Scholar · Commentator · Consultant
An interdisciplinary critical sociologist and public intellectual specialising in Islamophobia, racialised governance, Muslim political agency, and colonial power structures across Western settler societies, with strong expertise in qualitative research, anti-racism policy, and community-engaged scholarship.
New book · Palgrave Macmillan 2025
The Politics of Anti-Islamophobia in Australia
Politics of Identity and Citizenship series
The first sustained analysis of how Australian Muslim community organisations understand and strategically respond to Islamophobia.
Publisher page →Recent writing
About
My work interrogates the structural conditions under which Muslim political subjectivity is produced, constrained, and recontextualised within multicultural liberal governance.
I am an interdisciplinary critical sociologist and public intellectual specialising in Islamophobia, racialised governance, Muslim political agency, and colonial power structures across Western settler societies. My research spans Islamophobia studies, settler-colonial critique, and decolonial theory, with sustained attention to the Australian context and strong expertise in qualitative research, anti-racism policy, and community-engaged scholarship.
My doctoral research, funded through a scholarship by the UNESCO Chair for Cultural Diversity and Social Justice at Deakin University's Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation, generated the first book-length account of how Australian Muslim community organisations understand and strategically respond to Islamophobia: The Politics of Anti-Islamophobia in Australia (Palgrave Macmillan, 2025).
I have held teaching and research roles across Deakin University, Monash University, the University of Melbourne, Macquarie University, and Box Hill Institute, spanning sociology, political Islam, cultural diversity, and migration studies. I have served as General Executive Member of the Australian Association of Islamic and Muslim Studies (AAIMS), and as an Expert Advisory Group member for the Australian Human Rights Commission's national anti-racism campaign. I contribute expert evidence and policy analysis to civil society organisations, and my commentary appears regularly in independent Australian and international media.
I am bilingual in Arabic and English and bring a comparative Australian and Middle East perspective to my scholarship, writing, and advisory work.
Research
My research asks how Islamophobia operates as a political and institutional problem, and what Muslim communities in Australia and beyond do about it. I deploy qualitative methods, critical discourse analysis, and theoretical frameworks spanning Foucauldian governmentality, Strong Structuration Theory, and recognition theory. Drawing on sociology, political science, and Islamophobia studies, my work is grounded in community-level qualitative data and sustained engagement with Muslim communities in Australia.
01
How is Islamophobia defined, reproduced, and contested? I examine Islamophobia not simply as prejudice but as a racialised political technology shaping governance, media, and law, connecting Australian debates to international frameworks, including how the concept is weaponised through "new antisemitism" and IHRA-infused multicultural governance.
Journal of Intercultural Studies (2021), Religions (2020, 2023), The Politics of Anti-Islamophobia in Australia, Palgrave (2025), Middle East Monitor (2025)
02
What do Muslim organisations actually do in response to Islamophobia, and how do Islamophobia discourses shape their strategies? This is the core of my book: the first empirical analysis of Australian Muslim community organisations' anti-Islamophobia responses, the logics of action driving them, and how Palestinian solidarity is reshaping Muslim advocacy.
The Politics of Anti-Islamophobia in Australia, Palgrave (2025)
03
How does Australian media cover Muslim communities, and how does that coverage shift during moments of crisis? I co-authored A War of Words (2023), a systematic analysis of nine Australian news outlets' Instagram coverage of the 2023 Israel-Gaza war, and have a further study under review examining grammatical bias in Gaza coverage across Australian media.
A War of Words, Islamophobia Register Australia (2023)
04
Who gets to produce knowledge about race and Islam in Australian universities, and at what cost? Drawing on my research at the University of Melbourne, I have examined the racialised barriers faced by academics of colour, including through the "Breaking the Glass Ceiling" project, and contributed to theorising decolonial feminist futures for women of colour in academia.
Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology (2023), Breaking the Glass Ceiling, University of Melbourne (2026)
05
Through research conducted at Monash University, I have investigated the experiences of migrants and international students in precarious labour arrangements, including graduate students enrolled in migration skills assessment schemes. This work connects migration governance to questions of racialised exploitation and unfree labour.
