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Article Excerpt
Recently politicians in Australia have raised concerns that some Muslims are not adopting Australian values to a sufficient extent. In this paper I explore the notion of Australian values with respect to immigrant youth. By analysing interviews with 32 Muslim students who are 15-18 years of age and of diverse backgrounds in two state schools in Sydney, I focus on the extent to which these young people seem to be adopting Australian values. I discuss the factors that hinder the adoption of Australian values, and whether such hindrance can lead to a possible jihadi threat. This paper relies on oral testimonies and secondary sources, including international literature.
Keywords
youth
tolerance
Australian values
English skills
'fair go'
multiculturalism
Introduction
What are Australian values? Are Australian Muslims adopting Australian values? More precisely, are Muslim youths adopting Australian values? These questions have gained urgency in the wake of recent global events, particularly after the 7 July 2005 London bombings committed by four British young adults in the name of jihadi Islam. In a previous study (Kabir, 2007) of 60 Australian Muslim students of diverse backgrounds in Sydney and Perth, I found that most of the participants defined 'Australianness' or being 'an Australian' as being born in Australia, speaking English, dressing in 'Western' style, enjoying freedom of speech and tolerance, a 'fair go', helping people, being multicultural and loyal to Australia. Some students declared Australian values to be the same as Islamic values (Kabir, 2007), which endorse love, compassion, mutual support, self-sacrifice, tolerance and forgiveness (Yahya, 2002). One Muslim student of Bangladeshi background in Perth further noted that Australian values are also universal values:
Australia is actually a home to people from various backgrounds and various countries, and when these people moved from their land, they are not only bringing themselves, but they bring with them their values from their own country; and Australian values are really just a collection of these values. For example, the value of giving everyone a fair go, is very much Australian but it is something that is universally acceptable. We have to remember that someone who is un-Australian, is also someone who is un-Bangladeshi, or un-Indian or even un-Afghan, because each of these countries they represent have the same sort of acceptance of the same sort of universal values that define society. (Interviewed by the author, 6 May 2006)
But, in September 2006, the then Australian Prime Minister, John Howard, remained sceptical when he stated on talkback radio that 'a small section of the Islamic population is very resistant to integration', claiming that they failed to learn English quickly enough and did not accept Australian values such as gender equality. Howard's claim was made in conjunction with his proposal for a four-year waiting period for migrants to become citizens, together with a new citizenship test requiring knowledge of Australian values and history as well as of the English language (Kabir, 2007).
On 1 October 2007, the Howard Liberal government introduced the citizenship test. Critics said that people from non-English-speaking backgrounds would be particularly disadvantaged by this system. Subsequent events indicated that some people were disadvantaged. On 2 January 2008, the West Australian reported that, out of 10 636 people taking citizenship tests carried out since their introduction in October 2007, 2311, or more than 20 per cent, failed (Butterly, 2008).
On the other hand, the jihadi Islamic teachings of some Australian imams have been counter-productive to the harmony between Muslims and non-Muslims. For example, the Algerian-born self-styled cleric, Abu Nacer Benbrika, and his 12 associates in Melbourne are facing trial for allegedly plotting the murder of the former Australian Prime Minister, John Howard, for his involvement in the Iraq war (Hughes, 2008). In January 2007, the Australian-born imam of Lebanese background, Sheik Feiz Mohammad, was alleged to have urged children to kill the enemies of Islam, and he praised martyrs with a violent interpretation of jihad (Kearney, 2007). In an interview with the Australian, Sheik Feiz said that his remarks were taken out of context (Kearney, 2007). Sheik Feiz said:
The jihad I speak is not one of violence. It is one of personal struggle against any things like mischievousness, temptation and personal harm ... I don't believe in suicide bombing. I don't believe in violence against others ... We denounce that. This is not Islamic law and it is not moral. (Kearney, 2007)
Yet in his online speech, 'Sheik Feiz Muhammad: The Enemies' Plot' (Halal Tube, undated) Sheik Feiz uttered such phrases as, 'naive Muslims', 'Zionist conspiracy', 'so-called British liars and the United snakes of pigs', 'so-called Coalition of kuffars [non-believers]' and 'the Zionists, those pigs, the Zionist American domination in every corner of this Earth'. In this speech, Sheik Feiz was critical of the Western involvement in the Iraq war, but his choice of words was obviously directed against the Australian or universal values of 'tolerance'. At a time when some Muslims are trying to establish social cohesion with their Western counterparts, such 'us' and 'them' rhetoric is not helpful.
In this paper, I first discuss some of the literature on the complex notion of jihad, and how Islam is perceived in the West. I then discuss the research methodology before examining the national identities of the participants in the study. Finally, I discuss how the interviewees have incorporated Australian values in their school lives.
Literature review
Nasr (2003, p. 96) argues, 'In the West, Islam is often associated with holy war, despite the fact that the Crusades were ordered from the Cluny monks and the pope, not a Muslim ruler or religious authority'. Peters (2003, p. 206) agrees that the Islamic jihad is not far from the 'Christians' miles Christi or Moral Rearmament', but the other component of Islamic jihad is that of the sword, the use of force against 'those...
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