Asia Institute - Theses
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ItemSecular, religious and supernatural: an Eastern Indonesian Catholic experience of fear (autoethnographic reflections on the reading of a New Order-era propaganda text)( 2017)This thesis examines an Eastern Indonesian Catholic experience of fear by analysing how a New Order-era propaganda text dealing with the political upheavals of 1965-66 triggers and maintains fear in one Eastern Indonesian Catholic reader – myself. It uses the methodology of autoethnography to examine the fears that I myself experienced in 2004 when encountering a 1967 Catholic propaganda text entitled, ‘Dari Madiun ke Lubang Buaya, dari Lubang Buaya ke…?’ [From Madiun to the Crocodile Hole, from the Crocodile Hole to...?]). By analysing my own experience of fear in reading the text, I argue that the Eastern Indonesian Catholic experience of fear involves three interlocking dimensions – secular, religious and supernatural. These three forms of fear are experienced simultaneously by the reader (myself). The From Madiun text is primarily a secular narrative of the 1965-66 events, but the reader brings his culturally-conditioned religious and supernatural fears when reading it. I argue that supernatural fear is the most unspoken but most powerful form of fear that I experienced when reading the text, and this reflects my membership of the Lamaholot community in which supernatural fear is pervasive. The thesis contends that in relation to 1965, the Catholic Church’s propaganda created an explicit secular fear of communists, an implicit religious fear of Muslims, and a hidden supernatural fear of ghosts. While secular fear represented the nemesis of secularization and a danger to the Indonesian nation-state and to the Catholic Church was the most overt form of fear that the Catholic Church directed against communists, the most profound fears which the Church was able to instill in its members were religious and supernatural forms of fear. These three forms of fear are experienced simultaneously, and the fear of 1965 is not therefore simply a matter of the past, but also of the present. Eliminating the secular threat of communism in 1966 increased the religious threat of Islam and multiplied the supernatural threat from ghosts, which remain very strong in contemporary Lamaholot society. The thesis thus relates the fear of 1965 to the cultural belief systems of my Lamaholot community, belief systems that maintain the fear of 1965 to the present day.
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Item‘Ishq and the Literary: Exploring Rūmī’s Mathnawī as a Sufi Text( 2016)Although there has been a bourgeoning corpus of studies on Rūmī in terms of his mystical ideas, there has been till present, very little attention paid to the literary aspects of his works – especially the Mathnawī as his narrative magnum opus. This thesis explores Rūmī’s Mathnawī to understand how it functions in the broader context of Sufism and literary production. Its approach is twofold: first, it provides a close literary reading of select passages from the Mathnawī through generic, rhetorical and narrative constructs; and second, delineates its broader theological/epistemological contexts. Therefore, through its emphasis on literary form, this thesis identifies how the Mathnawī’s literary structures both relate to, and are informed by Rūmī’s Sufi thought – specifically his ontology of ‘ishq (passionate love). Thus, adopting a literary approach to Rūmī’s works, the present study explores questions relating to the literary form of Rūmī’s Mathnawī such as: genre, function, the Mathnawī’s intertextuality with the Qur’ān, the complexities surrounding the Sufi notion of authorship, meaning and hermeneutics, as well as Rūmī’s specific notion of the “ideal reader” as a potential wayfarer on the Sufi path of ‘ishq. Finally, this thesis employs close-analysis to a specific tale from the Mathnawī (The King and the Handmaiden) in order to explore how Rūmī attempts to transform his readers through specific narrative structures. This thesis concludes that by the very act of producing the Mathnawī, Rūmī was effectively participating in the textualisation of his Sufi path of ‘ishq. In this sense, the present thesis addresses the kinds of strategies employed in Sufi writing to convey mystical ethos and content, to shape religious subjectivity in distinctive ways, or even to influence the cosmos through specialised acts of reading and writing such as the act of consuming and producing literature. The present study does not simply contribute to the niche field of Rūmī studies, but also draws attention to how consideration of its topics may change the way we think about Sufism and literary studies more broadly, as well as contributing to the broader field of world literature. A study of this kind is not only valuable in its contribution to a deeper understanding of Sufism within the field of Islamic studies, but also because analysing Rūmī’s particular works through an explicitly literary scheme may help in developing more nuanced and relevant descriptions of mystical or sacred literatures.
