Search

Over the past several decades, the phenomenon of conversion to Islam in Western societies has received a significant amount of attention, both in academia and in the mass media. Much of this attention has focused on the motives and experiences of female converts, a likely result of suggestions that higher numbers of Western women than men are converting to Islam, as well as pervasive views of Islam as a religion that mistreats women. Yet despite this fixation on conversion and gender, understanding of the compared experiences of male and female converts remains limited. This article seeks to address this key gap in the existing literature by examining the differences and commonalities in the experiences, beliefs and identities of male and female converts to Islam in Australia. It is hoped that this research will contribute to a greater understanding of the complex relationships between gender, conversion and identity, while encouraging further research in this area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the motivations for female conversion to Islam in Australia. To capture the diverse motivations and individual spiritual transitions of female converts, a descriptive phenomenological methodology was employed. Empirical data are based on two in-depth, semi-structured hour-long interviews with each of six female converts living in South East Queensland and northern New South Wales. Five key motivations and experiences were common to all participants during their pathways to conversion. All of the converts expressed a prior belief in God; were drawn to Islam after meeting Muslims; engaged in a process of individual interpretation, reasoning or investigation of Islam (ijtihād) to arrive at their own understanding of Islamic belief and practice; felt the values, principles and beliefs resonated with their own prior convictions; and experienced challenges that provided resistance to their desire to become a Muslim, mostly connected with family, friends, lifestyle and the public sphere of everyday social interaction. This is the first phenomenological study to investigate female conversion to Islam in Australia and provides unique insight and further depth of understanding regarding female conversion to Islam in the West as well as the dynamics of Islam in Australia. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Based on research conducted in Western Australia as part of a PhD thesis, this article looks at the shifting boundaries of gender roles in Australian Muslim households. It highlights the Islamic stance on the biological differences between men and women as the basis for understanding gender roles and responsibilities. It also uncovers how the ideal influences contemporary Muslim gender roles and the interplay of social and economic factors that impact upon Australian Muslim households in their acculturation in the more liberal Western setting. In order to capture the nuances of perceptions and accounts of how the participants in the research perceive providing and caring roles in the household unit, the primary research uses narrative enquiry as part of its methodology. The findings show that there is variance between the textual injunctions and contextual realties as Muslim women also become providers for the household. While this shows that there is congruence with the mainstream Australian society, it also has implications for how gender equality and economic empowerment of women are approached in a diverse society like Australia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Australia's most popular spectator sport is Aussie Rules football, administered by the Australian Football League (AFL). The 2012 debut of a professional Aussie Rules team for a growing and culturally diverse part of Sydney represents the culmination of efforts by the AFL to make inroads into the rugby-league-obsessed, poor and predominantly refugee and migrant neighbourhoods on the “wrong” side of the tracks in Australia's largest city. In the months before the siren sounded on the Greater Western Sydney Giants' first game, the researcher produced a long-form radio documentary for a religious affairs programme broadcast on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. It discussed how a religiously diverse part of Australia juggles its negative reputation with a growing, strategically important population, which the sport of Aussie Rules is trying to reach out to, but whose identity is wrapped up in the “rival” football code of rugby league. The documentary's findings are that affiliation with a sport or team is fluid and thought of as a component of Australian Muslim identity; that it reflects attempts by existing power structures to connect with the shifting demographics of the region that is the focus of the documentary; and that it reflects failure or success on-field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Far from being an exclusively present-day, let alone post-9/11, phenomenon, Islam in Indigenous Australia has a set of historical precedents. Focusing on three early waves of Muslim sojourners and immigrants, the article begins with an overview of the long and complex history of Indigenous engagement with Islam. Introducing readers to a broad spectrum of Indigenous identification with Islam, it examines the kin-based or informal absorption of Islamic values that occurs particularly among those with Muslim forbears (a process termed “kinversion”). The article then turns from the primarily historical material to an investigation of the contemporary experience of Islam in Indigenous Australian lives. As Islam is among the fastest growing religions in the world today, an increased rate of conversion to Islam among Indigenous communities might simply be a sign of the times. This is not, however, the case. There are uniquely Australian circumstances that inform it, and for some Indigenous people an identification with Islam has provided an alternative route back to their Indigenous roots. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Academic accounts of Muslim integration and inclusion in multicultural Australia are often at pains to emphasize that Muslim identity and Australian national identity are compatible with each other. While this political manoeuvre remains both important and relevant, it nevertheless chances reinscribing the very terms of debate it seeks to contest and worryingly aligns closely with prevalent governmental techniques to “domesticate” Muslim difference. Furthermore, it risks presenting both “Muslim” and “Australian” identities as self-evident, taken-for-granted categories. In this article, I consider two Muslim Australian popular cultural productions – namely, the television programmeSalam Caféand the stand-up comedy showFear of a Brown Planet– in order to explore how Muslim and Australian identities, and the relationships between them, are performed, contested and rearticulated. What is most salient about both productions, the article argues, is that they present the identity of “Australian” as a site of political and cultural contestation, with the “nation” a contingent site through which multicultural politics are actualized. Such a move is salient for Australian multiculturalism more broadly, but is especially so for Muslim communities – not least because it undermines the West/Islam dichotomy altogether. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which the author discusses various reports within the issue on topics including syncretic spirituality, Islamic schools in Victoria and the social conditions of Australian Muslims.

