Muslim Immigration in Australia: Example of a Moral Panic

Is the Reaction to Muslim Immigration in Australia an Example of a Moral Panic? Student’s name Course Professor’s Name University City (State) Date Is the Reaction to Muslim Immigration in Australia An Example of a Moral Panic? Introduction More often than not, different societies or their various sectors experience phenomena that Goode and Ben-Yehuda (2009, p. 35) refer to as moral panics. When this phenomenon manifests, a certain proportion of the population exhibits behaviors that tend to portray another group of people as problematic to the safety, stability, and cohesiveness of the society. Consequently, there is a tendency for the population to advocate for certain measures to be taken by the different stakeholders, including themselves to avert the threat posed by the suspected group/community. Moreover, there is a strong urge to do something about the perpetrators to save the society from greater damage in the future (Goode & Ben-Yehuda, 2009, p. 35). Over the past several years, Australian society has been in the spotlight for demonstrating behaviors that could qualify as moral panics. This has been particularly evident from the attitudes of the Australian society towards the Muslim minorities that have continued to immigrate into the country as refugees, international students, and other groups. Among the concerns that have been documented include the fear of terrorist attacks, interference with the national identity of Australia, and perceived fear of a cultural invasion through multiculturalism (Healey, 2016, p. 10). By carefully examining the social reaction of the Australian society to Muslim immigration, this paper argues from a moral panic theory perspective that the reaction has all the characteristics of a moral panic. Components of a Moral Panic In recent years, the concept of islamophobia has been hitting headlines many times because of the heightened fear of terrorist attacks in different parts of the world. In Australia, islamophobia has been evidenced through the racialized hatred or even fear of asylum seekers from Muslim countries (Briskman, 2015, p. 113). This has happened despite the general knowledge among Australians that Islam is not a race but a religion. However, society may be excused for developing this attitude because of the frequent associations between the perpetrators of terrorist attacks and Islamic faith. The media and politics have played a major role in encouraging this perspective. Therefore, the resultant imagery from the representation of immigrants as people with bad intentions for the Australian society has culminated into a moral panic as can be understood from Goode and Ben-Yehuda’s explanation of what constitutes a moral panic. According to the authors, a moral panic is evidenced where five criteria are present: concerns, hostility, consensus, disproportionate, and volatility. Concern Goode and Ben-Yehuda define moral panic using the concept of concern as the first sign of a moral panic. In other words, society must, first of all, raise the alarm about the tendencies of a section of the society to cause potential harm for the rest of the population. While the media has been accused of arousing unnecessary fears, moral panic results where such publications cause the population to be genuinely and widely concerned about a group of people who are living among them. Therefore, the people express their fears about the consequences of the group’s presence and actions in society and raise the urgency for countermeasures. Among the parameters that should demonstrate the presence of concern include opinion polls, number of arrests of the suspected group, legislation to curb the perceived threat, and social actions such as movements to demonize the behavior (Goode & Ben-Yehuda, 2009, p. 37). In Australia, there have been widespread concerns about crimes and terrorist attacks from the main suspected perpetrators: Muslim immigrants. Because Sydney is heavily populated with Muslim immigrants, especially from the Middle East, the debate about immigrant crime has been centered in this city (Antonopoulos, 2016, p. 154). The media has particularly played a role in creating concerns about the immigrants who are seen to be overrepresented in crime (Collins, 2005). The reaction to this concern has robbed the immigrants of opportunities to participate fully in the economy. Moreover, the criminality of individual people has been taken to be criminality of the Muslim community so that policy measures have not adequately responded to the socio-economic issues that affect the immigrant minorities (Basia, 2008, p. 89). Consequently, the situation would worsen because little is done to allocate jobs or higher educational opportunities for the immigrants because of the resultant prejudices. Instead, the moral panic from the publicized concerns has prompted shortcut measures such as deportations and calls for Imams to take charge of their people (Renner & Spencer, 2012, p. 143). Hostility Hostility is the second criterion that Goode and Ben-Yehuda describe as necessary for a moral panic to be evidenced. The concept of hostility entails the expression of anger, outrage, or discrimination towards the members of the society that are perceived as a threat, an inconvenience, or an obstacle to the values, existence, or interests of the rest of the population. Therefore, there is a deliberate attempt by the general population to differentiate themselves as the good, respectable, and decent, and the others as evil, disreputable, and undesirables (Goode & Ben-Yehuda, 2009, p. 38). In the context of Australian society, hostile acts, comments, and attitudes towards Muslim minorities have been evidenced from time to time. Following the terrorist attacks of 9/11 in the United States, the Community Relations Commission in New South Wales went with speed to set up a Hot Line through which people in distress or with information about community relations would call to facilitate appropriate responses (Dreher, 2006). The CRC Hot Line data showed significantly higher incidents of physical assaults and verbal abuse perpetrated against members of Arab or Muslim backgrounds, especially in the cosmopolitan community of Sydney. When the Houses of Parliament and Westminster Bridge were attacked by terrorists in March 2017, the Senator for Queensland described Islam as a disease that all Australians must vaccinate themselves against (Remeikis, 2017). Her description and depiction of Muslims as a “disease” is an example of the hostility with which many Australians have taken Islamic people. Such hate speeches from political groups create discriminatory tendencies because people perceive the Muslim immigrants as an “evil” that must be gotten rid off from the Australian society. In an interview in the Sydney Morning Herald, an interviewee who was a Muslim described the hostility that other Muslims face daily in Australia, especially after the Sydney Siege of 2014. After her arrival in Australia as an international student, the Islamic lady experienced segregation in her class as everybody paired to form groups, but she was alone or sometimes lucky to pair with an Asian student or even the tutor. In her description of outside of the class environment, she said: “Once I was crossing the road at Federation Square with my brother and this man walked right up at me and spa...