"And so We have appointed for every Prophet enemies - Shayatin (devils) among humans and jinn, inspiring one another with adorned speech as a delusion (or deception). If your Lord had so willed, they would not have done it, so leave them alone with their fabrications." (Q6:112)

In his draft to the book "Muslim Minority Communities: Demographic and Socio-Economic Profiles, Professor of Sociology at Monash University, Dr Gary Bouma, provides data on Australian Muslims in the chapter entitled "Muslims in Australia: A socio-demographic profile."

* Total Population: 17.7 M (1996 Census)

* Religion: No official religion (predominantly Christian)

* National Language: English

* Muslim Population: 200,885 - 1.13% (1996)

* Languages spoken: < 10% speak only English at home

* Composition: 35.9% born in Australia

* Largest sources of Muslims: Lebanon (13.5%), Turkey (11.1%), Indonesia (3.6%)

* Male to female ratio: 1.10 (1996)

* Largest age group: 0-14 years (32.7%)

* Unemployed: 13% (5.5%)

* Income $200 a week or less: 50.7% (36.4%)

* Occupation (intermediate production and transport): 17.0% (8.7%)

* Occupation (labourers and related): 15.1% (8.7%)

* Occupation (managers and admin): 4.2% (9.3%)

* Education (skilled vocation): 5.5% (10.7%)

* Education (bachelor degree): 8.1% (7.7%)

* Education (higher degree): 3.2% (1.4%)

Australia’s refugee policy over the last decade has unfortunately turned from humanitarian to punitive. Recently, a Parliamentary Human Rights Subcommittee gave a damning report on Australia’s immigration detention camps. The report condemns these "prison-like" detention centres which are run by a private American prison company called the Australasian Correctional Management (ACM).

Dr William Maley, associate professor of politics at the Australian Defence Force Academy, in an article published by the Sydney Morning Herald states that "a kind of fundamentalism has crept into government thinking about boat people and asylum seekers." He says that "The vast majority of Afghans and Iraqis in detention have been found to be genuine refugees … yet they have been denigrated and scorned, depicted as potential criminals, bearers of disease, and ‘illegals’."

This negative depiction of refugees, whose ‘Muslimness’ is often emphasised, has influenced many in the Australian community to speak out against accepting refugees. One letter to the editor of the Sydney Morning Herald on Thursday June 21, 2001, reads: "To those who disagree with Phillip Ruddock’s position on illegal immigrants, I have a suggestion. Why don’t they offer practical assistance by volunteering to take into their homes an illegal immigrant, or a family where appropriate, as host to these people. … I will not be volunteering. I know Phillip Ruddock is doing what is best for our nation because if he is diverted from his mission, Australia could become another Middle East."

In the book "Multiculturalism and the Law" published by the Australian Institute of Criminology in 1995 is a chapter entitled "NESB woman as deviant: The legal system’s treatment of NESB women victims of male violence." This chapter outlined the problem of the legal system’s classification of women of non-English speaking background (NESB) as deviant. The authors state that the legal system’s "attempts to interpret multiculturalism, in effect only serve to reinforce and perpetuate racist and sexist stereotypes."

With regard to NESB women suffering domestic violence and resorting to legal intervention, the authors report that "it appeared that in some instances magistrates indulged in extensive efforts to evaluate the ethnicity of the woman in relation to the degree to which her culture may permit absorption into the mainstream dominant Anglo culture. The less able that culture was of being absorbed, the more likely that woman was diagnosed as deviant."

The myth of the legal system’s objectivity in disseminating justice is clearly exposed when its responses are scrutinised in relation to its treatment of NESB women victims of male violence. A few cases from the book will be presented to highlight this point.

One Turkish woman who applied for an intervention order was denied the order on the basis that she should be familiar with the "extreme patriarchal nature of her culture", and as such the violence that she was suffering was natural and "expected". This case highlights the racist stereotyping that "culture causes violence and not economic or political conditions."

In another case a magistrate tried to force a Muslim woman to swear on the Bible, insisting that it was the same as the Quran. The woman, through an interpreter, tried to explain the importance of giving a Quranic testimony. Finally, in frustration the magistrate told the woman that unless she was prepared to swear on the Bible, he would throw the case out of court.

In a third case a magistrate determined that the testimony of a Turkish woman was clearly untrue since she did not maintain eye contact with him. He dismissed as totally irrelevant her attempts to explain the cultural inappropriateness of looking him in the eye and as a result he did not grant the intervention order.

According to the ABS 1996 data, there were 10,498 Muslim university students representing 5.23% of all Australian Muslims. This compared to only 3.53% of the population as a whole who study in universities. The figures also show that while 3.78% of all Australian women attend university, 4.41% of Muslim women do. Dr Christine Asmar from the University of Sydney however cautions that these figures may include international students.

