Five Questions on Islamophobia in Australia

In Episode 7 of “Unpacking Islamophobia,” our guest is Professor Susan Carland, an Australian Muslim academic and television presenter who specializes on a wide array of topics, including issues related to women in Islam. Since Islamophobia manifests in different parts of the world in different ways, Professor Carland provides insight into how Islamophobia has shown up in Australia for the last several decades.
Professor Carland provides historical context on modern Australian Islamophobia by noting when the September 11, 2001 attacks occurred, the Australian national political debate was focused on Afghan asylum seekers. “In the Australian imagination, asylum seekers and Muslims and ‘terrorists’ were always conflated,” she notes.
Dr. Carland offers further historical context by explaining that when Australia “federated” as a nation in 1901, it instituted the “white Australia” policy, which included legislating “dictation tests” for those wanting to immigrate to the country meaning they had to prove they could speak English properly. Many decades later, this led to the “One Australia” policy which became the immigration and ethnic affairs policy of the Liberal-National Opposition, released in 1988. The One Australia policy proclaimed a vision of "one nation and one future" and called for an end to multiculturalism and opposed a treaty with native Aboriginal Australians.