Resisting the stereotype of 'Muslim-Australian'

It is within both real and virtual landscapes that individuals from migrant communities negotiate their own identities and individuals from the mainstream of society are also forced to re-examine what it truly means to belong to this or that country.

It seems more useful to view the kinds of interpersonal relationships and affiliations which are emerging in these new transnational spaces as networks rather than communities. They are not dense, interconnected, strong ties between bounded groups of individuals. Rather, they consist of looser, personal and individual networks.

Such are the hallmarks of modern relationships and also of modern networked technologies, which allow for the production, transmission and consumption of information in peer based networks that subvert the dominance of larger, more traditional organisations. A network of overlapping ties now fulfils some of the same functions that have traditionally been associated with communities in the real world.

Such networks seem peculiarly suited to flourish in the global expansion of diasporic communities, where individuals are tied by kinship, language, religion and interest to widely separated geographical communities and nations.

The social ties which exist when relationships are maintained among a dispersed group of friends, acquaintances and strangers are supported by the rise of electronic means of communication. Cheap options such as email, online chat and plummeting international telephone call costs increase the frequency of keeping in touch with distant kin and friends.

Media use and appropriation of technologies may then be seen as part of the practice of both individuals and groups in negotiating roles, memberships and affiliations within and between complex multicultural societies.

The developing strands of transnational media create globally linked networks united by access to shared language and content across a variety of media sources. This is not a new phenomenon, but it is enormously enlarged and expanded since the advent of satellite television and radio and the ubiquity of the Internet and World Wide Web, which have rendered international communications cheap, convenient and virtually instantaneous.

A striking example of this is in the connectedness of Turkish youth living in Australia, but connected with peers in Australia, Turkey and Germany, through SMS, email, online chat and webcams. Young Australians of Turkish background have reported that the Internet is their first resource both for gathering news and current affairs information and for communicating with friends and family.

Online chatting through sites such as MSN and text messaging are their preferred means of keeping in touch with peers both locally and internationally. In many cases the communication is with cousins, through online chatting, mobile phones and texting, illustrating that generational change in media use is a global phenomenon. Young people also function as intermediaries for their parents, showing them how to chat online, checking the email for their parents and setting up webcams and the like.

Using the Internet as a global source of news and current affairs information also circumvents some of the bias apparent in western mainstream media against Islam and Muslims. There is increasingly the sense that Muslims are somehow un-Australian and that Islam itself is seen as a threat to the Australian way of life. This is reflected in the choice of language used to represent Islam, as well as the preponderance of stories relating to negative portrayals of Muslims.

These portrayals conflate “Muslim” identity with terrorism, violence, extremism, political instability, denigration of women and general backwardness. It is also clear that media representations have contributed to the construction of a spurious link between a homogenised Islamic community and a cultural tendency to violence and crime.

Using Islam as a category to describe a singular social group within multicultural society is therefore problematic. Much of the recent public commentary on the nature of Muslims in Australia is debunked by comments made by young Turkish-Australians. They actively resist being categorised as Muslim-Australians, even while acknowledging their own Muslim beliefs.