Young Muslim Australians’ experiences of intergroup contact and its implications for intercultural relations

Abstract

ABSTRACT Literature on intergroup contact shows that in the absence of the required structural conditions, contact is not necessarily always a positive experience and that when it is negative, it can lead to heightened conflict and increased prejudice toward outgroups. Therefore, this article examines intergroup contact between Muslims and non-Muslims. Specifically, we examine the experiences of intergroup contact involving young Muslims in Australia and ask how these encounters impact their experiences of discrimination and perceptions of Australian society. We conducted face-to-face, semi-structured interviews to collect rich, qualitative data from young Muslim Australian participants who live in Melbourne, a major cosmopolitan hub, where intergroup contact experiences are likely to be diverse and occur daily. Our findings show that even when met with prejudice and discrimination, young Muslim Australians were able to critically engage with and change the views of non-Muslim Australians through dialogue and creative exchanges about circulating public discourse.