Australian Muslim Citizens
Questions of Inclusion and Exclusion, 2006-2020
Abstract
Muslims have a long history in Australia. In 2016, Muslims formed 2.6 per cent of the total Australian population. In this article, I will discuss Australian Muslims’ citizenship in two time periods, 2006–2018 and 2020. In the first period, I will examine Australian Muslims’ identity and sense of belonging, and whether their race or culture have any impact on their Australian citizenship. I will also discuss the political rhetoric concerning Australian Muslims. In the second period, 2020, I will examine Australian Muslims’ placement as returned travellers during the COVID-19 period. I conclude that, from 2006 to 2018, Islamophobia was rampant in “othering” many Australian Muslims. And in 2020 the Australian government has adopted a policy of inclusion by repatriating its citizens (both Muslims and non-Muslims), but with the COVID-19 crisis, a new dimension of discrimination has been added onto ethnic minorities – in this case Bangladeshi Australians who are mostly Muslims. They are now looked upon as the “other quarantined” or “detained Australian citizens”.
References
Al Jazeera. “How the new coronavirus spread.” Al Jazeera, May 30, 2020. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/01/timeline-china-coronavirus-spread-200126061554884.html.
Atie, Rosalie, Kevin Dunn, and Mehmet Ozalp. “Religiosity, Attitude on Diversity and Belonging among Ordinary Australian Muslims.” Australian Journal of Islamic Studies 2, no. 1 (2007): 1–15.
“Aust No Place for Sharia Law: Costello.” ABC News, February 24, 2006. https://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2006/s1577241.htm.
Australian Bureau of Statistics. “2016 Census Data Reveals ‘No Religion’ is Rising Fast.” Media release, June 27, 2017). https://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/mediareleasesbyReleaseDate/7E65A144540551D7CA258148000E2B85.
“Bangladesh Population.” May 30, 2020. https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/bangladesh-population/.
Bhabha, Homi K. The Location of Culture. London: Routledge, 2004.
Bohnsack, Ralf. “The Interpretation of Pictures and the Documentary Method.” Forum Qualitative Social Research 9, no. 3 (2008). Accessed May 12, 2020. http://www.qualitative-research.net/index.php/fqs/article/view/1171/2591.
Brubaker, Rogers. “The ‘Diaspora’ Diaspora.” Ethnic and Racial Studies 28, no. 1 (2006): 1–19.
Cave, Damien, and Isabella Kwai. “In Australia, One Man Can Decide a Migrant’s Fate: Did He Abuse that Power?” New York Times, September 6, 2018. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/06/world/australia/peter-dutton-au-pair.html.
Charmaz, Kathy. Constructing Grounded Theory: A Practical Guide through Qualitative Analysis. London: Sage, 2006.
“Citizenship Test Introduced.” SBS News, October 1, 2007. https://www.sbs.com.au/immigrationnation/resources/article/126/citizenship-test-introduced.
Davey, Melissa. “Hotel Quarantine a ‘Disaster’ and Vulnerable People should be Allowed Home, Doctor Says.” The Guardian, April 5, 2020, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/05/hotel-quarantine-a-disaster-and-vulnerable-people-should-be-allowed-home-doctor-says
Diallo, Ibrahima. “Attitudes of Australian Muslims and Australian Wider Society towards Muslim Institutions.” ARBIYA: Journal of Education in Muslim Society 4, no. 1 (2017): 1–12.
Dunn, Kevin M, Natascha Klocker, and Tanya Salabay. “Contemporary Racism and Islamophobia in Australia: Racialising Religion.” Ethnicities 7, no. 4 (2007): 564–89.
Ewart, Jacqui, Adrian Cherney, and Kristina Murphy. “News Media Coverage of Islam and Muslims in Australia: An Opinion Survey among Australian Muslims.” Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs 37, no. 2 (2017): 147–63.
Gabsi, Zouhir. “Towards Demystifying Islamophobia: A Muslim’s Perspective.” Australian Journal of Islamic Studies 4, no. 3 (2019): 1–18.
Garrod, Andrew, and Robert Kilkenny. Growing Up Muslim: Muslim College Students in America Tell Their Life Stories. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2014.
Hanson, Pauline. Protect our Australian Way of Life: Senate Speech. Senator Pauline Hanson, September 19, 2018. https://www.senatorhanson.com.au/2018/09/19/protect-our-australian-way-of-life-senate-speech/.
Hassan, Riaz. Australian Muslims: The Challenge of Islamophobia and Social Distance Adelaide, South Australia: University of South Australia, 2018. https://www.unisa.edu.au/contentassets/4f85e84d01014997a99bb4f89ba32488/australian-muslims-final-report-web-nov-26.pdf.
Harper, Douglas. “What’s New Visually?” In The Sage Handbook of Qualitative Research, edited by Norman K. Denzin and Yvonne S. Lincoln, 747–62. 3rd ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2005.
Hebbani, Aparna, and Charise-Rose Wills. “How Muslim Women in Australia Navigate through Media (Mis)representations of Hijab/Burqa.” Australian Journal of Communication 39, no. 1 (2012): 87–100.
Kabir, Nahid Afrose. “Can Islamophobia in the Media Serve Islamic State Propaganda? The Australian Case, 2014-2015.” In Islamophobia and Radicalization: Breeding Intolerance and Violence, edited by Derya Iner and John L. Esposito, 97–116. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2019.
Kabir, Nahid Afrose. “Young Muslims Identity in Australia and the US: The Focus on the Muslim Question.” In Islam in the West: Perceptions and Reactions, edited by Aba W. Ata and Jan Ali, 129–55. Delhi, India: Oxford University Press, 2018.
Kabir, Nahid, and Raymond Evans. “Muslims and the Australian Labour Market, 1980–2001.” Immigrants and Minorities 21, no. 3 (2002): 70–95.
Kuhn, Rick. “Xenophobic Racism and Class During the Howard Years.” Marxist Interventions 1 (2009): 53–82.
Mansouri, Fethi, and Steve Francis. “Migrant Youth, Cultural Adaptation and Social Policy.” In Youth Identity and Migration: Culture, Values and Social Connectedness, edited by Fethi Mansouri, 11–23. Melbourne, Australia: Common Ground Publishers, 2009.
Mendes, Mariza. “Autoethnography as Research Method: Advantages, Limitations and Criticisms.” Colombian Applied Linguistics Journal 15, no. 2 (2013). http://www.scielo.org.co/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0123-46412013000200010.
“‘Put a Ban on It’: Pauline Hanson Calls for Muslim Faith to be Banned.” SBS News, March 23, 2017. https://www.sbs.com.au/news/put-a-ban-on-it-pauline-hanson-calls-for-muslim-faith-to-be-banned.
Smee, Ben and Michael McGowan. “Treated Worse than Criminals’: Australian Arrivals put into quarantine lament conditions.” The Guardian, March 30, 2020, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/30/treated-worse-than-criminals-australian-arrivals-put-into-quarantine-lament-conditions
World Health Organization Europe. “WHO Announces COVID-19 Outbreak a Pandemic.” March 12, 2020. http://www.euro.who.int/en/health-topics/health-emergencies/coronavirus-covid-19/news/news/2020/3/who-announces-covid-19-outbreak-a-pandemic.

Copyright (c) 2020 Nahid Afrose Kabir

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial No Derivatives 4.0 Australia that allows others to share the work with acknowledgement of the work’s authorship and initial publication in this journal.