Islamophobia in Australia: the response of the academy

This latter view has, increasingly, commended itself also to organisations working in, and speaking for, sections of the Muslim community in Australia. A statement, denouncing the Coalition government's proposed 'anti-terror laws', was supported by 82 signatories, including representative bodies and leading Muslim speakers. In devising and promulgating such laws, the statement said: "An alleged threat is blown out of all proportion as the pretext, further 'tightening' of the laws is claimed necessary and rushed through, without proper national debate or community consultation".

A "dripfeed" of government announcements to receptive media, raising fears of the "threat" posed to Australia by home-grown "jihadis" visiting Iraq or Syria to fight for Islamic State, then returning home intent on mayhem, was at that stage – August 2014 – effectively changing the focus of political debate, away from an unpopular budget and the regressive measures it contained. In Edelman's terms, a "political spectacle" was unfolding through a "mediated psychological drama"- one that "personif[ied] an issue by identifying it with an enemy… (thus) masking the material advantages the perception provides" to the authors of the drama.

The Muslim community statement closes with a call for "the wider community to take stock and properly debate these matters, instead of continually being misled by the politicians and their fearmongering". This workshop will therefore bring together both scholarly researchers, and prominent professionals from outside academia, including some of the signatories to the statement, to discuss how to foster such a debate.

London's Runnymede Trust published, in 1997, a report on relations with UK Muslims, which identified the ideology of Islamophobia as displaying eight typical framing characteristics:

• The perception of Islam as a monolithic, static bloc;
• As separate and 'other';
• As inferior to 'the West';
• As violent and engaged in a 'clash of civilisations' with the West;
• As primarily a political ideology rather than a religious faith.
• The routine dismissal of criticisms of 'the West' by Muslims;
• The justification of discriminatory treatment of Muslims;
• The normalisation of anti-Muslim hostility.

Contributors to this workshop will discuss how to operationalise these points, to derive evaluative criteria for content analysis of social artefacts such as political speeches and media reporting, in today's Australian context. What and where are the triggers for audiences to process content categorised under these headings, and what historically constructed meaning structures are thus invoked?

A second theme will be the implications of Islamophobia for social relations in Australia as a multicultural society. The workshop will look specifically at the "resurgence" of Islamophobia amid evidence that the salience of multiculturalism, as a principle in public discourse and for governmental action, has recently declined. In 2008, the incoming Rudd government established the Australian Multicultural Advisory Council, to provide advice on "practical approaches" to promoting social cohesion through positive engagement with diversity.

AMAC's first report noted the continuing importance of multiculturalism, recommending steps to tackle discrimination, prejudice and racism, and provide opportunities to all Australians for participation in community life. However, by the time the Gillard ministry took office in 2010, both government and opposition had dropped multiculturalism from relevant ministerial responsibilities.

Participation in community life must include the opportunity for diverse views to be heard, and projected into the public sphere, on matters of concern including key issues of foreign policy. This is one point of crossover between concerns over Islamophobia in the domestic political arena, and biases in Australia's orientation vis-à-vis conflict issues further afield. The Muslim community statement, referenced above, notes: "It is instructive that similar issues about Australian troops travelling abroad to fight or Jews travelling to train or fight with the Israeli Defence Force are simply never raised".

The workshop will, therefore, consider three overlapping areas of enquiry – the nature and modalities of Islamophobia, in Australian political and media discourse; its consequences for community cohesion, and its implications for Australia's responses to international conflicts.

To bring us back up to date: it was the workshop-that-never-was, but – if it had taken place – it would have been intended to lead on to a range of outcomes, both scholarly and public, in its own right; and to establish a network of academic and non-academic experts, capable of working towards being able to provide authoritative answers to the questions now on everyone's lips. It's never too late to start; so perhaps its time has come. Just don't hold your breath for any funding from Australia's tame official research establishment.