In her paper entitled: "‘We need to go beyond the course because for us it’s a way of life’: Findings from a national study of Muslim students," which was published last year, Dr Asmar reports the findings of the course experience of Muslim students attending Australian universities. The findings of the study highlighted the problem that stereotyping and even discrimination manifested itself in very subtle ways. Some students reported being regarded as alien, others were excluded from class activities, singled out or marginalised. One female student said: "I’m on my guard all the time here." Another student said: "It really hurts when (they say): ‘Are you wearing this (the hijab) because you’re married and your husband forces this on to you?’"

A year 11 non-Muslim religion student prepared an assignment for school entitled "How does the Sydney Morning Herald present Islam in Australia and how accurate is their representation?" Her report was published in FAMSY’s SALAM magazine in the Novdec 2000 issue. She states that: "Australia’s predominantly Christian community stereotypically perceives Islam as oppressive, fanatical and severe; a negative view, that is often manipulated through the perspectives of media coverage. The Sydney Morning Herald articles ‘Aussies Under Cover’, ‘High fives and hajibs as Australian Muslims flock to suburban Mecca’, ‘Month of Revelation ‘ and ‘Ramadan poses dilemma for Hungry Muslims’ present an unsavory image of Islam by conveying values that do not correspond with the essence of Islam."

She writes that "The Sydney Morning Herald ‘Aussies Under Cover’ (17/7/96), by Helen Pitt attempts to express an objective view of Islam, but it contains concealed criticisms. Language such as "Under Cover" and "veil" carry negative connotations of malice and deceit."

"The report featured in The Sydney Morning Herald `High five and hajibs as Australian Muslims flock to suburban Mecca’ (18/4/97) portrays Islam in a condescending and insolent manner. The almost scornful attitude of journalist John Huxley consequently results in his composition reading more like "an anecdote rather that an article" as it communicates a strongly patronising tone, hence reflecting Islam impertinently."

"‘Month of Revelation’ (11/4/90) by Sigrid Kirk and Danielle Cook, published in The Sydney Morning Herald endeavors to exhibit a neutral view of Islam, but it contains subtle criticisms and misleading information… The reference to "fundamentalist" in describing the convert to Islam has negative connotations, insinuating that "only a loony would convert" and that Muslims are stern extremists."

She concludes that "The Sydney Morning Herald articles clearly depict Islam unfavorably, … communicating epitomised Islamic values as conservative and dominant, reinforcing the stereotype that classifies Islam as rigid and oppressive. With a newspaper as widely accessible as The Sydney Morning Herald, an unjust portrayal of Islam will infiltrate into the Australian community and have a strong impact on the opinions of it’s audience. Although a celebration and embracing of Islam is not expected from non-Muslims, the ideal of an informed and accurate understanding of the religion cannot be derived from the distorted material exhibited. The inaccurate illustrations damage not only the Muslim identity in Australia, but also impose unnecessary tension on relationships amongst culturally and religiously diverse Australians."

On the back cover of the book it reads: "Australia prides itself on the diversity of its population, yet the myth of multicultural harmony quickly collapses under pressure. Crime and violence are a common source of moral panic which shatters this myth. In Sydney - one of the world’s most multicultural cities - the media’s coverage of "ethnic crime" brings this into sharp focus. Kebabs, Kids, Cops and Crime looks at the aftermath of two events which occurred in Sydney’s south-western suburbs (the Muslim heartland) in 1998 - the murder of a 14-year-old schoolboy, Edward Lee, in Punchbowl and two weeks later, the drive-by shoot-up of the Lakemba police station. The NSW Premier and the NSW Police Commissioner blamed "Lebanese gangs" for both crimes and media coverage emphasised the "Middle Eastern appearance" of the alleged perpetrators. A high-profile "zero tolerance" crackdown by police in the Bankstown area was then directed against young people of Arabic-speaking background in public places."

The photo on the cover of the book is a reproduction of the Daily Telegraph’s front-page photo by a News Limited photographer. The Daily Telegraph, a Sydney tabloid newspaper labelled the photo, ‘DIAL-A-GUN: Gang says it’s easier than buying a pizza.’ The story was part of the newspaper’s probe into ethnic youth crime in south-western Sydney. The boys in the photo dubbed the ‘Punchbowl Homeboys’ were in fact a group of Lebanese-background Year 11 and 12 students on their way home from school who were posed by the Telegraph’s journalist to look the part - they were asked to make hand signals and look mean. The fiction of this photo and the extremist headlines that accompanied it highlight the role of some of the media in manufacturing and constructing negative images. These same boys are now men studying at university or working in small business.

Not only was the whole of Sydney’s Lebanese community (of which about 50% are Muslim) smeared by the media for the crimes, they - especially ethnic community leaders - were also charged with the responsibility for their solution, and condemned for the maintenance of a purported ‘wall of silence’ protecting the perpetrators. The Daily Telegraph editorialised, ‘Ethnic leaders have a responsibility to co-operate with Mr Carr and Mr Ryan to provide information that will lead to the arrest of these criminals, not make claims of racial slurs.’ (3/11/98) Its cartoonist drew a community leader in Muslim garb, with head buried in the sand as bullets whistled by.

