Thesis:
The ability to practice Islam and feel at peace in Australia is significantly impacted upon by the action of more radical elements within the culture and the way this is treated in the media.
Intro:
The Islamic faith is the second fastest growing religion in the world. Knowing this fact it is clear that Islam is a major religion which would mean that it has spread through all of the world including Australia. Australians haven't taken Muslims too well because of the events that have occurred such as the Sydney siege which resulted in the death of two Australians. This caused major anti-terrorist raids in Australia most Muslims were affected by this in some way shape or form. There have also been many other terrorist attacks performed
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The media is also a significant impact on assisting this misconception. The media has created a bad name for Muslims making them seem like a religion that evokes terrorism and that if you join it you become part of that life and you're forced to perform terrorist attacks like the Sydney siege. A major group ISIS or ISIL is a huge fact for the fear Australians have about Muslims. With the events, ISIS have stated provoke Australians to be feared of them. Because of this it wears down on the good Muslims in our Australian society completely destroying their lives even though they have no involvement with ISIS or any of the terrorist attacks that have occurred in Australia. Most of the Australians that our destroying Muslims lives have a lack of knowledge about the tourist attacks to ISIS at all and therefore begin to blame them for everything that is happening. According to (Omar Alnatour,12/09/2015,Muslims Are Not Terrorists) A Factual Look at Terrorism and Islam) states that up to 94% of terrorist attacks carried out in the united states from 1980 to 2005 have been by non-Muslims. This means that an American terrorist suspect is over nine times more likely to be a non-Muslim rather than a Muslim. Yet the media still shows Muslims to be terrorist even after this fact is presented. According to (Omar Alnatour,12/09/2015,Muslims Are Not Terrorists), there have been over one thousand terrorist attacks in Europe in the past 5 years. And less that 2% of those attacks have been associated with Muslims. Even though this isn't directly related to Australia. This evidence provided isn't enough to convince Australians that there, not terrorists and are just trying to practice their religion
Since 9/11, people seem to always associate Muslims with terrorists. More importantly, when people hear Muslim terrorists they never assume that they are from any other areas except from the Middle Eastern. Being young and not knowing the real reasoning behind the attacks of 9/11, I had always looked at Muslims as terrorists. To be specific, I thought they were mainly Middle Eastern Muslims. I was oblivious to the fact that there are other types of Muslims because all I have ever saw in the media were those types. It didn’t hit me that I was starting to become a victim of discrimination until I was on the bus and I saw a white male dressed up in a turban thinking that he was going to harm the passengers on the bus. I knew then that I had to alter my opinions about this because I knew that I wouldn’t like it if someone thought I was
Media outlets in secular Australia tend to focus specifically on the negative incidents that occur within different religions, swaying society’s opinion on commitment to a belief system. Two heavily publicised events that are still being covered by the media are firstly, the link of terrorism to the Islamic faith and secondly, sex offenders associated with the Catholic Australian church. The definition of the Islam belief system is “the religious faith of Muslims including belief in Allah as the sole deity and in Muhammad as his prophet” (Webster, 2006). Currently there is an international and ongoing crisis that has links with the
I am an Australian Muslim. The recent actions of the group known as Islamic State have put my faith in the spotlight as a threat to my nation and fellow Australians with whom I share the privilege of living in this great nation. It is here that I practice my faith freely.” This is someone that values and respects the land he lives on and is truly in disbelief in the attempts of ISIS to turn his faith against the country he lives in. Previously mentioned, Waleed Aly is becoming a reference point and communicator for Muslims in Australia. He has recently advocated his views about ISIS on news program The Project where he brings truth to the strategy of ISIS. He believes that ISIS want to diminish the social cohesion between Muslims and Australians so that Muslims become the enemy and threat for Australians so they have no where to turn. ISIS creates the stereotype for ordinary Muslims to be seen as though they stand for terrorism to the Australian public but really don’t at all. Aly says “They want to start World War III, a global warm between Muslims and everyone else, thats what they want to create. They want societies like Australia to turn on each other.” What Australians fail to see nor except is that when they show feelings of hostility and anger against ISIS and Muslims in general, it is feeding the Islamic State even more because they are
The first noted evidence of the religion of Islam in Australia was through the interaction between the Indigenous people of Australia’s North and Islamic fisherman from South East Asia when trading products with eachother as well as the occurrence of inter-cultural marriage as early as 1650. However, the major influence of Islamic religion to Australia came later in the 1860’s when a large number of camel drivers , with origins throughout Afghanistan arrived in Australia to develop a telegraph line that would eventually connect Australia with London. The predominant religion amongst the cameleers was Islam, despite being different ethnicities, such as punjabi, Pashtun, Baluchi and Sindhi. The camels proved to serve the needs of trade,transport
This is a 39% increase in the Australian Muslim growth rate since 2001, alarmingly, surpassing Australia’s current total population projections, however, although Islam is the fastest growing religion internationally, it is not domestically and Muslims are still an under represented minority in Australia. The above mentioned figures are an example as to how statistics can be manipulated into the wrong context to fit a media publications own construction of Muslim discourse. The contemporary (post 2000) links between Muslims and terrorism made by the media were the unprecedented widespread attacks in the United States that occurred on 11 September 2001. These events set the scene for the Australian medias role in implicitly and explicitly identifying Muslims as the other, equating Muslims [and Islam] with the threat of terrorism (Anne Ally,2007). An example of the equating of Islam with terrorism is Sharia Law. The media often associates this holy law of Islam documenting the expectations of Allah, and the positive principles followed by billions of Muslims of different backgrounds and cultures globally through scenes of brutality and oppression of the people in the conflicted middle eastern region linking it to the corrupted Jihadist fighters
That attack, the November Paris attacks, dominated the news for weeks, and prompted incredible shows of solidarity from countries around the world. The countries that do suffer the most damage from terrorism are predominantly Muslim, and those attacks mostly slip under the radar of the western media. This means that while we in the west stoke our fears of “radical Islamic terrorists,” it is Muslims who bear the brunt of terrorist attacks.“The four predominantly Muslim countries that endured the most fatal terrorist attack were Iraq, Pakistan, Nigeria and Afghanistan” (Institute for Economics & Peace
Australia’s first anti-terror laws were enacted in response to the terrorist attacks of September 11 (Prof Andrew Lynch 2010). In recent years, increasing Australian involvement in international conflict has seen these laws shift to accommodate alarming trends in home grown terrorism (Australian Security Intelligence Organisation 2014). Sydney’s 2014 terror raids prompted the most significant changes to Australia’s counter terrorism legislation in the last decade (Commonwealth of Australia Department of Defence 2015). Amendments granted law enforcement and intelligence agencies new and somewhat controversial powers, in the name of national security.
