ABSTRACT
The Islam depicted in the media is a much reduced version of the extraordinary realities that lie beyond these commentators’ front doors, in Australia as in the rest of the world. In dealing with Islamic Australia, we confront the inadequacy of ‘race’ to understand the situation now and in the past. In the first place, ‘Islam’ is a religion, not a culture or a race, though it does have connections with cultures and races: it is in practice multicultural and multi-ethnic. Islam’s huge footprint in the world today brings with it connections that Australia cannot ignore: the benefits or necessities of being a multiculture in order to thrive in a global world. The veil now clearly signifies not just Islam, but specifically Muslim femininity. It carries assumptions about women’s place in a gendered culture, and projects what that place must feel like to a woman, not just a Muslim.
