Australian Muslims’ Visibility: The Politics of Oppression and Recognition

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

 The argument concerns 'Muslims' visibility as a form of political control  that manages processes of public identification, representations and recognition of particular minoritised groups'. Perhaps understated is the salience of this being 'a retreat from a pro-diversity multicultural agenda towards a more muscular form of controlling ethno-cultural minorities'. The extended, occasionally repetitive buildup to data analysis (the first 7-8 pp) results in an underwhelming 25 interviews conducted with Muslim individuals who are organisational leaders within Muslim Community Organisations. Perhaps this topic should have been expanded: 'Muslim migrants from central, west and south Asian nations such as Afghanistan, Pakistan, India and Indonesia compose the majority of Australian Muslims replacing the previous high numbers of Arab migrants from Turkey and Lebanon. ' Also worth elaborating on is this assertion: 'MCOs perceive a 'good' Muslim as those who show strong commitment to Islam's social values of justice, empathy and mercy. Furthermore, a 'good' Muslim is an empowered individual who accumulates economic, linguistic, political and cultural capital for individual as well as community benefit.' Conclusion restates initial assumptions: 'Public hyper-visibility of Muslims in this context is therefore approached as a radically disruptive and transformative form of social empowerment and cultural recognition that is intrinsically related to the ongoing political process of becoming citizens.' My experience at UWA on deradicalisation measures suggests far more complex approaches than this innocuous claim.

Author Response

Dear Reviewer 1,

Thank you for taking the time to read our paper and for your valuable comments and suggestions. Please refer to the attached word document for our response which has been mainly reflected in the updated manuscript.

Best,

Reviewer 2 Report

This is a well-researched and well-presented paper that engages with the literature on Islamophobia and Muslim citizenship in Australia. As the author has noted, there is a large body of knowledge in the field, yet conceptualising the experience of Muslim activism against the background of Islamophobia has been under-developed. This study pushes us forward along that trajectory. The paper makes a convincing case that Muslim Community Organisations have developed a coping strategy to use the hypervisibility of Islam and Muslims in the public domain (typically represented negatively) as a platform to send out their own message of religious identity and constructive engagement in society. The many examples offered in this paper substantiate the argument that Muslim organisations are turning a disadvantageous environment  to their advantage. This is an insightful contribution to the literature. 

There is, however, a persistent assumption in the paper that Islamophobia is going unchallenged in/by official structures and society at large. The broad-brush depiction of Australia as Islamophobic overlooks the many initiatives at many levels to combat it. The change of government at the federal level in May 2022 has been a watershed in challenging and reversing racial and religious stigmatization of minorities. And it must be stated that the need to counter Islamophobia and investigate the threat of far right was even acknowledged by the previous government (in the wake of Christchurch Mosque attacks). 

This cautionary note does not take away from the conceptual contribution of the paper, but it does require some minor edits to acknowledge that the social and political background to Muslim activism is shifting and the present analysis looks at the experience within a certain timeframe.      

Author Response

Dear Reviewer 2,

Thank you for taking the time to read our paper and for your valuable comments and suggestions. Please refer to the attached word document for our response which has been mainly reflected in the updated manuscript.

Best,

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf