Anti-racist Discourse on Muslims in the Australian Parliament

230 Pages·2017·8.12 MB·English

by  Jennifer E. Cheng

Anti-racist Discourse
pd
oi
s
l
ic
to on Muslims in the
i
cu
sr
,s

se Australian Parliament
o
a
cp
ip
e
r
t
yo
a
a
c
n
h
d
ces Jennifer E. Cheng
u t
lo
t
u
r
e
72
JOHN BENJAMINS PUBLISHING COMPANY
Anti-racist Discourse on Muslims in the Australian Parliament
Discourse Approaches to Politics, Society
and Culture (DAPSAC)
issn 1569-9463
The editors invite contributions that investigate political, social and cultural processes from
a linguistic/discourse-analytic point of view. The aim is to publish monographs and edited
volumes which combine language-based approaches with disciplines concerned essentially
with human interaction – disciplines such as political science, international relations, social
psychology, social anthropology, sociology, economics, and gender studies.
For an overview of all books published in this series, please see
http://benjamins.com/catalog/dapsac
General Editors
Jo Angouri, Andreas Musolff and Johann Wolfgang Unger
University of Warwick / University of East Anglia / Lancaster University
[email protected]; [email protected] and [email protected]
Founding Editors
Paul Chilton and Ruth Wodak
Advisory Board
Christine Anthonissen J.R. Martin Louis de Saussure
Stellenbosch University University of Sydney University of Neuchâtel
Michael Billig Jacob L. Mey Hailong Tian
Loughborough University University of Southern Denmark Tianjin Foreign Studies
Piotr Cap Greg Myers University
University of Łódź Lancaster University Joanna Thornborrow
Paul Chilton John Richardson Cardiff University
Lancaster University Loughborough University Ruth Wodak
Teun A. van Dijk Luisa Martín Rojo Lancaster University/
Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Universidad Autonoma de Madrid University of Vienna
Barcelona Sue Wright
Christina Schäffner
Konrad Ehlich Aston University University of Portsmouth
Free University, Berlin
Volume 72
Anti-racist Discourse on Muslims in the Australian Parliament
by Jennifer E. Cheng
Anti-racist Discourse on Muslims
in the Australian Parliament
Jennifer E. Cheng
Western Sydney University
John Benjamins Publishing Company
Amsterdam / Philadelphia
TM The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of
8
the American National Standard for Information Sciences – Permanence
of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ansi z39.48-1984.
doi 10.1075/dapsac.72
Cataloging-in-Publication Data available from Library of Congress:
lccn 2017017307 (print) / 2017045807 (e-book)
isbn 978 90 272 0663 3 (Hb)
isbn 978 90 272 6524 1 (e-book)
© 2017 – John Benjamins B.V.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, by print, photoprint, microfilm, or any
other means, without written permission from the publisher.
John Benjamins Publishing Company · https://benjamins.com
For my daughter, who shows us how far we have
come in the fight against racism, but also how
much further we have to go.

Table of contents
List of acronyms and abbreviations xi
List of tables xiii
List of figures xv
Acknowledgements xvii
Introduction xix
Part I Theoretical, historical and methodological context
chapter 1
Legal and political context 3
1.1 Anti-discrimination laws and Muslims 3
1.2 The Cronulla riots 5
1.3 The parameters of religious discrimination and vilification 9
1.4 Chapter summary 10
chapter 2
History of migration and racism in Australia 13
2.1 Pre-World War II – Disguised biological racism 13
2.2 Post-World War II – Assimilation, integration and cultural racism 15
2.3 The birth of anti-discrimination and multiculturalism 17
2.4 Backlash against immigration and multiculturalism 18
2.5 History of Muslims in Australia 25
2.6 Citizenship and Australian values 27
2.7 Chapter summary 30
chapter 3
Racism and anti-racism 33
3.1 Racism and Muslims 33
3.1.1 Racism and Islamophobia 35
3.2 Anti-racism 37
3.2.1 Historical origins of anti-racist thought 37
3.2.2 Forms of ‘anti-racism’ 39
3.2.3 Anti-racism movements and Muslim minorities 42
3.2.4 Anti-racism and Muslim minorities in Australia 44
3.3 Chapter summary 46
viii Anti-racist Discourse on Muslims in the Australian Parliament
Part II Analysis
chapter 4
Muslims, ‘race’ and racism 51
4.1 ‘Race’ 52
4.1.1 ‘Race’ and Muslims 52
4.1.2 ‘Race’ and religion 57
4.1.3 Other uses of ‘race’ 62
4.2 ‘Race’ summary 65
4.3 Racism 66
4.3.1 General uses of ‘racism’ 66
4.3.2 ‘Definitions’ of racism 67
4.3.3 Who or what is racist? 70
4.3.4 Uses of ‘racial’ 74
4.3.5 ‘Racism’, ‘racist’, ‘racial’, and Muslims 78
4.3.6 Muslims as victims of racism or racial vilification 78
4.3.7 Racial harmony with Muslims 81
4.4 Chapter summary 82
chapter 5
Discursive positioning of Muslims inside and outside of the ‘Nation’ 85
5.1 Exclusive constructions of the Nation 87
5.1.1 Depicting Australian values and laws as superior 88
5.1.2 Demanding integration from immigrants 91
5.2 Exclusive positioning of Muslims within the Nation 9 3
5.2.1 Drawing attention to ‘problem’ Muslims 93
5.2.2 Using Australian values to promote covert exclusion 97
5.3 Inclusive constructions of the Nation 100
5.3.1 Critiquing the narrow constructions of ‘Australian’ 100
5.3.2 Engaging the topos of the ‘majority culture’ 102
5.4 Inclusive positioning of Muslims within the Nation 104
5.4.1 Providing counter-discourses to stereotypes of Muslims 104
5.4.2 Stating that Muslims are Australian too 107
5.5 Chapter summary 112
chapter 6
Depictions of Muslims 117
6.1 Social actors in anti-racist discourses 117
6.1.1 The perpetrators 118
6.1.2 The victims 121
6.1.3 The defenders 127
6.1.4 The citizens 130
Table of contents ix
6.2 Summary of social actors 134
6.3 Nominations and predications 135
6.3.1 Nominations 135
6.3.2 Predications 140
6.3.3 ‘Objectification’ 144
6.4 Chapter summary 145
chapter 7
Updates since 2007 147
7.1 Proposed changes to Anti-Discrimination Act 147
7.2 Boycott Halal movement 150
7.3 Lindt Café Siege and #illridewithyou campaign 152
7.4 Chapter summary 154
chapter 8
Discussion and conclusion 155
Bibliography 163
Appendix
Methodology and data 175
A.1 Data 175
A.1.1 Selection of data 175
A.2 Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) 178
A.2.1 CDA, Anti-racism and political discourse 180
A.2.2 CDA’s relevance to this research 181
A.3 Characteristics of political speeches and parliamentary language 182
A.3.1 The structure and discourse of political speeches 182
A.3.2 Parliamentary language and anti-racism 184
A.4 Method: Constructing anti-racist discourses on Muslims in the
Australian parliament 185
A.4.1 Categorisation of speeches 188
A.4.2 Data analysis methods 190
A.4.2.1 Nomination strategies 191
A.4.2.2 Predication strategies 193
A.4.2.3 Argumentation strategies 194
A.4.2.4 Perspectivisation strategies 195
A.4.2.5 Intensification and mitigation strategies 196
A.5 Appendix summary 196
Index 197