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Islam in Australia

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Islam in Australia is the third largest religion after Christianity and Buddhism. According to the 2001 census, approximately 281,600 people or 1.5% of the population identified themselves as being Muslim.

History

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Islam has had a relatively long and diverse history in Australia.

Colonial period

During early European settlement, some Muslim sailors and prisoners came to Australia but very little is known about them as they left no traces behind, except for a few scattered references to their names. It was not until the 19th century that a more permanent Islamic presence was recognised.

During the 1870s, Muslim Malay divers were recruited through an agreement with the Dutch to work on Western Australian and Northern Territory pearling grounds. By 1875, there were 1800 Malay divers working in Western Australia. Most returned to their home countries.

Camels were imported to Australia from the 1860s onwards and used by European explorers to help open up the dry interior. Their handlers also immigrated to run the camel trains which were introduced to deal with the logistical demands of Australia's vast deserts. Many of these were Muslims, and while they came from several countries, they were usually known in Australia as "Afghans". Due to the Afghans’ knowledge and expertise with camels, they were credited with saving the lives of numerous early European explorers and were vital for exploration. Hence the south-north railway is named The Ghan short for The Afghan.

20th century

In the early twentieth century, Muslims of non-European descent experienced many difficulties in emigrating to Australia because of a government policy which limited immigration on the basis of race. Known as the White Australia Policy, this was used to maintain social homogeneity in the Commonwealth of Australia and to preserve the cultural life of the European majority already settled. However, some Muslims still managed to come to Australia. In the 1920s and 1930s, Albanian Muslims were accepted due to their lighter European complexion, which was more compatible with the White Australia Policy. Albanian Muslims built the first mosque in Victoria in the town of Shepparton in 1960, and the first mosque in Melbourne in the year 1963.

Post World War Two

The perceived need for population growth and economic development in Australia led to the broadening of Australia’s immigration policy in the post-World War II period. This allowed for the acceptance of a number of displaced Muslims who began to arrive from Europe. Moreover, between 1967 and 1971, approximately 10,000 Turks settled in Australia under an agreement between Australia and Turkey. Almost all of these people went to Melbourne and Sydney.

From the 1970s onwards, there was a significant shift in the government’s attitude towards immigration. Instead of trying to make new Australians ‘assimilate’ and forgo their unique cultural identities, the government became more accommodating and tolerant of differences by adopting a policy of ‘multiculturalism’. By the beginning of the twenty-first century, Muslims from more than sixty countries had settled in Australia. While a very large number of them come from Turkey and Lebanon, there are Muslims from Indonesia, Bosnia, Iran, Fiji, Albania, Sudan, Egypt, the Palestinian territories, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India, among others.

Late 20th century

Large-scale Muslim migration began in 1975 with the migration of Lebanese Muslims, which rapidly increased during the Lebanese Civil War. The Lebanese are still the largest and highest-profile Muslim group in Australia. They form the core of Australia's Muslim Arab population, which also includes many Iraqis, particularly in Australia's largest city, Sydney, where most Arabs in Australia live. Approximately 3.4% of Sydney's population are Muslim, about half of Australia's Islamic population. They are particularly concentrated in the suburb of Lakemba and surrounding areas, such as Punchbowl, Wiley Park, Bankstown and Auburn.

In Australia's second largest city, Melbourne, many Muslims, mainly of Turkish, Albanian, Bosnian and Arab ethnicity live primarily in the northern suburbs surrounding Broadmeadows (mostly Turkish) and a few in the outer southern suburbs such as Noble Park and Dandenong (mainly Albanian and Bosniak). Unlike Sydney, Victoria's Muslims are more likely to be Turkish than Lebanese.

Very few Muslims live in regional areas with the exceptions of the sizeable Turkish and Albanian community in Shepparton, Victoria and Malaysians in Katanning, Western Australia. Men in both communities work in the local meat-packing industries.

In Perth there is quite a big Muslim community. Many Muslims live around a suburb called Thornlie as it is close by to the Thornlie Mosque and the Australian Islamic College (Thornlie Campus). The Australian Islamic College is an Islamic school which is located in 3 areas and has around 2000 students altogether. Another suburb with many Muslims is Mirrabooka. There are a relatively large number of Halal restaurants in Perth, with many selling Kebabs. The oldest mosque in Perth is the Perth Mosque which is in the city. It has an old original section but many parts of the mosque were added on. On Friday nights people from all over the city gather at the mosque to hear some lectures and to make Itikaaf. Other mosques in Perth are Rivervale Mosque, Mirrabooka Mosque and Hepburn Mosque.

