Analysis of the Minority Muslims in Australia - Report Example

Examining and Working across Difference Name: Professor: Institution: Course Date: Executive summary The study was carried out to study the Muslims who live in Australia and the challenges they experience as immigrants. The issue of Muslims living in Australia and the related terror actions has led to a lot of scrutiny in most Western nations such cases like bombing London, though evidence given do not fulfil the expectations, or assumptions, a lot of questions raised against Muslim has led to a lot of suspicion resulting leading to alienation and racism among the Muslim group. This report analyses the minority Muslims who stay in the metropolitan Melbourne and Sydney regarding their social and, educational, employment status and the political participation. A research was carried out among the Muslims to evaluate the challenges they face as they work across, especially in Australia. This was done through questionnaires, in which the questions were given to a number of Muslims who live in Melbourne (Dunn, 2011). The questions were geared towards the individual satisfaction of the wellbeing of the nation in general, the study, training, income as well as professionally, and to know the attitude that Muslims have towards living in Australia. The findings gave different ideas; firstly they were hopeful about the economic and good social interaction of Muslims who live in Australia. Many of the group were learned and were ready to grasp employment opportunities as well as taking part into social political activities. Nevertheless the sense of prejudice was highly mentioned and biases in both political and the media, especially when it comes to security and foreign issues. As a result this perception leads to lack of progression among the Muslim group. Study shows that the Muslims have a mixed attitude towards Australia; positively they see it as an economic benefiting nation, despite the other negative issues like racism, alienation and stereotype in few sectors like education, housing, and employment opportunities (Dunn, 2011). Introduction Australia is a growing home for Muslims, study shows that the number of people who are Muslims in Australia is about 476,291. That is from the census of 2012. This is approximately 2.2% of the whole population of the Australians. This group is always associated with migrants and new comers. They came in different ways with different reasons. Some came as refugees, some came as visitors to explore, and others as migrants from Middle East as well as Non-English speaking nations. Currently, about 40% of Muslims in Australia designate it as the home country by birth. This has a lot of consequences on how the current generation identify themselves and use their identity. They usually use English as their language of preference. They even see Australia as their original homeland and do not wish to go back to their homeland (Dunn, 2011). Most of these Muslims migrate to Australia because they want education, reunion of the family, economic reasons and running ways from political humiliation in their nation, even some have taken a step to make Australia their permanent home. Majority of them have had different experiences varying from an individual. Most of them have settled in big cities, in Australia (Black, 2010). The study shows that there is limited body of knowledge regarding Muslim settlement in Australia by elucidating the process of co temporally settlement and adjustment of Muslim groups in Australia and assessing the role and significant of religion in the process. It focuses on cultural, economic, social and demographic adjustment of these groups to Australian society and explores the role of Islam the adjustment. The paper describes the origin and the population of Muslims in Australia; currently they are 1% of the total population. Majority being young and their socio-demographic characteristics differ from the rest of the Australian population. They are a small number but dynamic group, having a diverse cultural and ethnic communities from different nations. Though their number is gradually growing through natural increase and migration, they still constitute a small portion of Australian population. The true number is not well known, since many due not reveal their identity due to fear of persecution even during census (Dunn, 2011). Islam was found in 610 A, D by Mohammed .during Muhammad’s regime, they believed in many gods as he was going for trade, he had a vision from one of the angel who told him that there is only one god and his name is Allah. They believe in the holy Quran book and that the book was dedicated to Mohammed by angel Gabriel from God .they were told to read any other three books which include the first five books of the Old Testament. They worship in the mosque and all pray facing Mecca. They believe in God the Allah, angels, revealed books of god, many prophets, such as Adam, Abraham ,Moses, David and other Christians and Jewish know (Black, 2010). They belief in the last Day of Judgment and Satan, heaven and hell divine measurement of human affairs, lastly they believe in life after death. The Muslims believe that Jesus was born of a virgin who was a great prophet yet he was the only man, that he was send by god to help people to obey God. Quran refers to him as the breath of God, the spirit of God, and he spoke as a baby, healed the sick and saved the people, but they do not believe e he died on the cross. That before he was killed he was taken away by god and Judas replaced him on the cross. They still believe that he will come back and give judgment on the final day. They get saved through, saying a confession of faith, praying, giving alms, and fasting during Ramadhan, make pilgrimage to Mecca (Schaefer, 2011). Challenges of Muslims in Australia Most Muslim immigrants including those from non-European nations are financially well, they are ranked even well than the Australians, even though there are still some cases of poor families who have a number of family members as opposed to those from a well of family. However, Muslims are among the