Monash University evaluation migration project (2023, 2024)
06
As a research fellow at the Alfred Deakin Institute, I contributed to an ARC project examining Afghan refugee settlement in Australia and the disparities in knowledge production between the Global South and Global North, interrogating how colonial hierarchies shape which knowledge counts in policy and scholarship.
ARC project contributions, Deakin University (2021)
Book, Palgrave Macmillan 2025
Based on more than 150 hours of interviews with over 30 Muslim community actors across Victoria, this book offers the first book-length account of how Australian Muslim organisations understand Islamophobia and develop strategic responses. Drawing on Strong Structuration Theory, Foucauldian governmentality, and recognition theory, it reveals the assertive and apologetic logics that simultaneously enable and constrain Muslim political agency. The final chapter reflects on how the 2023 War on Gaza catalysed new forms of activism that are reshaping anti-Islamophobia advocacy in Australia.
Publisher page →How Islamophobia Enabled Genocide
Unrecognisable: Muslim Political Solidarity with Palestine and the Limits of State Multicultural Recognition in Australia
New Antisemitism is Islamophobia's New Apparatus: An IHRA-Infused Australian Multicultural Governance and its Impact on Australian Muslims
Breaking the Glass Ceiling: Academic People of Colour and the Experience of Racism in Australian Universities
Research collaboration
Interested in collaborating on research?
I welcome enquiries from researchers and institutions working on Islamophobia, Muslim communities, race, and related fields.
Publications
Book
2025
The Politics of Anti-Islamophobia in Australia: The Case of Muslim Community Organisations
BookPalgrave Macmillan, Politics of Identity and Citizenship series
The first book-length study of how Australian Muslim community organisations understand and respond to Islamophobia, examining the assertive and apologetic logics informing Muslim political agency, and how the 2023 Gaza war is reshaping Australian Muslim advocacy.
Publisher page →Journal articles
2023
Australian Muslims' Visibility: The Politics of Oppression and Recognition
Religions, 14(1), 93
Examines how Muslim community organisations navigate the politics of visibility, deploying strategic interventions within sites of Australianness to contest negative hyper-visibility.
doi:10.3390/rel140100932023
Women of Color in Academia: Theorizing in the Flesh Toward Decolonial Feminist Futures
Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology, 29(1), 10-20
Centres the embodied experiences of women of colour academics, theorising toward decolonial feminist futures in the Australian university sector.
doi:10.1037/pac00006422021
Frames of Meaning: The Assertive and Apologetic Logic of Action Informing Anti-Islamophobia Responses by Australian Muslim Community Organisations
Journal of Intercultural Studies, 42(5), 660-679
Reveals how Islamophobia discourses infiltrate and shape Muslim organisations' anti-Islamophobia responses, producing competing assertive and apologetic action logics.
doi:10.1080/07256868.2021.19711742020
Muslim Community Organizations' Perceptions of Islamophobia: Towards an Informed Countering Response
Religions, 11(10), 485
Analyses Victorian Muslim organisations' framing of Islamophobia across multiple domains of power, arguing for inter-community solidarity and separate Muslim advocacy structures.
doi:10.3390/rel11100485Reports and policy documents
2026
Breaking the Glass Ceiling: Report on Understanding the Barriers Experienced by People of Colour Academics in the University Sector
University of Melbourne
Investigates the racialised barriers facing academics of colour in Australian universities, with findings and recommendations for institutional reform.
2023
A War of Words: Preliminary Media Analysis of the 2023 Israel-Gaza War
Islamophobia Register Australia
Systematic analysis of how nine Australian news outlets covered the 2023 Israel-Gaza war on Instagram, examining framing, language, and media bias.
Islamophobia Register Australia →2020
Supplementary Evidence and Recommendations on Good Practices to Counter Islamophobia in Australia
Australian Muslim Advocacy Network (AMAN), input to UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief
Evidence-based policy recommendations submitted as supplementary input to the UN Special Rapporteur's report on anti-Muslim hatred and discrimination.
