour. This article discusses both the historical and contemporary dimensions of Muslim Australians' national identity, focusing particularly on Muslim youth. It examines how one group of Australian-born Muslims exhibited their national identity during the Second World War and how the newly arrived Muslims feel about their identity during the 'War on Terror'. The article is based on both primary and secondary sources - particularly on oral testimonies.
A study of Australian Muslim youth identity: the Melbourne case
(© 2011 Institute of Muslim Minority Affairs., 2011-06) Kabir, Nahid Afrose; Department of English and Humanities
Australia is the home of 340,393 Muslims and they constitute about 1.7% of the total national population of 19,855,287 million people. 1 Muslims have migrated to Australia from several Muslim countries on their own will for a better life. The Australian government also welcomed the immigrants because it needed labor for a sustainable economy. However, in times of crisis, for example, after the 9/11 incident the media and some politicians positioned the Muslims as the "Other". In December 2005 there was a riot at Sydney's Cronulla beach between some Lebanese-Australians and the mainstream Australians but the politicians and the media sided with the wider society. In September 2006, when the Egyptian-born Mufti al-Hilali presented a controversial sermon in Arabic in which he depicted scantily-dressed women as uncovered meat and blamed them for inciting men to rape, the rhetoric of "us" and "them" was final. The racial profiling of Muslims through the Australian Anti-Terrorism Act 2005 has also caused unease in the society. Against this backdrop I interviewed 14 Muslim youths of diverse backgrounds, 15-17 years in Melbourne and tried to gain an understanding of their identity. Overall, the participants appeared to be peaceful, and their bicultural skills strengthened their Australian citizenship.
Young Somalis in Australia, the UK and the USA: an understanding of their identity and their sense of belonging
(© 2014 Institute of Muslim Minority Affairs., 7/17/2014) Kabir, Nahid Afrose; Department of English and Humanities
The civil war in Somalia forced many Somalis to migrate to other countries where they had to adapt to new cultures and learn new languages. At the same time, they retained the identity and culture that were important to them throughout the process of migration. These first-generation Somali immigrants may feel strong allegiance to their country of origin along with a “sense of belonging” to their clan/kinship. They may also hope that one day they will be able to return “home”. But do second-generation Somalis feel the same way? This paper is based on 23 interviews with Somali immigrants in Australia, the UK and the USA. Out of the 23 participants, two were first-generation and the rest were second-generation. I seek to understand the participants’ identity and their sense of belonging to their ethnicity and host country in the wake of pertinent moments of local, national and international anxiety.
The cronulla riots: Muslims’ place in the white imaginary spatiality
(© 2015, Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht, 2015-09) Kabir, Nahid Afrose; Department of English and Humanities
On 11 December 2005 at Sydney’s Cronulla Beach about 5000 Australians, mostly young men from Sutherland Shire, wrapped themselves in Australian flags and asserted that Cronulla Beach belonged to them through abusive language against Lebanese Australians. Subsequently, on 12 December 2005 a group of Australians of Lebanese heritage launched an attack in reprisal. The former group exhibited their “Australianness” through an urban model based on exclusion, implying they were the West so, of course, they were better than the rest. The latter fought back, exhibiting that they also represented the West. They demonstrated their territorial rights as they asserted that the beach also belonged to them. The rather aggressive posturing of both parties raises the question of whether Muslim Australians have a place in the white imaginary spatiality.
The road to a transcultural America: the case of American Muslim girls
(BRAC University, 5/3/2016) Kabir, Nahid Afrose; Department of English and Humanities
Fernando Ortiz acknowledged the pain of colonisation and the uprooting of slaves from Africa from the sixteenth century onwards. Later, people from diverse backgrounds such as Jews, Anglo-Saxons and Chinese migrated to the New World. Ortiz observed that initially migrants were faced with the problem of disadjustment and readjustment, of acculturation, deculturation and neoculturation – in a word, of transculturation. Ortiz’s concept of transculturation provides a useful framework for examining the cross-cultural adaptation and hybridisation that usually takes place when two or more cultures meet. Against the transcultural conceptual framework offered by Ortiz, this paper examines the life stories of three American Muslim girls of Bangladeshi heritage, and evaluates their experiences as reflecting transcultural processes. It examines how their transculturality or hybridity through the ‘contact zone’, and global and local interactions, helped them to assert their identity and sense of belonging. It recognises the tensions and the positive outcomes of their transculturation. In particular, this paper mobilises Pratt’s, Kraidy’s and Pereira-Ares’s interpretation of transculturation.

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