minority group that is disadvantaged in Australia. The statistics show that the refugees from African nations live below the poverty line compared to the refugees from English speaking nations, since majority is unemployment (Black, 2010). Some of the issues addressed in this research are the aspects of health, welfare, education, housing, law, income support, and the general view of responsibility and obligation like the role of the government and human services practice in relation to the Muslims in Australia. Research shows that most of the Muslim community does not own their own houses or homes therefore they have to stay in residential houses for a long period, they claim that the support from the government is not enough and the government is biased towards the Australian when giving financial aid (Schaefer, 2011). In education, study shows that education does not guarantee Muslims in Australia an chance to get employment , since majority of the Muslim community are learned and have high hopes of advancing nevertheless most of them do not have jobs, study shows that the government of Australia is not giving them equal opportunities, hence languishing in poverty instead. This makes them to have a low market labor as compared to non-Muslims; consequently, they have a low socio-economic status especially the young generation. These are a result of stereotype and discrimination which may lead to alienation from the society. The Muslims looking for jobs claim that they are always given the last priority, and a time they are discriminated and there is a lot of racism and prejudice. The government of Australia does not give room the Muslims to carry out their Sharia law since it is inhuman especially when the victim has to face the consequences of his actions (Black, 2010). Some of the main challenges that the Muslims experience when they arrive in the foreign nation is language barrier, where most of them had not mastered English since they come from Arabic nations, so it becomes very hard for them to cope in the new country. Another basic issue culture shock because of the cultural difference, they encounter a lot of problem trying to integrate the new culture into theirs. This limited them in many aspects of life like trade, work, learning as well as life style, and the family wellbeing(Schaefer, 2011). Religion The other thing that was highly mentioned was religion which is also a major, challenge for the Muslims in Australia, for instance, there is a lot of discrimination because of religion, and the many people complained that the Muslim community was not given priority when it came to working as well as treatment in general. Most people had a lot of negative attitude towards Muslim religion, it is assumed that Muslims are terrorists, they are not given the freedom to practices their religious activities freely, they are threatened to be spreading evil and all they think about is terror. Though they participate freely and actively in the political and social activities, still they are not allowed to compete for greater seats. This is very humiliating as well as discriminating. During seeking of the jobs majority educated youth do not get good jobs and they are always considered the last minute. The Australians were free to practice their religious practices unlike the Muslims this leads to a drift between Muslims and non-Muslims. They say they are always treatment disdain, and they are always suspicious the media is another major challenge in getting opportunities, for example, from most of the respondents they claimed that the media was biased and always associated them with terror and evil. Making them look like a threat in other foreign countries (Black, 2010). Muslim’s perspective towards the Australian government There was a negative attitude towards the government of Australia, despite the positive perception of its economic profitability. Majority of the participants criticized the government especially with education. This affected them in terms of avenues like education, and economic opportunities. Economic, market and social relationship is one of the major factors that draw people together, the Muslim community also participates in politic, voluntary community based work just like other citizens, they co-operate in other aspects like in the organizations which creates a good relationship among the citizens. The society builds a high relationship and contributes to capital hence resulting into a peaceful and productive democracy. With the concepts of community there are shared common values, national identity, and being identified with a given community. Therefore the ethnic community has an important role in a given nation since it gives anchorage and act as a source of identity, but due to discrimination, and stereotyping in Australia, the Muslims become marginalized and remain alienated (Schaefer, 2011). Family ties provide social obligations and responsibilities and they are varied among many different ethnic groups, study shows that there is a lot of stereotype, when it comes to the expectations of the responsibilities and obligations among the group. The expectations have led to the little development in the original country. Social integration therefore promotes peace and policy making. Though, the social integration can vary according to the countries. The factors that promote social interaction include, source of income, spreading of wealth, offering job opportunities, education, family life and social integration. Things that promote marginalization consist of poor economic status; others that affect the social interaction of a community are citizenship of a given group, politics, provision of social security, racism and discrimination can greatly affect the social integration of Muslims in Australia (Schaefer, 2011). The professional challenges when dealing with Muslims Professionally as a nurse, there are many challenges which the nurses and doctors face when handling the Muslim community. For instance, they have a strong believe especially in tradition, where the women go through female genital mutilation. It is very hard to deal with the Muslim