Problems, Challenges and Prospects of Indonesian Muslim Community in Sydney for Promoting Tolerance
(1) UIN Sunan Kalijaga Yogyakarta
(2) UIN Sunan Kalijaga Yogyakarta
(3) Universitas Negeri Jakarta
Abstract
This paper elucidates a map of Indonesian Muslim communities around Sydney in order to observe the possibility to promote a moderate and tolerance of Indonesian Islam worldwide. Indonesian Muslims who live in Australia are relatively small if we consider that we are the closer neighbor of Australia and have the biggest Muslim populations in the world. Most Indonesian Muslim communities in Sydney are in a form of kelompok pengajian (Islamic study group), which is commonly based on ethnicity, regionalism (province and regency), and religious affiliation with Indonesian Islamic groups. The main problems of Indonesian Muslim communities in Sydney are an ambiguous identity, laziness integration, and dream to home country. Most Indonesian Muslim diaspora in Sydney only consider Australia as the land for making money. Therefore, their inclusion to Australian community is just being “Indonesian Muslim in Australia” and it seems hard for them to be “Australian Muslim”, especially in the case of those who already changed to be Australian citizens. This kind of diaspora attitude differs from Muslims Diasporas from the Middle East and South Asia countries who are mostly ready to be fully Australian Muslim.
Naturally, most Indonesian Muslim communities put their emphasis to develop their community based on social needs and try to avoid political idea of Islamism. In this case, the Indonesian government, through the Indonesian Consulate in Sydney, has great resources to promote moderate and tolerant views of Indonesian Islam to other Muslim communities, as well as to Western media. In optimizing resources of Indonesian Muslim communities in Sydney to envoy Indonesian cultures and policies, it is necessary for Indonesian government to have a person with integrated knowledge on Islamic Studies who are working officially under the Indonesian consulate in Sydney. It is based on the fact that most Indonesian Muslim communities needs a patron from the government to manage and soften some differences among them, especially related to problems of identities, as well as to link them with the wider Australian communities.Keywords
Full Text:
Fulltext PDFReferences
Akbarzadeh, S., & Saeed, A. (2001). Muslim communities in Australia. Sydney: UNSW Press.
Akbarzadeh, S., & Yasmeen, S. (2005). Islam and the West : reflections from Australia. Sydney: University of New South Wales Press.
Bourdieu, J. (1986). Forms of Social Capital. In J. Richardson (Ed.), Handbook of Theory and Research for the Sociology of Education. London: Greenwood Press.
Burnley, I. (2001). The Impact of Immigration on Australia: A Demographic Approach. South Melbourne: Oxford University Press.
Collins, J., Noble, G., Poynting, S., & Tabar, P. (2000). Kebabs, Kids, Cops & Crime: Youth, Ethnicity & Crime. Sydney: Pluto.
Dreher, T., Dreher, T., & Ho, C. (2009). Beyond the hijab debates : new conversations on gender, race and religion (New ed.). Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars.
Farooqi, A. H. (2006). Islamic Social Capital and Networking. Illumanomics, 22, 113-125.
Ganter, R., Martinez, J., & Lee, G. M. (2006). Mixed relations : Asian-Aboriginal contact in North Australia. Crawley, W.A.: University of Western Australia Press.
Giles, B. (2010). Somali Narrative on Islam, Education and Perception of Difference. In S. Yasmeen (Ed.), Muslim in Australia, The Dynamic of Exclusion and Inclusion. Carlton: Melbourne University Press.
Hage, G. (Ed.). (2002). Arab-Australian Today: Citizenship and Belonging. Melbourne: Melbourne University Press.
Hassan, R. (2015). Australian Muslims: A DEMOGRAPHIC, SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC PROFILE OF MUSLIMS IN AUSTRALIA. Adelaide: International Centre for Muslim and non-Muslim Understanding, University of South Australia.
Hefner, R. W. (2000). Civil Islam : Muslims and democratization in Indonesia. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.
Kabir, N. (2004). Muslim in Australia: immigration, race relations and cultural history. London: Kegan Paul.
Madjid, N. (1994). Islamic Roots of Modern Pluralism: Indonesian Experiences. Studia Islamika, 1(April-June), 55-77.
Meuleman, J. H. (2002). Islam in the era of globalization : Muslim attitudes towards modernity and identity. London ; New York: RoutledgeCurzon.
Parekh, B. (2005). Europe, liberalism, and the Muslim Question. In T. Madood, A. Triandafyllidou & Zapata-Barrero (Eds.), Multiculturalism, Muslims and citizenship: a European Approach. London: Routledge.
Putnam, R. D. (2000). Bowling alone : the collapse and revival of American community. New York: Simon & Schuster.
Putnam, R. D. (2007). E Pluribus Unum: Diversity and Community in the Twenty First Century. Scandinavian Political Studies, 30, 137-174.
Roy, O. (2004). Globalised Islam : the search for a new Ummah. London: Hurst.
Saeed, A. (2003). Islam in Australia. Crows Nest, NSW: Allen & Unwin.
Stephenson, P. (2010). Islam dreaming : Indigenous Muslims in Australia. Sydney: UNSW Press.
Turner, B. S. (2013). Islam, Diaspora and Multiculturalism. In B. S. Turner & K. M. Nasir (Eds.), The Sociology of Islam: Collected Essay of Bryan S. Turner. Surrey & Burlington: Ashgate.
Underabi, H. (2014). Mosques in Sydney and New South Wales. Sydney: ISRA, University of Western Sydney, and Charles Sturt University.
Refbacks
- There are currently no refbacks.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.