Anti-Muslim hate speech and displacement narratives: Case studies from Sri Lanka and Australia

Muslim communities have frequently been the victim of vilification and discrimination in Australia and the broader Asian region. This article discusses and compares the narratives around Muslim vilification in Australia and Sri Lanka. Despite the fact that these two nations are vastly different in size, demographics and cultural history, I will argue that there are remarkable similarities in how Muslims are subject to attack in both nations. The hate speech occasioned against Muslims in Sri Lanka and Australia is shaped by almost identical narrative structures and is cultivated in similar online environments. In both cases, anti-Muslim animus is fuelled by a fear of displacement and perceived contamination of what nativists regard as ethnically sovereign territory. I will argue that the underlying sub-text in both cases is owed to a repulsion to the physical presence of Muslims which can be understood in terms of Mary Douglas’ concept of the moral pollutant.