community because of cultural difference; they always have different views and expectations from the health care service for instance, especially when they feel that they must attend to the faith in the place the hospital. The other crucial challenge at the hospital is that they do not get in conduct with people of the opposite sex; therefore it becomes hard to attend to them as men only need to be attended to by men and women only by women nurses. Therefore this gives the doctors, nurses, and other social works a very hard time, to cope with professional duties at the same time adhering to the wishes and expectations of the Muslim patients. Recommendations It is recommended that the government of Australia should improve and promote the harmony of the society, which is through including the Muslim Australians identity into Muslim identity, helping to develop the Islam as a religion in Australia. There should be training equally and giving educational, and job opportunities equally without discriminating. There should be an improved network infrastructure, and increases knowledge and learning of English as a language of communication. The Australian government should assimilate the Muslims and give them equal treatment just like other citizens, by promoting social cohesion, there will be cooperation in political, economically, and man power to work in the industries and other organizations. The government should also try to incorporate Muslim schools so as to incorporate the Muslim children who in turn will be of social benefit the Australian nation. It is also suggested that the government should give financial to the families; this will help them to have a good relationship among the families and the community (Schaefer, 2011). There should also be a program implementation which can enable the youth to participate in community outreach, volunteering, social working, leadership skills and provide services to the nation. There should be promotion of cohesion and integration of the Muslims with the non-Muslims. The government should promote and build more schools and colleges to enhance the education and give more job opportunities equally to all. This will reduce the state of racial discrimination, and stereotypes (Barkdull, 2011) Conclusions The paper was to study the challenges and discrepancies that the Australian Muslims experience when in Australia. The following challenges were obtained; for instance, there is a lot of alienation and discrimination in various sectors such as education, training, trade, employment opportunities, funding support and many more. As a result the study was conducted so as to evaluate the socio-economic status, and what the group expects from the government of Australia. The other aspect of study was the aspect of educational advancement, and employment opportunities. It shows that majority of the Muslim especially men are highly educated more that the Australians, but they do not get job guarantee (Schaefer, 2011). The other aspect was to know how many Muslims participate in the political and social affairs, and how they view working in Australia. It is stated that they freely participate in political issues as well as social networking. Though from the results, a number of Muslims have mixed feelings especially towards the government some like the environment as an economically profitable ground, for instance, they are optimistic to find jobs and work in Australia, advancing in the business, and grow economically (Abbas, 2011). On the other hand, some find it as a nation full of racial discrimination. Majority of the young Muslims were educated though they were jobless, and hence hoped for the best from the government. On the other hand there were perceptions of discrimination, based on the cultural and religious difference; they claim that there is a lot of suspicion especially in a number of Western nations. The cultural difference appeared to be more pronounced and they felt they are being discriminated and alienated. As a result, there was a lot of racism especially in the working places, housing as well as education (Pratt 2011, p. 19). Where they were not allowed to own their own houses and majority of them live in rental houses. Some emphasized on the instances of prejudice which contributes to victimization and alienation in the working place. The government of Australia does not value the welfare of the Muslims so much, there is biased support fanatically, and other related affairs. Some claimed that the government law of Australia only protects the discriminator and not the discriminate. Language barrier also emerged as a major barrier of working across, since some of them had not mastered English, they could not start their own businesses or venture into other financial deals because of communication barrier. In summary, it can be concluded that most people who work across do not progress so much because of some less evident, perceptions on discrimination, and prejudice towards the Muslims. The media is also said to be very biased and only took the information about the negative part of Muslims unlike others. The government has also viewed them as terrorists basing on the other activities from the Muslim community. The government of Australia is looking for strategies to integrate the Muslims in the Australian community but the efforts are too far too little (Parker, 2011). References Parker, L. (2011).Where Are The Women In Multiculturalism?.Australian Feminist Studies, 26, 70, 433-452. Black, A., &Sadiq, K. (2011). Good and Bad Sharia: Australia's Mixed Response to Islamic Law. University of New South Wales Law Journal, The, 34, 1, 383-412. Bugg, L., &Gurran, N. (2011). Urban planning process and discourses in the refusal of Islamic Schools in Sydney, Australia. Australian Planner, 48, 4, 281-291 Rane, H., Nathie, M., Isakhan, B., &Abdalla, M. (2011). Towards understanding what Australia's Muslims really think.Journal of Sociology, 47, 2, 123-143 Green, B. (2011). Negotiating the Green and Gold: The Identity of Muslim Women in Australia. Psychotherapy in Australia, 17, 4, 75-76. 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