In the years since 9/11 and the 7/7 London bombings, there has been growing anti- Muslim sentiment and mounting ‘Islamaphobia’ in numerous Western countries. The United States, Canada, England, Germany, France and Holland have all experienced racial riots in which Muslim individuals have been the target of often violent attacks. Racism and racist discourse is always centered on the idea of ‘other’, ‘them’ versus ‘us’, fear of the unknown which frequently evolves into hate of the alien ‘other’. As a result of the post 9/11 global atmosphere and paranoia of further terrorist attacks, Muslims have now been framed as the ‘dangerous other’. Muslims of diverse ethnic backgrounds, particularly Middle Eastern men are labelled as a threat to western cultural values.
In Australia racial tensions between the white Anglo-Australians and any other non-white community have always been tense and as in Europe and North America anti-Islamic sentiments have been growing. Alarmingly, these anti-Islamic and frequently racist attitudes were mixed with patriotism and nationalism framing the ‘dangerous Muslim other’ as a threat to civil liberties and national security, in a manner disturbingly reminiscent of the propaganda of Nazi Germany. However, a newer dimension has been added to this discourse of nationalism; the protection of women’s rights. Anglo-Australian women are being used as a marker of nationalism and the treatment of women is a major theme, with Islamic culture is labelled as sexist and misogynistic, thus a threat to Australian culture. These tensions came to a head in the December of 2005 centered around a small beach in a suburb of Sydney.
The Cronulla Beach riots emerged as a result of the supposed sexist, aggressive and misogynistic behaviour of Muslim men, particularly Lebanese men, towards white Australian women at the small Sydney beach. Anglo-Australians claimed that they were ‘taking back’ their beach and in doing so protecting ‘their’ women. Thousands of Anglo-Australians gathered on the beach in a protest against Islam, using ‘their’ women as a marker of egalitarian Australian culture. People’s tensions and fears found an outlet; mob mentality, fuelled by alcohol and a twisted sense of nationalism meant that the crowds soon turned violent targeting Arabic men who were subjected to racially motivated and vicious attacks.
The riots were quite widely covered by the Australian media, although it seems with a biased slant downplaying the racist undertones and exaggerating the protection of Anglo-Australian women. There are many newspaper articles which deal with the riots and give insight into the popular discourse surrounding race and Anglo-Australian attitudes towards Muslim-Australians. There are also numerous youtube videos which covered the riots, both media news reports, as well as home videos. Additionally, a very useful article was written on the subject; “Muslim women's new defenders: Women's rights, nationalism and Islamophobia in contemporary Australia” examines the gendered Nationalism that arose in Australia centered around the incidents in Cronulla beach in which the protection of women’s rights was used to portray Islam as a threat to Australian national security.
Shannon Turner-Riley
ANTH 335: Ethnicity in a Global Perspective
Instructor: Hulya Demirdirek
Thursday 7th October, 2010
Thursday 7th October, 2010
Australian News Commentary
2005 Cronulla Riots: Left-wing, Politically Correct Journalists Slag off Aussie Patriotism. http://www.australian-news.com.au/Cronulla_riots.htm, accessed October 6, 2010.
Ho, Christina.
2007 Muslim women's new defenders: Women's rights, nationalism and
Islamophobia in contemporary Australia. Women's Studies International Forum 30 (2007) 290–298
Liveleak
The Cronulla Riots. http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=27f_1214788032, accessed October 6, 2010.
Sydney Conservative
2008 The Cronulla Riots. http://conservativeweasel.blogspot.com/2008/03/picking-cotton-4-cronulla-riots.html, accessed October 6, 2010.
Wikipedia
The Cronulla Riots. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cronulla_riots#References, accessed October 6, 2010.
Youtube
2005 Sydney Riots-Austraila: Journeyman Pictures. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRtp6xSJ-rI&feature=related, accessed October 6, 2010.
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