Born in Pakistan as the child of Muslim parents, Islam buzzed away quietly in the background of Sami Shah’s life until he succumbed to peer pressure. All the cool kids, he says, were praying.
Shah had a short stint as a teenage radical and upped the ante once again while living in the United States post-9/11, where he transformed into a “Frightening Muslim” – one of five types of Muslim that he classifies in his new book. He grew out his beard and began using Islam to soothe his seething rage over the invasion of Iraq.
But “violence just isn’t a consideration”, Shah says – and rather than becoming a “Downright Crazy Muslim”, he began channelling his anger into writing and standup. “Because comedy is inherently about ridiculing everything, my cynicism and atheism soon followed,” he writes. He contrasts his own journey with a friend of his who went the other way and joined the Taliban.
These days, Shah is a comedian, a writer and an atheist – but he still identifies as a cultural Muslim. “Muslim culture is part of my background,” he says. “I am fascinated by it; I do love aspects of it.”
His new book, The Islamic Republic of Australia, sprang from his frustration over the lack of nuance in the highly charged debates about the religion in Australia.
“It’s atrocious, on both sides. It’s simplistic and almost childlike,” he says.
More often than not, the debate flares up in the wake of a terrorist attack; recently, for instance, Pauline Hanson used terror attacks in London to call for a ban on Muslim migration to Australia. One opposing view is that Islam is a religion of peace. “Which is again not practical, because Islam isn’t a religion of peace: there is no such thing as a religion of peace,” Shah insists. “Both sides keep shouting the same one-liners at each other.”
Shah’s book seeks to provide “an unflinching understanding of Australia’s Muslim community”. It starts with the basics, asking the former secretary of the Islamic Council of Victoria, Kuranda Seyit, “What’s a Muslim?” The answer is that in Australia, Muslim communities are fragmented along their nationality of origin as well as the type of Islam they practice. But the most important thing to remember, he writes, is that there are many types of Muslims.
“I can prove there’s no single monolithic ‘Muslim’ who needs to be feared and driven out. Rather, there are many types of Muslims with various beliefs – and while some of these may be problematic, most Muslims are just trying to lead peaceful lives.”
Shah’s research includes conversations with academics, Islamic leaders and well-known public figures. It aims to clear up old chestnuts about Muslims in Australia, such as whether Australia is “swamped” by them. According to the 2011 census, just 2.2 % of Australia’s population is Muslim.
He writes: “If Australia is indeed at risk of being ‘swamped by Muslims’, as One Nation senator Pauline Hanson claimed in September 2016, it’s a really slow-moving swamp that’s mostly confined to a swimming pool somewhere in Sydney, with a few other puddles in other cities.”Shah has previously published two books: a fantasy novel called Fire Boy (“that’s the thing I’m inordinately proud of”); and a memoir, I, Migrant, about leaving the explosion-prone megacity of Karachi for the Western Australian country town of Northam, where he was forced to live for almost four years “because the immigration department has a sense of humour all its own”.
He describes himself as a “serial blasphemer”. One chapter in his book is titled “How to blaspheme”, and another is “Apostates are people too”. While performing as a comedian in Pakistan, the government’s strict blasphemy laws, which carry the death penalty, had been an occupational hazard; he was accused of blasphemy by an audience member after his first standup gig there, and never again touched on religion while performing in the country.
In March, the government of Pakistan asked Facebook and Twitter to help identify blasphemers in Pakistan and abroad, with the aim to extradite and prosecute them (Shah says that vigilante groups usually murder the accused before they even set foot in court). And in mid-June a court in Lahore sentenced a 30-year-old man to death for posting “blasphemous content” on his Facebook page.
Shah found refuge in Australia for his material and became a citizen in January.
“Now I have the protection of Australian citizenship to at least fall back on,” he says. “[In Pakistan] you can’t talk about religion at all unless it’s in glowing, worshipping terms. For someone who is a committed atheist, being able to talk openly about the major issues that need to be addressed in Islam is very empowering.”
• The Islamic Republic of Australia is out now through ABC Books
