The general response to the threat of terrorism has been to institute Countering Violent Extremism (CVE) policies and legislation that facilitates powerful regimes of surveillance. Whilst such legislation may be neutral in its construction, it implicitly and disproportionately targets and impacts upon Muslim communities. Concomitant with this turn towards hyper-securitisation has been a retreat from multiculturalism, where in Australia the Muslim immigrant ‘other’ has again been the main catalyst. Some Muslims have begun to self-censor for fear of unwanted attention from the authorities and have formed their own ethno-religious groups online, as ‘safe spaces’ to avoid ‘microaggressions’ from a hostile public that questions their national identity. This fight against violent extremism has often been invoked as a platform to curtail and silence political opponents. Cutting across this climate of securitisation, suspicion, and rejection there has been an increase in ‘umma consciousness’ amongst young Muslim thinkers. This has been greatly facilitated by globalisation and the rapid development of technology, particularly of the internet which has allowed for the formation of a ‘virtual umma’ that functions as a post-national community wherein members who have never met each other can engage in collective identity construction and create a sense of belonging that subverts their lived reality. Based on the data collected from an Australian Discovery Grant (DP220101722) this lecture details the off and online lived experience of four ethnic groups in Australia under these conditions. These are the Lebanese in Sydney, the Turks in Melbourne, the Indonesians in Perth and the Rohingyas in Brisbane. The results will not only provide comparison and contrast between these groups but will also reveal some specificities across four main cities in Australia.

Speaker:

Adam Possamai FASSA is Professor of Sociology and Interim Dean of the School of Social Sciences. He is also a member of the Australian Research Council’s College of Experts (2022- 2025) and represents Australasia on the Council of the International Society for the Sociology of Religion. He is a former President of the International Sociological Association’s Committee 22 on the Sociology of Religion, and of the Australian Association for the Study of Religions. He was a visiting Professor at the Graduate Centre of the City University of New York, the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris, and the Summer Institute of Hokkaido University, Japan (in remote).