Do young Australian Muslims have to choose between being Muslim or being Australian?
Some feel they do.
The number of second-generation Muslims in Australia is increasing and social scientists say the ways they are forming their identity are quite different to their parents’ pathways.
Who am I and where do I fit in my world?
How am I seen by others and how do I see myself?
Social scientists say that youth is a time of identity formation, when many people seek to discover who they are.
Aftab Malik, a Visiting Fellow at the the Centre for Ethnicity and Culture at the University of Birmingham, says Muslim young people too have to negotiate this challenge.
“Are they Muslims, are they Australian, are they Australian Muslims, Muslim Australians? So there is a huge identity crisis that is confronting young Muslims that is not particular to Muslims, it is quite a phenomena that occurs of coming of age I would argue.”
Dr Seyed Sherriffdeen is from the Ilim College of Australia, an Islamic school in Victoria.
He says while young Muslim Australians often feel they have to choose between their religious and national identity, in reality they can identify with both.
“I believe anybody may have multiple identities. Interestingly one of the Australian children I asked them, like media ask, are you Muslim or Australian? Do we ask the same question are you Australian or Christian? And we don’t. This child clearly told me, religiously I’m Muslim, nationally I’m Australia, so I’m Australian and Muslim.”
Senior Research Fellow at the International Centre for Muslim and non-Muslim Understanding, Dr Nahid Kabir, says an elevated community awareness of Islam is making it easier for Australian Muslims to identify with their religion.
“Australia is a very diverse society. It is embracing of other cultures and as we can see there are so many mosques so people can practise their religion. So there is official recognition of this religion, there are several mosques, Islamic schools, colleges and even in the state schools people know about Muslims.”
Researcher at the Centre for Islamic Studies and Civilisation Dr Derya Iner describes second generation Australian Muslims as home-grown Muslims.
She says religious identity is merging with national identity in new ways for many young Australian Muslims.
“They were born here and they’ve grown up here so they’re part of this country and I know Muslims, young Muslims, who never went abroad, they don’t know their fatherland either. In this case the only home that they see is here. So you know it’s an inevitable outcome of the fact that they were born here and now they’re growing up here. They’re part of, they’re a product of Australia.”
But Dr Nahid Kabir says being identifiably Muslim can still be seen as undesirable, often in workplaces and especially for women.
“Women who wear the hijab, the headscarf, they say that they are the ones who are facing resistance at workplaces.”
Other scholars say there is still a broad lack of understanding of Islam.
Dr Sherriffdeen blames negative portrayals of Islam in the media.
“Society is ignorant about Islam, they do not understand Islam and say always a Muslim so they think about a bomb or an attack or September 11. This is the image coming because of, obviously, the media negatively portray Islam this way. So the youngsters want the world around them, wider society around them, to understand what Islam is.”
In her research, the Director of the Multicultural and Migration Research Centre, Associate Professor Christine Inglis compared young second-generation Muslims in Australia and Europe.
She found their identity formation is fluid, which means a choice doesn’t have to be made between being Muslim or Australian.
Professor Inglis says her research showed it is often not as easy to pursue multiple identities in Europe.
She says Australia is a more accepting place that allows individuals to pursue multiple identities.
“You can be Australian and Turkish and Muslim and Lebanese. Whereas in The Netherlands or in Germany there’s not that space for that diversity of relationship between religion or ethnicity and the nation state. You know they’ve had a much more often assimilationist or exclusionist way of viewing what the nation is.”