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ItemActive citizenship of Muslims in Australia and Germany: civic and political participation of a socially marginalised group( 2015)Modern citizenship in the West is commonly regarded not only as a legal status but also as a social process of citizens’ engagement in civil society and the political arena. This study examines Muslims’ active citizenship in Australia and Germany against the backdrop of the social marginalisation and scrutiny they experience in both countries. The basic understanding of active citizenship draws on an eclectic theoretical framework, emphasising the performative nature of citizenship, enacted through various forms of civic and political participation. Based on 30 in-depth interviews with active citizens of (self-declared) Muslim background, this research pursues a comparative approach to examine Muslims’ participation in Australia and Germany. It provides fresh insights into Muslims’ trajectories of civic activism, their goals, motives and empowering factors, and personal implications of their participation. The findings underscore the enormous complexities and dynamics of Muslims’ participation in civil society and the political arena, dispelling widespread misconceptions of Muslims’ active engagement as socially isolated – and isolating – activism. Muslim community organisations often play a key role for Muslims in Australia and Germany both as a location of civic participation and as a gateway for other, often more mainstream-oriented manifestations of activism. The study also discovered that the majority of interviewed Muslim citizens (including those active within a community context) pursue a predominately republican agenda, seeking to contribute to the greater good of society at large or to promote social justice. In contrast to commonly raised concerns about Islam as a hampering factor for citizenship, the results of this analysis demonstrate that the Islamic faith is a powerful resource and driving force for many Muslims’ active engagement. Moreover, the study found that personal or collective experiences of exclusion, including the public misconception of Islam, often have empowering effects on Muslims’ civic activism. The cross-national comparison points to many similarities between the ways in which Muslims in Australia and Germany perform their citizenship, but it also reveals differences; these seem, at least partially, attributed to divergent political opportunity structures in the two national settings. The recognition of Muslim community organisations as ‘normal’ civil society stakeholders, institutional opportunities for Muslims to contribute to the political discourse and social networks between Muslim organisations and mainstream institutions, for example, appear more advanced in Australia. All these structural differences, in addition to the countries’ citizenship regime and access to political right, appear to have implications for Muslims’ activism.
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ItemFrom conflict to resolution: Turkey's secular state and political Islam: a case study of the policies of the Justice and Development Party( 2012)Republican Turkey has conventionally been regarded in the West as a secular democratic state, and a model for the rest of the Muslim world. The present study contests this assumption by analysing the success and stamina of the ostensibly Islamic Justice and Development Party in the staunchly secular Turkish Republic. The rise of the JDP has ignited fears both domestically and in the international arena that Turkey, the once secular stronghold against Islamic fundamentalism in the Middle East, is gradually being overrun by creeping Islamisation. The governing JDP, in power since 2002, has a recognised affinity to religion. Its alleged Islamist background has alarmed Turkey’s Kemalist elite, who suspects the government is harbouring a secret agenda to Islamise the Turkish state and society. Contrary to such concerns, this study has found that the JDP, although culturally conservative, is committed to liberal democratic principles and revising the undemocratic practices of the Kemalist regime. The governing JDP, whilst generally supportive of the status quo, poses a challenge to the Kemalist state by seeking to redefine the Kemalists’ understanding of secularism. Paradoxically, the JDP has emerged as the champion of political reformism, which is in contrast to the authoritarian, statist ideology enforced by the Kemalist establishment. The JDP’s espousal of the principle of secularism and its refusal to employ Islamist rhetoric establishes its secular democratic credentials. Further, the thesis has also examined how the JDP’s commitment to the European Union accession negotiations and its efforts to reduce the political role of the Turkish military is indicative of its liberal democratic outlook. Analysis of the JDP’s policies, the party programme and ideology reveals that the government’s attachment to liberal democratic