The beach lies at the edges of the country, and can feel like another place entirely. French hand-wringing over Muslim dress for paddling should make us look again at our own attitudes.
Those opposed to the building of new mosques don’t recognise their long history here, or potential to support Australian ideals. Mosques are part of our suburban landscape and can help overcome fears about Islam.
The burkini bans, now overturned by a French court, are selective and ridiculous. But controversy over women’s clothing, and competing cultural notions of appropriate garb, are nothing new.
Undertaking a Muslim education – coming to understand the faith’s teachings and its ideas about humanity – can have enormous value for anyone who wishes to tackle social conflicts.
Unexpected calls to prayer from mosques in Turkey caught many off guard on the night of the attempted coup. An ethnomusicologist explains the political and social power of sound.
It may sound farfetched that a scholar living in Pennsylvania planned the overthrow of the Turkish government. But Turkey is demanding the U.S. extradite the Hizmet leader.
After a question from a Muslim audience member, Senator-elect Pauline Hanson said “your Grand Mufti won’t even come out and condemn the terrorist attacks that’s happened overseas”. Is that right?
Islam is often presented as an unchanging monolith. But as the emergence of ‘third spaces’ outside home and mosque shows, the American Muslim community exemplifies the diversity of American society.
Pauline Hanson and her party will potentially be a divisive presence in the next parliament. The challenge, for a potential Coalition government in particular, will be just how to handle her.
What’s ‘the ethnic vote’ going to do in the top-ten ethnic federal election marginal seats? What are the issues? And will specific groups vote as a bloc?
For Muslims generally, as for conservative Christians, homosexual acts are sinful. Christian gays and lesbians have had to work hard for a measure of recognition among fellow-believers; their Muslim counterparts are just beginning that struggle.
Democracy did not fail in the Maldives because it clashed with Islam. Instead, a privileged and powerful elite helped topple the elected government, and nations that advocate democratic ideals did little to stop them.
Senior Research Fellow, Muslim Philanthropy Initiative at IUPUI and Journalist-fellow, Religion and Civic Culture Center, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
Associate Professor in Islamic Studies, Director of The Centre for Islamic Studies and Civilisation and Executive Member of Public and Contextual Theology, Charles Sturt University