The practises, beliefs and values of Christianity and Islam have an impact on Australia society; however, the media exploits the perceived tension between the two groups which has led to discrimination and violence. Over many years the way of which an individual lives their life has been shown to be affected by the religion of which they follow. This affects the way of life throughout the community surrounding these people, as well as having an impact on the social issues throughout this particular community. Christianity has a huge impact throughout Australia, this includes through schools, dress codes, the way of which people live in their day to day lives. Christianity has always been a highly popular religion throughout Australia as
In the public speech made by Pauline Hanson in Australia to the Australian Parliament, she explains how Islam cannot be part of Australia’s society, which is secular and cohesive. Islam is about being obedient to the tradition and a secular society is about abandoning tradition and moving onto progress. Hanson explains that the reason for the incompatibility is because of Islam’s way of controlling every aspect of the lives of Muslims, in which it will be influenced onto their society. And she argues that Australia has a separation between religion and politics, which is not acceptable in the law of Shari’a. She concludes that the Muslims are negatively affecting Australia by their religious laws, such as the Shari’a and the Halal certification
The abuse, stereotyping and scapegoating of Australian Muslims is on the rise in 2016 and the media isn’t helping.
As a result of the Paris attacks, groups of what can only be presumed as prejudice Canadians set fire to a mosque in Peterborough Ontario. These groups are wrongfully associating all Muslim people with the extreme Islamic group ISIS. The Muslims of Canada have condemned ISIS actions through public verbal demonstrations, helping show non-Muslims that they pose no threat and are not associated with the extremists. These grassroots efforts have been occurring in major Canadian cities found in Ontario such as Toronto, Ottawa, London and more; all in hopes to educate people of the indigenous Islam in Canada, which is based on Canadian beliefs. In Western countries Muslims have the right to believe what belief systems Islam prophesizes in; this right is guaranteed without the fear of ridicule and is free from the assertion of Islamic beliefs other societies
One of the biggest stereotypes that Americans have is that all Muslims are terrorists. A poll taken showed that twenty-seven percent of Americans think ISIS represents “true Islam.” But in fact, the number one victim of the terror group are Muslims. ISIS has killed thousands of Muslims across the Middle East, including, beheading Sunni Muslims in Iraq for failing to pledge loyalty to them, executing Imams for not submitting to them, and even killing an Imam in Iraq for simply denouncing them. (Obeidallah, Dean)
Since Islam is a religion that promotes peace and kindness, one could ask where the stereotype that all Muslims are terrorists originated. Following the tragedies of September 11, 2001, Arabs and Muslims have been presented as potential terrorists. This idea stemmed from the theory that, “media bias increases when a specific ethnic, religious, or racial group is seen as a threat to national security.” (Stiffler, 2013). Since the attacks on September 11, 2001 Muslims and Arabs have been “hyper-visible” in the media as potential terrorists. Due to the negative media attention and failure of most media platforms to
For this paper, I have chosen to interview an acquaintance of mine who is a devote Muslim and follower of Islam. For the sake of this assignment I will be referring to him under the pseudonym of Jack. I spoke with Jack about some wide-ranging topics discussing things such as, media, bias, stereotypes, and really in general what being a follower of Islam is like in this divided country right now. In our country, today it’s pretty apparent there is a type of fear of Muslims, so much so that 7 heavy populated Muslim countries are not permitted from entering the United States of America. I never had conversations as personal as this with Jack and I feel as if I gained a lot of insight into the types of things minorities, and especially Muslims
To further this argument, research conducted by Dr Kevin Dunn (Christopher & Deresky 2008) exemplified how ‘marginalised’ the minority of Australian Muslims and people of Middle Eastern origin are in the Australian society. Australians are thought to be of the opinion that people with these cultural and religious backgrounds are the least likely to be able to fit into the culture of Australians (Christopher & Deresky, 2008).