principles, ironically, furthers its culturally conservative agenda by undermining the Kemalist monopolisation of the concepts of modernity, progress, democracy, and secularism. The study has found that the JDP is attempting to resolve the decades-old conflict between secularism and political Islam in Turkey by reinterpreting Kemalism and implementing policies based on its ‘conservative democracy’ ideology, which is a blend of reformism and conservatism. The JDP experience has broader ramifications for international relations in a post 9-11 world by dispelling the widely-circulated belief that a pro-Islam party cannot operate within clearly-defined secular parameters, or be a proponent for genuine democratic reform. The study has found that far from working towards the establishment of an Islamic state, the JDP’s policy initiatives have led to the consolidation of democracy in Turkey and the enhancement of civil liberties and basic freedoms long suppressed by the Kemalist regime. Moreover, the case study of the JDP has illustrated that Islam and democracy are neither monoliths nor mutually exclusive. By endeavouring to reclaim an authentic Islamic identity whilst subscribing to a modern conception of liberal democratic governance, the ruling party demonstrates that one may be a Muslim culturally and a democrat politically.
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ItemContesting the future: Muslim men as political actors in the context of Australian multiculturalism( 2012)In the period 2001-2011, Australian Muslims have inhabited an often hostile social climate characterised by extreme levels of scrutiny, public surveillance and pressure. Australian Muslims have been cast in the dominant hegemonic discourse as either ‘at-risk’ of radicalisation or as a potential ‘threat’ to Australian values. Young Muslim men in particularly have been portrayed as potential terrorists, criminals or misogynistic oppressors and as a problem that must be solved. The question of Muslim identity in Australia has clearly become a central pivot around which debate has focussed for both the place of Islam in Australia and the adequacy of the official state policy of multiculturalism. However despite the centrality of young Australian born Muslim men to these questions and an emerging body of literature, they remain poorly understood. In the past decade Australian-born Muslim men have sought to challenge dominant negative representations and simultaneously to shape the development of Islam in the local context. This thesis aims to understand how social influences interact to influence different forms of political action by Australian-born Muslim men in Melbourne and in so doing to reveal insights into the developments in Islam and its interactions with Australian multiculturalism. This occurs through the examination of three ‘exceptional examples’ of Australian-born Muslim men undertaking political action. Muslim hip hop group The Brothahood have toured extensively throughout Australia and Asia whilst Waleed Aly has emerged as one of Australia’s leading public intellectuals, with his vast body of work published across national and international media, legal and literary journals. These young men have become successful political actors displaying highly creative and empowered ‘project identities’ to challenge both racism and hard-line textualist Muslims, shaping the future of Australian Islam and multiculturalism. In contrast, the young men of Australia’s first convicted terrorist organisation the Benbrika Jama’ah displayed a disempowered ‘neo-resistance identity’ seeking to commit an act of destructive violence against the State and were completely unsuccessful as political actors, reinforcing the hegemony of those they were seeking to challenge. This thesis is based on extensive fieldwork and unprecedented access to over 4000 pages of Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) listening surveillance device and telephone intercept transcripts. A Bourdieuian analytical frame is employed to reveal how key social influences interact as either enabling or disabling influences, shaping the development of constructive ‘project identities’ and ‘neo-resistance identities’. Enabling social influences and interactions include Tasawwuf (spiritually focussed) and traditional Islam, high levels of education, professional employment, exposure and familiarity with Western cultures, the multicultural State and an upward social trajectory whilst disabling influences include low levels of education, unemployment, welfare dependence, unskilled work, criminal activity, the coercive State and a downward social trajectory. These findings have important implications for understanding the development of both Islam and multiculturalism in both the Australian and wider Western contexts, revealing the intertwined yet contested nature of both, the benefits to Australia of a critical and robust political Islam and the centrality of hope and recognition to shaping constructive political engagement by Australian born-Muslims.