Full document (OHCHR) →Under review and in preparation
—
How Islamophobia Enabled Genocide
Under review—
"When bombs just 'fall'": Grammatical Voice, Humanisation, and Media Bias in Australian Coverage of the 2023 Gaza War
In preparationMedia International Australia
—
Unrecognisable: Muslim Political Solidarity with Palestine and the Limits of State Multicultural Recognition in Australia
Under review—
New Antisemitism is Islamophobia's New Apparatus: An IHRA-Infused Australian Multicultural Governance and its Impact on Australian Muslims
In preparation—
Unfree Labour: The Experience of Graduate International Students Enrolled in Migration Skills Assessment Schemes
In preparationFull citation record: Google Scholar, H-index: 3, Citations: 43. Contact me for copies of paywalled articles.
Op-eds and Media
Overland Literary Journal
United in grief, divided in strategy: the limits of Australian Muslim political engagement
April 2026
An analysis of how grief over Gaza has united Australian Muslims emotionally while exposing deep strategic divergences, and what this means for Muslim political futures in Australia.
Read in Overland →
AMUST, Australian Muslim Times
From Christchurch to Gaza: the politics of Islamophobia
March 2026
Tracing the political arc from the Christchurch massacre to the Gaza war, examining how Islamophobia is manufactured through geopolitical ordering and what this means for Muslim lives in the West.
Read in AMUST →
Middle East Monitor
New antisemitism is Islamophobia's new apparatus
December 2025
How antisemitism has been reframed as a tool within the Islamophobia apparatus, normalising and rationalising anti-Muslim racism while Israel carries out genocide in Gaza.
Read in Middle East Monitor →
Overland Literary Journal
Where the envoy's Islamophobia report fails Muslims
September 2025
A critical assessment of the Australian government's special envoy report on Islamophobia, and where its recommendations fall short of addressing structural racism against Muslims.
Read in Overland →
Pearls and Irritations
Albanese is expelling the wrong embassy
August 2025
On Australia's foreign policy choices regarding Palestine, and the contradictions between the government's anti-racism rhetoric and its complicity in the ongoing Gaza war.
Read in Pearls and Irritations →
Overland Literary Journal
Australia's Palestinian citizens are second-class citizens
February 2024
Examining how Palestinian Australians have been treated as second-class citizens in Australia's response to the Gaza war, through the lens of racialised citizenship and multicultural governance.
Read in Overland →
Overland Literary Journal
The failure to value Palestinian lives in Gaza subjects us to violence everywhere
October 2023
On how the devaluation of Palestinian lives is not isolated to Gaza but has implications for the safety and dignity of Muslim communities and people of colour globally.
Read in Overland →Writing enquiries
I write for general audiences on Islamophobia, Muslim politics, Palestine, and race in Australia. I am available for commissioned pieces, expert commentary, and media interviews in English and Arabic.
Speaking
I speak on Islamophobia, Muslim political agency, media and race, Palestinian solidarity, and comparative governance at academic conferences and public forums. I am available for keynotes, panel discussions, and public lectures, online or in person, in English and Arabic.
France and Australia: Comparative Analysis of Islamophobia
▶ Watch the presentation2021
Presenter"Muslims' Visibility as an Anti-Islamophobia Strategy by Victorian Muslim Community Organisations"
AAIMS →2021
Presenter"How Australian Muslims, Individuals and Organisations Counter Islamophobia Using Creative Means"
Western Sydney University →2020
Presenter"Muslim Community Organizations' Understanding of Islamophobia: Towards an Informed Countering Response"
Australian Association for the Study of Religion →2020
Panel presenter"Women of Colour in Academia: Embodied Creativity and Theorising from the Flesh"
RMIT University →2020
Presenter"Towards Combating Islamophobia: The Conduct of Muslim Community Organisations in Victoria"
RMIT University →2019
Presenter"Conceptualisation of Anti-Islamophobia Activism Using Strong Structuration Theory"
The Australian Sociological Association →2019
Presenter"Towards Combating Islamophobia: The Context of the Muslim Community Organisations in Victoria"
AAIMS →2017
Presenter"Countering Islamophobia: Islamic Organisations in Australia as Agents of Resistance"
AAIMS →
Our Race Social Enterprise
2021, 2023
As Director of Research and Community Engagement and later as Workshops Developer and Facilitator, I delivered multiple workshops to stakeholders on Our Race's Transformative Ethical Story Telling framework. I also moderated the panel discussion for "Who Gets to Tell the Story?", featuring The Subject Documentary.