There are also sizeable communities of Muslims from Turkey, the Indian Subcontinent (Pakistan, India and Bangladesh) and South-East Asia, all of these communities are concentrated in Sydney and Melbourne (the Turkish communities around Auburn, New South Wales and Broadmeadows, Victoria and the South Asian communities around Parramatta and Dandenong. Indonesian Muslims, who are more widely distributed, are a particularly significant element of the population of Darwin.

Australia also attracts a large number of Muslim students for studies, from Malaysia, Indonesia, Bangladesh and increasingly from the Gulf region.

There is a deep split within the Australian Muslim community. Most Muslims in New South Wales are Arabs, whereas most Muslims in Victoria are of Turkish or Albanian ethnicity. There are also significant Pakistani and Bangladeshi Muslim communities in both cities, numbering roughly 10-12 thousand from each community in the country. Victorian Muslims tend to be generally more secular and indications show they are much more integrated than those in New South Wales.

There have been arguments between the two communities with the mainly moderate Turkish Australian community refusing to accept the more fundamentalist Taj El-Din Hilaly (an Arab born in Egypt) as Australia's mufti. Victorian Imams do not recognise Hilaly.

Present day Islam in Australia

Aboriginal Muslims

There is also a growing community of indigenous Aboriginal Muslims, conservatively estimated as 1000 individuals, or 1 in 400 aborigines. This community is rising rapidly as a result of increasing rates of conversions; many do it for spiritual purposes while others see Islam as empowering; they say it gives them strength to face the challenges of being the most disadvantaged group in Australia. The history of Islam among the Aboriginal population may be older than with Christianity. Some of the oldest contacts of the Aborigines with Muslims include some of the oldest contacts with the outside world itself because most of the people neighbouring Australia are Muslim (see Macassan contact with Australia). More contact came with the "Afghan" camel trains, where the two groups found that they shared a similar sense of spirituality and there was some intermarriage. The boxer Anthony Mundine is a member of this community.

Contribution to Australian society

The Afghans were the pioneers of the Muslim contributions to Australian life. Afghan cameleers were recruited to Australia to assist in the early exploration of the continent, participated in many expeditions to explore Australia. The camel transport industry in the late nineteenth century played a role in the economic development of Australia including the transport of goods and assistance laying overland telegraph and railway lines. With the establishment of the railways and increasing numbers of vehicles, camels were made superfluous.

The cameleers either returned to their native countries or integrated into society. They created a number of legacies that have continued into the present. Their camels were released at the time, later these came became classified as a pest. This was because of the damage the were doing, yet now they are a considerably desired export as this population of camels is disease free. Australian feral camels are the largest population of wild camels in the world. The Ghan passenger rail service that bisects the continent from Adelaide to Darwin is named in honour of the Afghan cameleers.

In contemporary Australian life, Muslims from all over the world have made some contributions to the country in overseas trade. They have developed trade links between Australia and several Muslim countries, particularly Middle Eastern, for instance through the export of halal meat. These Muslims have opened up new channels for trade between Australia and their countries of origin.

Of the thousands of international students studying in Australia, a significant number are Muslims from countries such as Malaysia, Indonesia, India, Bangladesh and Pakistan. Many have settled in Australia under the "skilled migration program" after completing studies at their own expense. Muslim doctors, engineers, lawyers, scientists, academics, tradespeople and blue-collar workers are participating in Australian life. Some Muslim leaders have promoted interfaith religious dialogue in order to encourage greater mutual understanding between people. The Muslim community has enhanced the debate in Australian society about the interests of minority groups.

Islamic schools

See also

References

  1. Arthur Clark (January/February 1988). "Camels Down Under". Saudi Aramco World. Retrieved 2006-11-19. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  2. Phil Mercer (2003-03-31). "Aborigines turn to Islam". BBC. Retrieved 2006-11-19. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  3. Kathy Marks, The Independent Militant Aborigines embrace Islam to seek empowerment. 28 February 2003 retrieved 2007-02-01

Further reading

  • Cleland, Bilal. The Muslims in Australia: A Brief History. Melbourne: Islamic Council of Victoria, 2002.
  • Kabir, Nahid. Muslims in Australia: Immigration, Race Relations and Cultural History. London: Kegan Paul, 2004.
  • Saeed, Abdullah. Islam in Australia. Crows Nest, NSW: Allen & Unwin, 2003.
  • Saeed, Abdullah and Shahram Akbarzadeh, eds. Muslim Communities in Australia. Sydney: UNSW Press, 2001.
  • Stevens, Christine. Tin Mosques and Ghantowns.

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