The resistible rise of Islamophobia

Abstract

This article compares the rise of anti-Muslim racism in Britain and Australia, from 1989 to 2001, as a foundation for assessing the extent to which the upsurge of Islamophobia after 11 September was a development of existing patterns of racism in these two countries. The respective histories of immigration and settlement by Muslim populations are outlined, along with the relevant immigration and ‘ethnic affairs’ policies and the resulting demographics. The article traces the ideologies of xenophobia that developed in Britain and Australia over this period. It records a transition from anti-Asian and anti-Arab racism to anti-Muslim racism, reflected in and responding to changes in the identities and cultural politics of the minority communities. It outlines instances of the racial and ethnic targeting by the state of the ethnic and religious minorities concerned, and postulates a causal relationship between this and the shifting patterns of acts of racial hatred, vilification and discrimination.

The Impact of Religious Difference and Unemployment/Underemployment on Somali Former Refugee Settlement in Australia

“…These findings are in line with past research which has acknowledged the impact of Islamophobia on Muslim employment in Australia (Colic-Peisker & Tilbury, 2007;Poynting & Mason, 2007). Statistics from 2001 (Tilbury, 2007) reported that the unemployment rate for Australian Muslims was significantly higher than the unemployment rate for all Australians.…”

“…ColicPeisker and Tilbury's (2007) investigation into the effect of visible difference on employment found that African minority groups (from Somalia, Sudan, Ethiopia, and Eritrea) suffered high levels of unemployment based on race, religion, and ethnic origin, with multiple narratives reflecting racial discrimination in the workforce. Other Australian studies have also found that unemployment and underemployment is a problem among Muslims in Australia as a whole (Constable, Wagner, Childs, & Natoli, 2004;Guerin, Guerin, Diirye, & Abdi, 2005;Poynting & Mason, 2007;Tilbury, 2007). The next section provides an overview of Somali visible difference due to external religious markers.…”

“…For mainstream Australians, the perceptions of Islam in the West post 9/11, and post-2002 Bali bombings, may have impacted the significance of highly visible religious markers because of associations made about extremism and a fear of Islam (see Poynting & Mason, 2007). Somali women are also similarly interpreted through the visible marker of religious dress, which negatively exposes Somali women to Western interpretation of Muslim identity and prescribed gender values (Jelle et al, 2006).…”

Racism and Islamophobia: A Personal Perspective

“…Cultural racism was challenged through greater self-pride and an interest in global anti-racist movements. Thus people like Muhammad Ali, Malcolm X, Nelson Mandela and even the PLO leader Yasser Arafat entered our family domain through the medium of global communications (Saeed, 2014a,b;2007;. Whilst the AfricanAmerican, South African and Palestinian histories (Drainville and Saeed, 2013; have their own stories, what became evident were the common threads of racism, imperialism and exploitation.…”

“…Years later, the Labour Prime Minister Gordon Brown would echo a neofascist slogan and lament 'British jobs for British workers' (Saeed, 2010;2007). More recently the current Labour leader has promised to tighten immigration laws and protect 'British workers' (BBC, 2014).…”