Islamic revivalism in Australia

Wednesday 19 November 2008 12:00AM (view full episode)

This week, the National Centre of Excellence for Islamic Studies at the University of Melbourne is holding its annual conference. This year, the theme is "Challenges to Social Inclusion in Australia: The Muslim Experience". One of the speakers at the conference is Jan Ali, a lecturer at the University of Western Sydney. He has studied the Australian activities of the Tablighi Jamaat, and he spoke to David Rutledge about why Islamic revivalism is gaining new popularity amongst Australian Muslims.


David Rutledge: Welcome to the program.

A major conference is currently under way in Melbourne, which explores the theme of social inclusion for Australian Muslim communities. Today and tomorrow, the National Centre of Excellence for Islamic Studies at the University of Melbourne is hosting a number of academic scholars and policymakers and community leaders, who'll be looking at the progress that's been made in Muslim integration and at how far we still need to go.

One of the speakers is Dr Jan Ali, who teaches in the International Communication program at Macquarie University in Sydney. Jan Ali has made a specialist study over the years of Islamic revivalism in Australia, in particular a group that calls itself Tablighi Jamaat. Tablighi Jamaat is a little-known Islamic organisation that originated on the Indian subcontinent, but it's very active in Australia. Tablighi Jamaat members are encouraged to concentrate on the basics of Islam: prayer, fasting, and giving alms and so on, and to avoid getting tangled up in ethnic squabbling or political activism.

All of which sounds innocuous enough. But earlier this year, Tablighi Jamaat came to the attention of the media when a group of Tablighi members reportedly staged a leadership spill at the Sefton Mosque in Sydney. The story was reported in The Australian newspaper, which referred to Tablighi Jamaat as 'a group accused of being a conduit for terrorism', and quoted a US intelligence report which stated that Tablighi Jamaat was 'a recruiting ground for Al Qa'eda' and had links to 'numerous extremists and terrorists, including the 2005 London bombers.'

Well Dr Ali believes that these links are false, or at least overstated. But he does acknowledge that Islamic revivalism presents a challenge to the process of social inclusion for Muslim communities in Australia. And it's not the only challenge. Jan Ali.

Jan Ali: The problem is that we don't have that many grassroots level programs and initiatives, and what I mean by that is not programs such as interfaith or intercultural forums or dialogues, visit a mosque or whatever. What I'm thinking of here in terms of grassroots level programs and initiatives, is ongoing programs where ordinary Muslims can participate in it at a more non-formal level. These kind of programs exist, but what I'm arguing is that it doesn't exist at a level that can make really big social impacts in our society.

David Rutledge: In the middle of all this we see Islamic revivalism. Second and third generation Muslims who are rediscovering or re-committing themselves to Islamic practices, becoming very devout in their habits of prayer and fasting and so on. Why is this happening in Australia among Muslims who were born in Australia and who you might think would be less rigorous in their identification as Muslims?

Jan Ali: OK, the Islamic revivalism is a response to modernity which is about Muslims carving out a space for themselves, and their religion in modern framework. And I want to emphasise, it is not anti-modernity.

David Rutledge: Not a rejection of modernity.

Jan Ali: It's not a rejection of modernity, it is a response to modernity. This idea of colonial imperialism, okay, the hurt that it caused, the difference between the two worlds, Western and Islamic world; it's not fair from the Muslim viewpoint.

David Rutledge: And very much exacerbated since 2001, September 11.

Jan Ali: Exactly, yes. Poverty. Discrimination. All this which is part and parcel of modern living today, and Muslims in Australia are becoming more religious because they find solace, they find happiness, they find satisfaction which modernity promised in the secular modern system which Australia is part of, but didn't deliver.

David Rutledge: Well let's talk about Tablighi Jamaat. They're one of these groups that hold to this ideal of a pure Muslim practice. They preach an Islam which is non-ethnic, it's apolitical, they say that Muslims should look to their own souls if you like, and not get involved in political activity. Is that an accurate description of Tablighi Jamaat, and how active are they in Australia?

Jan Ali: I argue that Tablighi Jamaat is a non-political or apolitical organisation in the sense of encouraging nominal Muslims to become better Muslims. And other activities that they're involved in is also the establishment of what is called Musallahs or prayer centres, and also mosques as well.

David Rutledge: Well Tablighi Jamaat were in the news earlier this year when it was reported that a Tablighi group were staging a takeover at the Sefton mosque in Sydney, trying to oust the imam and install their own imam. And the newspaper reports at the time referred to Tablighi Jamaat as a group accused of being a conduit for terrorism. What do you make of those reports?

Jan Ali: Well, I'm not sure whether the reports are correct or not, but I will say this. Tablighi Jamaat as a movement, doesn't encourage or is engaged in any kind of socially ill activities, including terrorism. If someone joins Tablighi Jamaat, and then moves on, for example they might move on to enjoin I don't know, what is a terrorist organisation - al-Qa'eda for example, right? Which is not something that can be policed or can be prevented because it's up to individuals. People don't come with overt intention or express intention that 'I'm just using you as a conduit so that I can then move on to al-Qa'eda.' So these are the kind of processes that might be happening but it is not encouraged, and it cannot be policed. I mean how can you police that?

David Rutledge: What about the - what was happening at the Sefton mosque though earlier in the year? I mean at the time it was also reported that this isn't the first time that Tablighi groups in Sydney have done this. You know, they sort of decide that they don't like the way an imam is preaching and they, through various means, I mean here at the Sefton mosque there was an apprehended violence order taken out, there were threats of violence against the existing imam.

Jan Ali: If a couple of Tablighis were involved in that, we cannot then say that this is Tablighi Jamaat philosophy or Tablighi Jamaat ideology, right? So Tablighi Jamaat doesn't have any program where these kind of things should happen, and if people do things that are against Tablighi policy, or Tablighi philosophy, that is very much then reduced to individual intentions, individual problems or their social activities, or their activity.

David Rutledge: But to what extent should these religious Muslims be sort of falling over themselves or to what extent should broader Australian culture be falling over itself to sort of facilitate social inclusion here, because if you talk with devout Catholics and Anglicans for example, they will often say that they consider themselves a counter-cultural force, you know, they take a certain pride in standing outside the mainstream of Australian life, and they don't want to be caught up in the secular mainstream. And in the case of Catholics and Anglicans, that's fine, but when it's religious Muslims saying they don't want to be part of the mainstream, everybody gets very worried.

Jan Ali: I think it's opposite, taking Tablighi Jamaat as an example, I think it's that Tablighi Jamaat wants to be part of the mainstream Australian society or wants to penetrate the mainstream Australian society because then it will give them the opportunity to put forward their case, so to speak, and do their preaching.

David Rutledge: And yet they keep a very low profile don't they, I mean not much is known about Tablighi Jamaat. Is that a conscious effort on their part to stay under the radar if you like?

Jan Ali: I wouldn't put it like that, but see Tablighi Jamaat is a movement whose focus is on nominal Muslims, and therefore it is not focused on converting non-Muslims to Islam. That's not their focus. Their focus is to make Muslims better Muslims.

David Rutledge: Dr Jan Ali, speaker at this week's forum 'Social Inclusion in Australia: the Muslim Experience' at the University of Melbourne.


Jan Ali
Lecturer in International Communication, University of Western Sydney


David Rutledge
Jacinta Patterson