ourrace.com.au →
Keynote Speaker, Dismantling Islamophobia and Racism (DIR)
2022
Invited by the Muslim Legal Network and Activate Youth to deliver the keynote address at the inaugural DIR workshop, held with Wyndham Community and Education Centre and Wyndham City Council. I also joined the panel on "How to identify Islamophobia" alongside the presidents of the Muslim Legal Network and Muslim Health Practitioners Australia.
Australia-Indonesia Muslim Exchange Program (AIMEP)
2023
Invited by Mosaic Connections to participate in AIMEP, the flagship program of the Australia Indonesia Institute (DFAT), meeting delegates from Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, and Brunei to share and discuss issues facing Muslim communities in Australia and across ASEAN.
Speaking invitations
Invite me to speak at your event
Available for keynotes, panel discussions, and public lectures, online or in person, in English and Arabic.
Advisory
Australian Human Rights Commission
Expert Advisory Group, Anti-Racism Campaign (2024 to present)
humanrights.gov.au →Australian Association of Islamic and Muslim Studies (AAIMS)
General Executive Member (2021 to present)
aaims.org.au →Muslim Network of Academics and Researchers Australia (MNARA)
Executive Member (2026 to present)
mnara.au →The Equality Institute
Guest Mentor, "Find the Joy" Feminist Leadership Incubator (2024)
equalityinstitute.org →Centre for Resilient and Inclusive Societies (CRIS)
Associate Member (2021, 2022)
crisconsortium.org →Scanlon Foundation Research Institute
Advisory Committee Member (2020, 2021)
scanloninstitute.org.au →Our Race Social Enterprise
Consultancy, Research and Workshop Facilitator (2021, 2023)
ourrace.com.au →Services
My research is oriented toward social and political justice problems, issues that matter in the real world. On occasion, and selectively, I take on advisory and consultancy work with organisations whose priorities intersect with my areas of expertise. What I bring is the analytical rigour of scholarship on Islamophobia, Muslim political agency, and racialised governance, applied to practical questions your organisation may be grappling with.
01
Systematic, evidence-based research on Islamophobia, Muslim communities, multiculturalism, and race, including literature reviews, policy evaluations, and qualitative fieldwork. Tailored for government agencies, NGOs, universities, and research institutes. Available in English and Arabic.
02
Strategic guidance for organisations navigating Islamophobia, anti-racism, and Muslim community engagement. I have served as an expert advisor to the Australian Human Rights Commission and contributed expert evidence to UN processes on anti-Muslim hatred. I offer high-level counsel for bodies that need rigorous, credible expertise.
03
Interactive workshops on Islamophobia awareness, anti-racism practice, and cultural safety, tailored to your sector and audience. I have delivered training to government agencies, universities, and community organisations. My facilitation experience includes workshop development with Our Race Social Enterprise.
04
Helping organisations communicate accurately and sensitively on issues involving Muslim communities, Islamophobia, and race, including media monitoring, framing advice, and editorial consultation. Particularly valuable during moments of public crisis or heightened media scrutiny.
05
Rigorous, readable research essays, policy briefs, and analytical reports for organisations that need expert analysis communicated clearly to non-specialist audiences. Delivered in English; Arabic available.
?
Every engagement begins with a conversation. I am happy to discuss how my expertise might be most useful to your organisation or project before any commitment is made.
The following are types of organisations whose work aligns with my expertise, and where I would welcome the opportunity to contribute.
Consulting enquiries
Invite me to consult on your project
Available remotely, in English and Arabic, across Australian and Middle East contexts.
Contact
I welcome enquiries about media commentary, speaking invitations, research collaboration, and consulting. I respond to all messages within five business days. For urgent media enquiries, please note this in your message.
Twitter / X
Google Scholar
ORCID
Deakin University