‘Islamophobia Kills’. But Where Does it Come From?

This paper examines the global provenance of Australian Islamophobia in the light of the Christchurch massacre perpetrated by a white-supremacist Australian. Anti-Muslim racism in Australia came with British imperialism in the nineteenth century. Contemporary Islamophobia in Australia operates as part of a successor empire, the United States-led ‘Empire of Capital’. Anti-Muslim stories, rumours, campaigns and prejudices are launched from Australia into global circulation. For example, the spate of group sexual assaults in Sydney over 2000–2001 were internationally reported as ‘ethnic gang rapes’. The handful of Australian recruits to, and supporters of, IS, is recounted in the dominant narrative as part of a story propagated in both the United Kingdom and Australia about Islamist terrorism, along with policy responses ostensibly aimed at countering violent extremism and targeting Muslims for surveillance and intervening to effect approved forms of ‘integration’. &nbsp

Anti-cosmopolitanism and ethnic cleansing at Cronulla

Anti-cosmopolitanism was at the centre of Sydney’s Cronulla beach riots in December 2005, and in this chapter we argue that a logic of ‘ethnic cleansing’ is at work in these processes. Contemporary cosmopolitanism involves a sense of commonality with other peoples, despite their diversity – a sense heightened by globalising processes that make more immediate, extensive and inevitable the contact with strangers, and also create more shared and more universal human problems. Cosmopolitanism also involves an ethics of hospitality, or at least of accepting the stranger without hostility. We may define anti-cosmopolitanism as a reaction to these principles and practices. Anti-cosmopolitanism seeks to close off the openness to the other and to difference; it emphasises incompatibility, rejects a moral community with the other, and adopts hostility towards the other

Special Edition: Corruption Downunder - Guest Editors’ Introduction

This special issue gathers and enlarges upon papers that were first presented at the interdisciplinary ‘Corruption Downunder’ symposium held at the University of Auckland in November 2015; most of the papers published here stem from the lively and collegial discussions at the symposium. At that time New Zealand was authoritatively measured (by Transparency International) to be Number 2 ‘least corrupt’ nation in the world; it is now tied at Number 1 with Denmark. What this rank, as measured by Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), actually counts for is something that we explore in this special issue. On the face of it, it would seem perverse to be focusing on corruption in such a place as New Zealand. With its larger northern neighbour Australia listed at a respectable 11th out of 175 that same year (2014 data), why would a bunch of academics want to engage in serious discussions about the problem of corruption ‘downunder’? New Zealand has never been ranked outside of the top four, and has been ranked Number 1 in a total of 12 out of 22 years since the survey began. Australia is generally ranked in the top ten and has never been out of the top 13 least corrupt countries since the survey began.&#x0D; To access the full text of the introducton to this special issue on corruption downunder, download the accompanying PDF file.</jats:p

Jennifer Schweppe and Mark Austin Walters (eds) (2016) The Globalization of Hate: Internationalizing Hate Crime. Oxford University Press.

Book revie

Islamophobia and Crime – Anti-Muslim Demonising and Racialised Targeting: Guest Editor’s Introduction

This special issue deals with anti-Muslim racism, crime, criminalisation and attacks – both ideological and material – on Muslims and their communities in countries like Britain, Canada and Australia. A new spectre is haunting these places: an imagined ‘other’ is seen to be subversively spreading Muslim ‘extremism’ and exhorting anti-Western violence from within these societies, supporting global terrorism abroad and at home, and espousing hyperpatriarchal, homophobic and sexually exploitative culture. The ‘Muslim other’ has become the folk demon of our time in a racialising ideology that circulates internationally and has strikingly similar effects in quite different local contextsTo find out more about this special edition, download the PDF file from this page.

Speech for Justice for Palestinians: A Human Rights Conundrum

Freedom of speech as an important human right is diminished when speaking out for Palestinian rights. The paper examines this assertion through three case examples from Australia. These are academic freedom, media freedom and freedom of political representation and expression. To provide context to the free speech debates, an overview is presented of the confl ict as well as an outline of the Boycott, Divestments and Sanctions campaign.Wolność słowa jako ważne prawo człowieka zostaje ograniczona, gdy przemawia się za prawami Palestyńczyków. W artykule przeanalizowano powyższe twierdzenie na podstawie trzech przykładów przypadków z Australii. Są to: wolność akademicka, wolność mediów oraz wolność reprezentacji politycznej i wypowiedzi. W celu zapewnienia kontekstu debatom na temat wolności słowa przedstawiono przegląd konfl iktu, a także zarys bojkotu oraz kampanii sankcji

From theorising radicalisation to surveillance practices:Muslims in the cross hairs of scrutiny

This research was funded by the Leverhulme Trust and the Scottish Institute of Policing Research.There are several psychological analyses of the processes of radicalisation resulting in terrorism. However, we know little about how those in authority (e.g., the police) conceptualise the psychological dynamics to radicalisation. Accordingly, we present a detailed account of an official UK counter-terrorism intervention, the Workshop to Raise Awareness of Prevent, designed to enlist front-line professionals in identifying and referring those at risk of radicalisation. Specifically, we report data gathered during an observation of this intervention delivered by the police in Scotland. This provides insight into the psychological model of radicalisation being disseminated in the UK and we evaluate the merits of this model in the light of current psychological theory. First, we consider how this model may overlook certain social dynamics relevant to understanding radicalisation. Second, we discuss how this neglect limits consideration of how the surveillance warranted by the official model may lead Muslims to disengage from majority group members. Our analysis points to how political psychology’s analysis of social identities and citizenship can inform public policy and practice.PostprintPeer reviewe

Discourse and religion in educational practice

Despite the existence of long-held binaries between secular and sacred, private and public spaces, school and religious literacies in many contemporary societies, the significance of religion and its relationship to education and society more broadly has become increasingly topical. Yet, it is only recently that the investigation of the nexus of discourse and religion in educational practice has started to receive some scholarly attention. In this chapter, religion is understood as a cultural practice, historically situated and embedded in specific local and global contexts. This view of religion stresses the social alongside the subjective or experiential dimensions. It explores how through active participation and apprenticeship in culturally appropriate practices and behaviors often mediated intergenerationally and the mobilisation of linguistic and other semiotic resources but also affective, social and material resources, membership in religious communities is constructed and affirmed. The chapter reviews research strands that have explored different aspects of discourse and religion in educational practice as a growing interdisciplinary field. Research strands have examined the place and purpose of religion in general and evangelical Christianity in particular in English Language Teaching (ELT) programmes and the interplay of religion and teaching and learning in a wide range of religious and increasingly secular educational contexts. They provide useful insights for scholars of discourse studies to issues of identity, socialisation, pedagogy and language policy