Professor Hassan’s seminar is based on his Report: Australian Muslims: The Challenge of Islamophobia and Social Distance has twin aims.
Firstly, it provides an updated demographic and socio-economic profile of Australian Muslims based on the 2016 Australian Census data. Secondly, it delivers the findings of the Islamophobia and Social Distance surveys. These surveys investigated how a representative sample of 1,000 Australian adults perceived key religious and cultural groups, with a special focus on Muslims. It focused on their perceptions of Muslims and other religious and ethnic groups, with particular attention paid to Islamophobia and social distance, and how these phenomena vary according to key demographics, by respondents’ direct experience with such groups and other variables. This report offers a new measure of social distance that can be used to investigate responses to key religious and ethnic groups. In relation to Australian Muslims, it explores patterns of Islamophobia and social distance. The report offers a methodological framework for larger future studies of religious and ethnic relations in Australia, and the potential impact (in terms of social and economic disadvantage) on particular sub-populations.
Riaz Hassan AM ASSA is Emeritus Professor of Sociology at Flinders University and Visiting Research Professor at the Institute of South Asian Studies National University of Singapore. In 2015-18 he was Director of The International Centre of Muslim and non Muslim Understating at the University of South Australia. His recent publications include: “Why Size Matters: Majority Minority Status and Muslim Piety in South and Southeast Asia”, International Sociology (forthcoming 2019); “Minority Size and Socio-Economic Inequalities: A Case Study of Indian Muslims” (With M. Baleav and A Shariff) International Sociology, 33:3:386-406.2018; “ISIS and the Caliphate”, Australian Journal of Political Science, 51:4, 2016; Building Nations with Non-Nationals: A Case Study of Pakistani Migrant Workers in the UAE, (With Ivan Szelenyi and Vladislav Maksimov, Corvina 2018; Australian Muslims: The Challenge of Islamophobia and Social Distance, The International Centre for Muslims and non Muslim Understanding, University of South Australia, December 2018