The violent clashes between young Muslim men and police that occurred in and around Sydney's central business district on the evening of Saturday, September 15, 2012 have acted as a catalyst for an increasingly visible political struggle among different sections of the Australian Muslim population in the post-9/11 decade. The protests, ostensibly about the filmInnocence of Muslims, have brought the contested nature of Islam and being Muslim in Australia firmly into the sphere of public political debate as Muslims aligned both against and with the protestors. This article aims to explore the extraordinarily open exchanges and contestation primarily between Muslims born and raised in Australia in the immediate aftermath of the protests and the mechanisms utilized to contest power, authority and legitimacy. In doing so, it reveals important insights into the debates defining Muslim political identity and considers the broader implications for Australian Islam and multiculturalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the subjective personal and national wellbeing of a purpose-selected sample of Muslims (n = 509 for PW and n = 544 for NW) living in New South Wales and Victoria over 2007 and 2008, using the Personal Wellbeing (PWI) and National Wellbeing (NWI) indices from the Australian Unity Wellbeing Index (AUWI) survey. The PWI looks at satisfaction with life across seven proximal domains: health, personal relationships, safety, standard of living, achieving, community connectedness, and future security, whereas the NWI deals with national satisfaction across six distal domains: the economy, the environment, social conditions, governance, business, and national security. Thus, this article asks: What is the state of subjective wellbeing among Muslims in Australia, particularly in comparison to the general population? It confirms that average Muslim personal wellbeing is comparable to that of the general Australian population, and that national wellbeing of Muslims averages lower than the general population, but still within normative ranges. It nevertheless finds there are differences between the general population and Muslims in some of the specific domains used to assess personal and national wellbeing, namely those of safety, future security, and satisfaction with government. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years a heightened awareness of global risks has produced an unprecedented interest in global peace and security initiatives. This article discusses the impact of international crisis events on religiously diverse communities in Australia, in particular rising Islamophobia, migrantophobia and attacks on multiculturalism. Religious communities have been far from passive in their responses to the impact of these events, initiating dialogue and educational activities to dispel negative stereotypes and attitudes. In addition, state actors, including police, have prioritized engagement with religious leaders, and this has resulted in a rise of state supported multifaith peacebuilding activities. The article argues that, in response to global risks of terror and exclusion, multifaith movements and multi-actor networks, including religious leaders, state actors, educators and the media, have the potential to advance common security. In response to conflicts both local and global, these examples of cooperation between religious and non-religious actors in Australia can be instructive to other increasingly multifaith societies. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The twenty-first century has seen Australia affected by terrorism in an unprecedented way, with attacks specifically targeting its citizens in Indonesia, as well as its involvement in the ‘war on terror’. At the same time, Muslims have been increasing as a proportion of the Australian population, due both to immigration and to local births. Muslim communities in Australia have faced many challenges in relating to older-established Australian society in this context. This article examines current attitudes to Muslims in Anglo-Celtic Australia and traces the historical precedents for ethno-religious hostility. It explores, in particular, the parallels between current attitudes to Muslims and historical Anglo-Protestant attitudes to Irish Catholics and asks what lessons can be learned from this history. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article is the initial paper of a longer project that aims to chart the progress of Christian–Muslim dialogue in western Sydney, Australia. The first part provides the context for aspects of Muslim settlement, organization and practice in Australia. Following a brief overview of interfaith dialogue, the second part offers an exposition and analysis of the objectives and motivation of the three organizers of Christian–Muslim dialogue in the west of Sydney, and assesses the initial outcomes of the dialogues. The style of the exposition is discursive, allowing the voices of the organizers to be heard. The analysis is offered under the rubrics of inter-cultural diversity and interfaith dialogue. No validation of the organizers' perceptions against those of the participants is attempted.It is shown that the organizers' instinct to promote dialogue interaction on the human and social level attracted a great deal of interest from a wide audience. The structure employed for the gatherings was recognized by politicians and community leaders as an effective model for wider community-building exercises. Difficulties identified include responding to resistance to the dialogues, and deepening the dialogue experience for participants. The selection of the appropriate audience, format and forum for future gatherings is crucial to the ongoing success of the project. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]