Dr Ghazala Anwar

University of Canterbury, New Zealand

Muslims of New Zealand: Assimilation, Integration and Criminal Profiling

Abstract

This paper will look at issues of assimilation, integration and criminal profiling facing New Zealand Muslims post September 11^th 2001.  It shall focus on the role of 

a)    government policies and agencies,  including (i) NZ foreign policy as it pertains to Muslim countries, (ii) national security as it profiles all Muslims (iii)   promotion of inter-faith dialogue as a step towards promoting multiculturalism (iv) the disjunction between the government’s promotion of Treaty of Waitangi education and bi-culturalism and its promotion of multiculturalism

b)    Muslim organizations within the context of inter-ethnic and inter-denominational rivalries, especially the role / failure of imams of mosques as community educators and role models.

c)    Muslim women,  marginalised by the Muslim organisations and mosque architecture  and pitied as victims by the wider New Zealand society

d)    The universities as “critic and conscience of society ” (according to the Education Act) as it relates to their responsibility to advocate for the human rights and civil liberties of Western Muslims, who have become a marked target and an convenient scapegoat. 

In the light of the above, the paper will conclude by identifying some possible avenues for social inclusion and integration of Muslim citizens of New Zealand.

Bio

Ghazala joined the Religious Studies programme at Canterbury in 2000, after teaching at a number of universities in the United States, including Temple University, where she completed her PhD in Religion in 1993. Prior to that she took her BA at Kalamazoo, Michigan, her first MA in English Literature at Aligarh Muslim University in India, and her second MA in Humanities at the University of Chicago.

Ghazala's research and teaching interests include Islamic jurisprudence and Sufism, as well as the exploration of issues of healing, gender and sexuality in Islam. She also participates frequently in national and international colloquia on interfaith dialogue and other current issues relating to Islam.