TY  - JOUR
A1  - Dagistanli, Selda
A1  - Possamai, Adam
A1  - Turner, Bryan S.
A1  - Voyce, Malcolm
A1  - Roose, Joshua
T1  - The limits of multiculturalism in Australia?
BT  - The Shari’a flogging caseof R v. Raad, Fayed, Cifci and Coskun
JF  - The Sociological Review
N2  - This article focuses on the marginal extremities – the limits – of Shari’a practices in Australia, through the example of a criminal case in which four Sydney-based Muslim men whipped a Muslim convert to punish him for his excessive consumption of drugs and alcohol. The men claimed they acted in line with the doctrines of Shari’a practice to ‘purify’ or absolve the victim of his sins. While the case was tried before a magistrate in a lower court, it is argued in this article that its social and political significance was wider, reaching into contemporary debates around multiculturalism and immigration from non-western, non-liberal and mainly Muslim nations. Mainstream media and political narratives viewed the whipping as an example of the moral dangers of accommodating Shari’a norms, eliding the differences between peaceable Shari’a and its violent extremities, while situating the case at the limits of multicultural accommodation. This article interrogates the objectionable margins of some cultural practices through this limit case. At the same time it questions the limits or limitations of a multiculturalism that homogeneously views the practices of entire ethnic or religious groups as violent and incommensurable with dominant norms, while using these understandings as a justification for marginalising these groups.
KW  - limits
KW  - multiculturalism
KW  - Muslims
KW  - racism
KW  - Shari’a
Y1  - 2018
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1177/0038026118768133
SN  - 0038-0261
SN  - 1467-954X
VL  - 66
IS  - 6
SP  - 1258
EP  - 1275
PB  - Sage Publ.
CY  - London
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Possamai, Adam
A1  - Turner, Bryan S.
A1  - Roose, Joshua M.
A1  - Dagistanli, Selda
A1  - Voyce, Malcolm
T1  - "Shari'a" in Cyberspace. A Case Study from Australia
JF  - Sociologica : Italian Journal of Sociology online
N2  - New forms of communication and greater accessibility of Islamic texts on-line allow Muslims to shape their own religiosity, to become less dependent on established sources of authority, and thereby to become more aware of their own cultural diversity as a community. New practices of transnational Islam, and the growth of new concepts of Muslim identities currently emerging in the on-line community, are relatively free from immediate constraints. This article provides the result of a sociological analysis of three Internet sites in Sydney which deliver on-line fatwas. Even if cyberspace has allowed the Muslim world to be de-territorialised and provides a way for people to distance themselves from traditional communities if they wish, this research points out a variety of approaches, including one case which is aiming at re-localising an Australian Muslim system of values. This case highlights ways in which first generation Muslims are re-territorialising Shari'a in a specific western country.
KW  - Shari'a
KW  - Fatwas
KW  - Cyberspace
KW  - De-territorialisation Process
Y1  - 2016
U6  - https://doi.org/10.2383/83882
SN  - 1971-8853
VL  - 63
SP  - 143
EP  - 159
PB  - Società editrice il Mulino
CY  - Bologna
ER  -