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How Australian Muslims are fitting into a newly emerging Australian identity

By Abe Ata - posted Thursday, 2 January 2014


They cover a range of themes including cultural pluralism, the media, religious education, civic engagement, spiritualism and interfaith dialogue, the role of women, asylum seekers, sexual abuse, mental health, mixed marriages, identity, social services and institutions, conversion to and from Islam; tolerance and factionalism, apologists and the faithful, schools and universities, challenges and future directions.

This publication is different from others in two major areas. Firstly, Muslims are not defined solely by province of their faith, but as an emerging group with dual identities – one of which is soul searching, self-critical, reflective and is defined by Islam, and the other the perception of exclusion.

The second posits that if Australians were more knowledgeable about Muslims they would express more favorable opinions of Muslims and Islam. It is thus argued that the scale of our knowledge, fashionable or well worn, is related to our attitudes - negative or positive - towards Muslims.

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The analysis and understanding of what it means to be a Muslim in Australia presented a difficult and sensitive task.

While the broad and diverse topics and perspectives covered in this project are unique, topical, intimate and have not been broached before in published form, the conclusions made in this book should be viewed as a good starting point for further research.

Undertaking to cover all aspects of an important subject such as this was a formidable task. The diversity of issues in this book makes it difficult to go into great depth. For example, the complexity of covering all ethnic Muslim communities and associated variables, dynamics and reactions by various non-Muslims, including secular communities, in one project make it impossible to do the subject complete justice. (It would have been gratifying, for example to have incorporated several other areas such as women prisoners, secular Muslims, generational difference, Jewish-Muslim dialogue, Middle Eastern Christian – Muslim encounters; the persecuted, and marginalized.)

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This is a review of Education Integration Challenges – The Case of Australian Muslims (David Lovell Publishing, Jan. 2014)

At present there is no distributor in the USA or UK for "Education Integration Challenges – The Case of Australian Muslims" (David Lovell Publishing, Jan. 2014), nor is there an e version as of yet. Any inquiries can be made to publisher@davidlovellpublishing.com or david@davidlovellpublishing.com.au.

Inquiries about "Us and Them: Muslim-Christian relations and cultural harmony in Australia' can be made to aap@australianacademicpress.com.au



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About the Author

Abe W Ata was a temporary delegate to the UN in 1970 and has lived and worked in the Middle East, America and Australia. Dr Ata is a Senior Fellow Institute for the Advancement of Research, and lectures in Psychology at the Australian Catholic University (Melbourne). Dr Ata is a 9th generation Christian Palestinian academic born in Bethlehem.

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