Filed under: Uncategorized
As part of my assessment for an Islamic Studies course this semester I was required to interview a member of the Muslim community and post a ‘blog’ about them. In case anyone is interested, I’ve replicated my entry below. There are a number of other students entries publicly available on the class blog: Kaleidoscopic Islams.
Interview with an Imam
I count myself lucky enough to have recently had the chance to interview a very distinguished Muslim, one who is both an Imam in the local Brisbane community and a leader in multiple areas of the wider Islamic community of Australia. For the sake of anonymity he will be referred as simply ‘Imam’ or ‘the Imam’.
When I presented the opening question for the interview – What does it mean for you to ‘be’ a Muslim in Australia today? – the Imam responded very broadly, describing not only his personal experiences but also those of the wider Islamic community. He began by saying that it is very easy and safe for him to live inAustralia, both in a religious and a cultural sense. Religiously, he is free to practise his faith as he wishes; in other words, he is able to follow the Shari’a as described in the Qur’an. There are no restrictions upon this facet of his life. Culturally, the Imam – as with all members of the Australian population – is expected to behave within certain boundaries, however this has not been a difficulty. He also stated that he personally has not been a target of racial discrimination, and that he feels quite comfortable functioning within Australia. In order to further demonstrate this ease of functioning, the Imam wore a traditional thobe to the interview, thereby ‘proving’ to us that is safe for him to live how he wishes.
These initial responses are very similar to the results obtained in the study completed by Forrest and Dunn (2006), but differ in a number of specific areas. For example, the survey found that, while ‘most people’ perceive that there are different races in Australia, the vast majority of those surveyed did not attach any discriminatory significance to this. This correlates with the Imam’s experiences as a person of Arab descent, as he did not describe himself as having been racially discriminated against. However, Forrest et al. also found that almost half of those surveyed were concerned about multiculturalism, and indeed these people stated that there are groups which do not fit into their view of Australian society. The results from an associated survey -The Racism Project – conducted by UNSW (2001) clarify this statement, as this survey found that, out of all the cultural sub-groups present within Australian society, Muslims face the highest levels of negative attitudes. Therefore, whilst in his day-to-day life the Imam did not feel that he faced any negative attitudes, it is clear that these attitudes do exist.
At this point the focus of the interview expanded from the personal experiences of the Imam to the experiences of the Muslim community as a whole, covering topics including the influence of politicians, the position of women in Islam and many others. However, although the Imam’s opinions on and experiences relating to these topics were overwhelming positive, it became clear that there are still negative influences upon his life. Most dominantly, the Imam’s frustration with an oft-biased media was quite obvious; he mentioned how the media often purposefully ‘twists’ Islamic beliefs, his personal experiences, and how he – and the rest of the Islamic community – must peacefully endure this bias, in effect ‘disengaging’ from the media. He sees our media as having a negative influence upon not only Muslims, but upon the whole of Australia; in his words, ‘The media is really damaging this country… for it creates hate amongst each other.’ The Imam also cited the influence of certain recently removed politicians as particularly negative. However, regardless of such negatives, the Imam consistently held that Australia is a safe and positive place for Muslims to live and worship
This position clearly parallels the results of Hassan’s (2002) study, which suggested that Muslims are quite comfortable practising Islam in Australia and in fact do so to a greater extent than Christians from the same community. The Imam’s experiences with the media are also quite typical of Muslims in Australia; Aly (2007) notes that the media ‘plays a central role in shaping the attitudes and perceptions of Australian Muslims towards … and within the broader Australian community.’ Aly further discusses the issue of Muslim perception in the media by analysing representations of Muslims in terrorism-related articles, mentioning a number of cases of misrepresentation. The Imam’s intentional disengagement from the media is perceived to be a sort of ’strategic withdrawal; a form of media activism that empowers individuals to re-construct and re-define their identities as members of a broader community.’ With any luck, this ‘tactic’ will have the desired effect, and will improve the media-related experiences of both the Imam and the wider Muslim community ofAustralia.
In conclusion, what does it mean for the Imam to ‘be’ a Muslim in Australia? As far as I could tell, the Imam sees his position as a Muslim in Australia to be one of overwhelming positives; in his opinion, the struggles posed by the media and politicians to be insignificant in the face of the divine truth of Islam. As for the future, he feels that ‘if they keep things going the same way that they are going now… then we [Muslims] have no problem in Australia.’
Bibliography
Aly, Anne, Autumn 2007. “Australian Muslim Responses to the Discourse on Terrorism in the Australian Popular Media”. The Australian Journal of Social Issues, 42:1 27-4.
Forrest, J. & Dunn K.M., 2006. “Racism and intolerance in Eastern Australia: a geographical perspective,” Australian Geographer, 37.2: 167-186.
Riaz Hassan, 2002. “On Being Religious: A Study of Christian and Muslim Piety in Australia,” Australian Religion Studies Review, 15.2: 87-114.
UNSW. School of BEES. 2001. “Regional Response profile – Racism Survey: Brisbane Division,” http://www.bees.unsw.edu.au/school/staff/dunn/racismfindings.html (accessed October 20, 2008).
Filed under: image conscious, musik | Tags: class, comic, gym, heroes, image, music, video
Yet another collection of things which I find fascinating.
The microphone which Gym Class Heroes‘ lead singer Travis McCoy snapped over the head of a ‘racially offensive’ member of the audience. Read the press release at their official website here. You should also listen them if you haven’t already, there’s a reason why they have over 20 million views on Myspace. Via I Shoot Shows.
