The 'race' for Camden : the Camden Islamic school controversy

Abstract

This dissertation focuses on the 2007-09 controversy surrounding the proposed development of an Islamic school in Camden, a small semi-rural town of Sydney, Australia. It critically examines the resistance that was mounted by local opponents of the proposed school in a xenophobic campaign that was vastly disproportionate to the fairly modest development application. A series of actions and events formed the hostile reception the proposal received. Thousands of residents protested and an Australian flag, a wooden crucifix and two pigs' heads appeared on the site of the proposed school. Camden Council and the local newspaper received record numbers of letters protesting against the development. Two conservative anti-Muslim groups from outside the local area joined the cause, and several non-local politicians were involved in campaigning against the school. The motivations behind these strong reactions of protest need to be uncovered, particularly in the post 9/11 world whereby the shapes and forms of Islamophobia are increasing and diversifying. Using a number of qualitative methodologies, this investigation into the school saga reveals that several entangled events and discourses were at play that supplied some opponents with ammunition to use against this development. With a proud local history of flourishing white agricultural settlement, a sense of local ownership was flaunted in the face of the proposal. This was tangled with a catalogue of recent moral panics concerning Islam and people of Arab backgrounds that fuelled local Islamophobia against Others. Further, the school was a reminder to locals of the encroaching multicultural suburbia of Sydney's West, which locals interpreted as the loss of localized rural white Australian life. Drawing on Stuart Hall's (Jhally 1999) concept of 'race' as the floating signifier, this thesis argues that the insidious presence of 'race' influences the many diverse positions and narratives of protest against the school. These discourses are situated in two significant contexts. The first is the local Camden context as a semi-rural, largely 'white town' which borders many culturally diverse Sydney areas. The second is the broader contemporary Australian context, in which there are increasing levels of social apprehension towards Muslims and Arabs. Critics depicted the school as a catalyst for horrid change in the area, whether it was demographic change brought on by the Other (in the Camden context, the Other refers to Arabs and Muslims), or general devastating change of the landscape (referring to the transformation of a rural and white 'oasis' into a culturally diverse suburban area). Through these fears, a number of constructions of 'race' are apparent. In analysing these discourses, we are exposed to the distinct relationship between 'race', racism and a type of local Islamophobia that is situated in the Camden controversy.

Date of Award	2013
Original language	English