The hopeful and exclusionary politics of Islam in Australia : looking for alternative geographies of 'Western Islam'

This chapter gives voice to the everyday experiences of Australian Muslims. The voices evocatively report on the 'everyday experiences of racism' of these citizens. The experiences are endured in the street, on public transport, and in dealings with institutions and shopkeepers. The aforementioned spaces can be seen as 'contact zones' across which Muslims and non-Muslims interact. While these are everyday spaces of intolerance and prejudice, they are also places of indifference and neutrality. Most often, people get along with each other and they tolerate difference, or better still, they accommodate and embrace cultural differences. Noble and Wise have reported on how most everyday cross-cultural interactions are 'unpanicked' in the sense that cultural difference is negotiated in other ways besides conflict or anxiety. This is not to suggest that racist incidents are unimportant. We outline in this chapter the socially and personally debilitating incidents against Muslim Australians and highlight that they are too frequent. We also outline, however, the desires and recommendations of Australian Muslims, and review some of the actions taken to improve relations between Muslims and non-Muslims. These voices provide everyday geographies of hope.