Facilitation of Cultural Awareness,

Issues Deliberation Australia, ACT (AUS)

Client Issue: In March 2007 IDA called for experienced international facilitators able to deal with large scale groups, to attend Old Government House, Canberra, to discuss  highly sensitive topics for a major deliberative poll on Muslims & Non-Muslims in Australia. This was the first survey of attitudes to Muslims & their culture/values & if or how their presence effects Australia’s way of life & the nation’s security.

Solution: We helped to facilitate over 350 randomly selected members of the Australian voting-age population whilst they deliberated on the cultural, political, social & religious similarities & differences between Muslim & Non-Muslim people living in Australia & how they might live together in the future.

Outcome: Australians feel less threatened by Muslims living in Australia after the opportunity to talk & think about the issues that concern them like terrorism, national security & any threat to the Australian way of life. Before deliberation, an initial survey showed 49% thought incompatibility between Muslim & Western values was a big contributor to terrorism. After an intense weekend of focus group discussions, information from an array of views & the opportunity to ask questions of competing experts, the Australians surveyed shifted their opinions dramatically. On the question of terrorism, the number who thought an incompatibility between values was a big contributor dropped from 49% to 22%. Before the poll, 22% thought Muslims coming to Australia had a bad impact on national security. Afterwards that halved to 23%. Before deliberating, 35% thought Muslims were a threat to the Australian way of life. After, that figure fell to 21%.

Other Case Studies