Turkish Australian or Muslim

Liza Hopkin’s paper, Muslim Turks and Anti-Muslim Discourse: The effects of media constructions of ‘Islamic’ and ‘Arabic’ in Australia, highlights the tendency by media in Australia to represent Muslims in Australia as Arabic or Lebanese thereby not taking into consideration “sectarian differences; national, ethnic and tribal diversity; linguistic divergence; and political, social and economic disparities” (2008, 41-42).  Hopkins views the experiences of Turkish Australians to illustrate the problems faced and caused by this view.

Image: www.smh.com.au

Even within the category of Turkish speaking Australians, there are three groups – Turks, Kurds and Cypriots. Each of these groups has their own history of migration to Australia that is, migrating at different times and for different reasons (Hopkins 2008, 52). The Turkish represented the “first major Muslim wave of immigrants” to Australia and although they experienced racism similarly to that of other post-war migrants from Europe, they were “generally well regarded” due to the “nationally binding sentiments that had developed around the battle of Gallipoli”. However, events occurring in 2011, that is, public knowledge of the gang rapes in Sydney, the attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Tampa crisis, contributed to an anti-Muslim sentiment in Australia (Hopkins 2008, 47). Turkish-Australians, although not Arabic speaking or Lebanese, are included in the blanket term of Muslim and therefore subjected to the stereotyping and racism that they did not previously experience or endure.

  

Turkish-Australians are more likely to identity culturally, nationally or linguistically than they are to identify religiously as Muslims (Hopkins 2008, 51). The term “Muslim” is too narrow to encompass the diversity of Muslims in Australia, just as the term “Christian” or “Buddhist” does not take into account other aspects of people of those religions. Hopkins (2008, 45) highlights the plight of the migrant with regard to cultural identity:  

“In the context of international migration, retaining cultural identity and cultural ties may be as much about negotiating a place for oneself within a small diasporic group, coupled with the transmission of cultural and ethical norms and values to the next generation, as about negotiating with the mainstream of the host society.”

 

References

Hopkins, Liza. “Muslim Turks and Anti-Muslim Discourse: The effects of media constructions of ‘Islamic’ and ‘Arabic’ in Australia”. Australian Journal of Communication 35, no. 1(2008): 41-55.