The Truth of the Matter: Conflicting Claims to Islamic Legitimacy in the Context of Australian Multiculturalism

The Truth of the Matter: Conflicting Claims to Islamic Legitimacy in the Context of Australian Multiculturalism Islam in Australia has evolved dramatically in Australia in the past decade (2000-2010). In the face of intense scrutiny from Government, security, media and the wider public, Muslim Australians have been forced to confront key existential questions about what it is to be Muslim living in a Western secular nation and to respond to these challenges. The paper traces how the events of September 11 2001 and 7/7 2005 have shaped the development of Australian Islam and reveals the emergence of Australian born young Muslim men and women who possess the necessary cultural capital to act with great agency and skill in shaping representations of Australian Islam from a variety of different political perspectives. Whilst the emergence of ‘moderate' Muslims working within secular institutional frameworks has worked to strengthen multicultural Australia, a more vigorous critique of multiculturalism and moderates has emerged from Islamist organisations who question the subordination of Muslim identity to the national identity and assert a claim to Islamic legitimacy and ‘truth' that makes their differences with moderate Islam and wider Australia seemingly irreconcilable. This paper, based on fieldwork with Australian Muslims and theoretical engagement with contemporary discourse seeks to outline the core defining attributes of moderate Islam and the Islamist perspective in the Australian context, with a particular focus upon their respective claims to Islamic legitimacy In doing so this paper will draw attention to the possible impacts of this contest upon the majority of secular, mainstream Australian Muslims.