Anti-racist Discourse on Muslims in the Australian Parliament (Discourse Approaches to Politics, Society and Culture)

Anti-racist Discourse on Muslims in the Australian Parliament examines anti-racist discourse in contemporary Australian politics, in particular, how politicians contest and challenge racism against a minority group that does not constitute a traditional ‘race’. Using critical discourse analysis, this book firstly deconstructs the racist, xenophobic and discriminatory arguments against Muslims. Secondly, it highlights the anti-racist counter-discourse to these arguments. Since blatantly racist statements are less common nowadays, the book focuses on manifestations of ‘culturalist racism’. It does this by investigating how talk about Muslims positions them as not Australian or as not belonging to Australia – the book takes such ‘discursive exclusion from the nation’ as one of the most widespread forms of ‘culturalist racism’ in Western liberal-democracies. In addition to contributing to the theoretical discussion on the relationship between Muslims, racism and anti-racism, the book expands on methods that apply critical discourse analysis and the discourse-historical approach by providing a practical guide to analysing anti-racist political discourses. Anti-racist Discourse on Muslims in the Australian Parliament' examines discourses of anti-racism in contemporary Australian politics, in particular, how politicians contest and challenge racism against a minority group which does not constitute a traditional 'race'. The book takes data from Australian federal parliamentary debates relating to Muslims from 2006 and 2007 when bills for stricter naturalisation requirements were debated. Using critical discourse analysis, it deconstructs the racist, xenophobic and discriminatory arguments against Muslims, but focuses on the anti-racist counter discourse to these arguments. Since blatant racist statements are rare nowadays, the book focuses on manifestations of 'culturalist racism' by taking discursive exclusion from the 'nation' as the site in which 'culturalist racism' most frequently occurs in Western liberal-democracies. In addition to contributing to the theoretical discussion about the relationship between Muslims, racism and anti-racism, the book expands on methods applying critical discourse analysis and the discourse-historical approach by providing a practical guide to analysing anti-racist political discourses A hallmark of corpus linguistics is the study of patterns of language use. This book includes studies that use corpora to investigate patterns of lexis from various perspectives. It also presents theoretical and practical aspects of the linguist's task of uncovering the principles that determine such patterns.