Muslims in Australia

Abstract

This chapter seeks to locate the Australian-born Muslim men at the center of this research in their wider sociopolitical context. The chapter commences with a broad overview of the social context of the study and demographic overview of Australian Muslims revealing the extensive challenges facing Australian Muslims at a variety of levels. This is supplemented by an analysis of the wider historical and contemporary political social space shaping the experiences of Australian Muslims. This chapter utilizes the Bourdieusian concept of the field of power to locate Australian-born Muslim men in relation to the dominant political and cultural hegemonies in Australia. This occurs through an examination of three core fields in the period 2001–2011 (the 9/11 decade): the field of Australian governmental power, field of Victorian state governmental power, and field of Australian Muslim institutional politics. All social experiences faced by the young men in these studies are in some way mediated and impacted upon by their passage through these fields and contribute to shaping a different sense of what is possible for young Muslim men and consequently, the forms of political action they undertake.