In 1991, in the wake of the Gulf War, the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Council (HREOC) National Inquiry into Racist Violence in Australia, found that while the Australian Arab and Muslim communities are very heterogeneous, the media represented all Arabs as Muslims and all Muslims as Arabs. It also found that ‘media portrayals were seen as demonstrating fundamental ignorance of Islam and as perpetuating negative and destructive stereotypes’.

In 1995, the NSW Parliament Legislative Council Standing Committee on Social Issues concluded that media attention to ‘street gangs’ was merely conferring status to working-class, masculine, anti-police culture. ‘The Committee believes that media beat-ups about gangs contribute to this problem, and media organisations should be informed that stories on gangs are creating the problem they purport to reveal. Politicians should be equally mindful of their responsibilities.’

Refugees: When refugees are labeled as troublemakers and criminals their settlement in Australia is affected through racism, injustice and diminished employment prospects.

In the Courts: Although the examples given previously are not indicative of the responses or attitudes of all magistrates, they convey messages to Muslim woman suffering male violence that effectively deter them from pursuing legal intervention. One common response is "What is the point?"

On University Campuses: A phenomenon called ‘stereotype-threat’ has been described where minorities feel a sense of threat when in a situation where a negative stereotype applies to their group. The sense of threat in turn leads them to under-achieve. Dr Asmar’s findings demonstrated that "negative responses by their teachers and by their non-Muslim peers towards identifiable Muslims do appear to affect some of those students quite painfully."

As a result of the media’s negative stereotyping of Muslims in November 1998, a high-profile "zero tolerance" crackdown by police was directed against young people in Muslim areas. Access to open space and the right to free assembly were severely restricted. It was as if the Bankstown-Canterbury area was under martial law.

The HREOC in 1991 said that media coverage ‘was having the effect of raising tensions in the community and may have been contributing to an increase in acts of racial hostility and violence against Arabs and Muslims’. (1991)

Brother Bilal Cleland from Melbourne, in his article "Spreading the message of Islam in Anglo-Australia," published in FAMSY’s SALAM magazine this year, writes: "The image of Islam which is being conveyed is having an effect upon the young Muslims being brought up in this country. Some of them get the impression that the image conveyed is valid and that they must therefore throw in their lot with civilisation against the barbarism of the world of Islam. While very few renounce Islam, many cease observing it and become acculturated into the mainstream society. Others believe the picture they are shown reflects Islam and think that violence, intolerance, xenophobia and extreme Hollywood style macho behaviour are what is expected of them…. The attack is so sustained that many of us wonder whether the media is correct and that we are incorrect in our understanding of Islam.

What I have presented is a small sample of the stereotyping of Muslims in Australian. The full extent of the problem is unknown and will probably never be known. Certainly the main culprit in perpetuating and constructing negative and destructive images of Islam and Muslims in Australia is the Media. It is beyond the brief of this presentation to outline the strategies necessary to counter this problem.

However, it is not all doom and gloom, there are occasions when Muslims are presented with positive images. In Dr Asmar’s survey, one Muslim student in Melbourne reported about a Management course in which her lecturers had been encouraging discussion of topics such as Islamic law, she said: ‘Actually with a lot of my non-Muslim friends, many have said to me, "We’ve learned so much more about Islam than anything else in this course".’ Dr Asmar also highlights the point that universities are making increasing efforts to cater for the needs of all students to accommodate difference.

"Verily! Those who committed crimes used to laugh at those who believed. And whenever they passed by them, used to wink one to another (in mockery). And when they returned to their own people, they would return jesting. And when they saw them, they said: ‘Verily! These have indeed gone astray!’ But they (the disbelievers) had not been sent as watchers over them (the believers). But this Day (the Day of Resurrection) those who believe will laugh at the disbelievers. On thrones, observing. Are not the disbelievers paid for what they used to do?" (Q83:29-36)

1. Bouma, Gary et al. Muslims in Australia: A socio-demographic profile (draft). In: Muslim Minority Communities: Demographic and Socio-Economic Profiles. Institute of Minority Muslim Affairs, 11/4/2000.

2. Assafiri, Hanna and Dimopoulos, Maria. NESB woman as deviant: The legal system’s treatment of NESB women victims of male violence. In: Multiculturalism and the Law. Australian Institute of Criminology 1995.

3. Asmar, Christine. ‘We need to go beyond the course because for us it’s a way of life’: Findings from a national study of Muslim students. In: Flexible Leaning for a Flexible Society, Proceedings of ASET-HERDSA 2000 Conference, Toowoomba, Qld, 2-5 July 2000.

4. Swan, Jodie. How does The Sydney Morning Herald present Islam in Australia and how accurate is their representation? SALAM November-December 2000, 23-24.

5. Collins, Jock et al. Kebabs, Kids, Cops and Crime. Pluto Press, Annandale NSW 2000.

6. Cleland, Bilal. Spreading the message of Islam in Anglo-Australia. SALAM March-April 2001, 6-8.