An interview with Iggy Pop on French TV in 1977. Before seeing this, I’ve only ever seen pictures or video of the haggard, over-smoked Iggy that is still touring today. This gave me a wholly new perspective. Via The Constant Seige.
And, to finish the trio I present Dresden Codak, one of the only webcomics that I’ve read which I’ve had to regressively read in order to fully understand. Fantastic artwork, too.
Filed under: Uncategorized
No, not from the The Shins. I’ve been learning how to sleep in the daytime recently… it’s fantastic. Sleeping in the daytime was never something I allowed myself to do – it just seemed like a waste of time. However, I suppose it’s all in your perspective – either I can sloth around home for a few hours, tired as a diarrhoetic kitten, attempting to do work, or I can have a nap then actually feel decent for once. Hard decision.
So, in actually interesting news, I’ve been getting into some Russian tunes lately. Amazing stuff. Like, for example, The Civil Defence (Гражданская Оборона, pronounced Grazhdanskaya Oborona), who are essentially Russia’s Ramones. Or Kalinov Bridge (Калинов мост, pronouced Kalinov Most), who are an amazing – read, AMAZING – folk rock group, who according to Wikipedia are one of the most popular groups in Russia. I bet they are, they’re amazing.
Then, of course, there’s generic Russia Indie Pop. I am so, so glad this exists… it makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. In particular, one group called Garage (Гараж, pronounced Garazh) is pretty amazing.
…
…
(2 hours pass, wasted)
So I’ve just been wasting the last TWO HOURS of my life on this game… hence why the end on a ridiculously dodgy way. You should attempt it… now. Do it.
Filed under: generic text, i feel like bitching, muse o muse, political musings | Tags: ANZAC, day, M.I.A., war
I tried all day on friday to write a blog. I tried all day to do study. I tried all day to do something fulfilling or somehow useful. And I believe I managed to fail quite miserably. The one thing I managed was a catchy title (see above), but since the poignant moment of listening to M.I.A.’s Kala on ANZAC day has passed, that is also irrelevant. Therefore, the day seems entirely pointless, if rated by the usual ’substance of product completed’, ”concrete evidence of… something evident’ and ‘personal satisfaction with day’. You could almost say it was an empty day.
And, frankly, I would agree with you if you said that. I was about to attempt to iterate some statement of how I did things, how the day was truly fulfilling through that lack of ‘achievement’, etc, but frankly it was quite an average day. The highlight of the day was probably the point in time, just prior to 12.21am, when I and a friend jumped the fences from another friends’ house to mine (two fences in total). This was quite satisfying.
However, the amount of satisfaction that I gained from ‘jumping the fences back home’ was, to be blunt, fuck all, when I compare it to the amount of satisfaction that I feel when, in years past, I have stood on the side of the road, watched the old diggers drive past and honoured their contributions to this country. Now, don’t get me wrong. I am far from being a patriot… anyone who knows me at all, and possibly even anyone who has read this blog would know that. I disagree with war and violence in all its contexts. I quite blatantly disagree with the concept of the armed forces, although I acknowledge the need for their existence. Etc. Etc.
You see, I could keep bitching about the things I dislike about this country for hours and hours, just as I did back in high school, and in the last paragraph. However. The importance of acknowledging the service and sacrifice of the men and women who have died for the country that I am (often unwillingly) part of is something that, for me, far surpasses any of these notions. I don’t exactly know why. But I don’t care. For once, I don’t actually care why I feel the need to remember these people. I just think it matters.
So, next year, on ANZAC day, I’ll try to get to the parade. Instead of waking up with a hangover, wasting a day and then wasting the next one, I’m going to pay my respects. Not to war, not to violence, and not to the patriarchal society that I am a part of, but to the old buggers who we’re slowly forgetting about.
Filed under: generic text, muse o muse, musik | Tags: change, elliott smith, facebook chat, music
There’s always more to take out. More rubbish to ‘dispose of’, more pieces of old friends, more leftovers from relationships, more junk collector’s junk. I thought that was what moving house was for, but now, after moving 8 times in just over 2 years, I think I’m desensitized to anything that moving house can do to me. Or maybe I’m just saturated.
Anyway, I’m attempting to study. It’s really hard! Indescribably hard, actually, now that Facebook Chat has arrived. I jump on, intending to be on there for, oh, 10 minutes or so… and end up wasting an hour. An hour! Memories of epic MSN conversations in those deathly high school years come to mind… of course, 9 hours of chatting is a little different than 45 minutes or so of chat-specific Facebook distractions, but it’s still a waste of time. Or something like that.
Elliott Smith sang, as I was writing that, just then, this second, this moment:
“It’s a waste of time
I put it behind once and for all
And let the hype decline
If the problem wasn’t mine…” [from Go By]
Talk about a distraction. My whole train of thought has derailed itself… thanks, Elliott. I should be used to the Elliott Smith distraction, my housemate is, well, a little obsessed with the lovely chap. This is a rather healthy obsession (is there any other type?) and seems to be in a sort of stasis, not growing, not shrinking… in use every day, but not every moment.
So, anyway. As you can probably tell from the title of this entry, we emptied out the house last night – that is, we moved the TV downstairs, along with one of the couches – in a flurry of cleansing. However, as you may also be able to tell, we haven’t emptied out ourselves… Duncan is still the same Elliott Smith lover, I’m still the same uber-procrastinater, and Peter is, well, just Peter. Therefore, it seems that we have discovered the answer to that old ‘Nature vs. Nurture’ debate… our physical surroundings have changed, yet we have not.
How deep.
