Melbourne Consultations

A number of consultations were held with service providers and key stakeholders, as well as younger Muslim Australians who are actively working with other Muslim Australian young people. The consultations included focus groups with:

 Service providers working in mainstream and ethno‐specific organizations, Muslim Australian community leaders and youth representatives, engaging with young Muslims,

 Muslim Australian professionals who work in the arts, media or academia. Their views were specifically sought on the ways in which young people receive information and what information or voices inspire them, and

 Muslim Australian men and women of various backgrounds, some of whom were young people, who organize and provide opportunities for cultural, expressive arts and recreational activities, as well as educational programs in the Melbourne area.

Darwin Consultations

A number of consultations were also held in Darwin. The Multicultural Council of Northern Territory, and the Multicultural Youth of Northern Territory, as well as community volunteers within the Somali community living in Darwin, facilitated these interviews and community forums. Sessions included consultations with:

 Service providers working in some way with Muslim Australian families and / or youth, e.g. health workers, personnel from government agencies and non‐government organizations, as well as participants from Australia’s Muslim communities,

 Focus groups and one to one interviews of people directly engaging with Muslim Australian youth. This group included youth workers, community arts workers, school counselors, personnel in refugee services and Muslim Australian community elders of Somali background,

 Muslim Australian young men from South Asian (representing more established communities) and Somali background (representing newer emerging communities), and a group of young Somali women,

 One to one interview of a key stakeholder working with refugee populations.

4. Quantitative Analysis

This section presents the results of the survey of young Muslim Australians in Sydney, the quantitative research instrument employed in this project. An extensive questionnaire was posted online and promoted widely with a series of postcards distributed through Muslim community networks in NSW, and Victoria. The items in this questionnaire were reviewed and approved by DIAC. Very few responded to this online survey. Hence a shorter version of the questionnaire (Appendix B), a subset of the longer one was developed to survey Muslim youth attending the Sydney Eid Festival and Fair in 2009 as detailed above. This approach proved very successful at attracting responses from young Muslim men and women. Complementing these were additional surveys of youth attending one of Sydney’s Muslim schools. The response rate of these was considered acceptable.

Characteristics of the sample

Overall 392 responses to this survey were received, though only 332 were from youth aged

15‐25 years. Of these 332 youth respondents, 165 were aged under 18 and 167 aged between

18 and 25 (see Graph 1). Of those aged under 18, 113 were young women and 51 young men, with one person not responding to the gender question. Of those aged 18‐25, 102 were young women and 65 young men (see Graph 2). Overall, female respondents outnumbered male informants by approxiately two to one, with 65% of repondents who were female and 35% of repondents who were male (see Graph 3). 85% of the 392 respondents are under age 25. The research task was to record the voices of Muslim youth and the voices that influenced them. However 57 Muslim repondents aged over 25, also answered the survey. Analysis of the survey results reported in this section are limited to the responses of those aged 15‐25 years.

Graph 1. Age Distribution of Survey Respondents

Graph 2. Respondent Age Groups of Under‐18 and Between 18 and 25

NB One respondent under 18 did not respond to this gender question.

Graph 3. Gender of Respondents

	Frequency	Percent
Valid N/A Male Female Total	1 116 215 332	0.3%
		34.9%
		64.8%
		100.0

^{Note: The results above are reported to one decimal place otherwise the bar chart wouldn’t}

^{show N/A category properly. Of course the small sample size does not otherwise make such fine}

distinctions valid.

One of the key points for this research project is that there is great diversity within Australia’s young Muslims. This diversity relates to ethnicity, birthplace, language and culture. Hence central to the research methodology was the need to draw on respondents who reflected this diversity. The survey centred on Muslim youth living in Sydney. Most of Sydney’s Muslim communities live in the western and south‐western suburbs. As Graph 4 shows, respondents lived across this region, in a geographical area stretching from Randwick, Malabar and Sutherland in the east, across to Campbelltown in the south, and Penrith in the west, and Riverstone in the north.

_{Graph 4.Place of Residence of Respondents}

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