History Of Development Of Islam In Australia

 Photo Development Of Islam In Australia

Islam in Australia is a small minority religious grouping, but fourth largest after all forms of Christianity (64%), irreligion (18.7%), and Buddhism (2.1%), excluding 11.2% which failed to answer. According to the 2006 census, approximately 340,392 people, or only 1.71% of the total Australian population were Muslims.

 Photo Development Of Islam In Australia

While the Australian Muslim community is defined largely by religious belonging, the community is fragmented further by being the most racially, ethnically, culturally and linguistically diverse religious grouping in Australia, with members from every ethnic and racial background, including Anglo-Celtic Australian Muslims. Members of the Australian Muslim community thus also espouse parallel non-religious ethnic identities with related non-Muslim counterparts, either within Australia or abroad.

Although Islam's presence in Australia is often perceived to be recent by Australian non-Muslims, adherents of Islam from what is today Indonesia had in fact been visiting the Great southern land prior to colonial era settlement of European Christians. For several centuries these Muslims had traded with coastal Aboriginal peoples of the north. The common misconception among Australian non-Muslims that Islam is new to Australia is due mostly to knowledge of Islam and Muslims limited only to the recent migratory waves from the Middle East and North Africa, South East Asia, the Balkans of Europe, Indian sub continent, and most recently from Sub-Saharan Africa.

Photo Development Of Islam In Australia

Pre-European Australia The first Muslims in Australia were traders from ethnic groups indigenous to the Indonesian archipelago. The Macassan and Bugis traders from Indonesia may have had a relationship with the Indigenous people of northern Australia, and their language influenced Indigenous Australians of different tribes.

Macassan trepangers and Bugis traders from Sulawesi (formerly Celebes) visited the coast of northern Australia for hundreds of years prior to arrival of Europeans in Australia to fish for trepang (also known as sea cucumber or "sandfish"), a marine invertebrate prized for its culinary and medicinal values in Chinese markets.

Post World War II 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. This was the first Muslim community of Middle Eastern origin to settle in Australia. 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 newer foreign nationals assimilate and forgo their heritage, the government became more accommodating and tolerant of differences by adopting a policy of multiculturalism.

Photo Development Of Islam In Australia

Muslims in contemporary Australian society There are developed trade links between Australia and several Muslim countries, particularly Middle Eastern, for instance through the export of halal meat. The meat export industry is regulated in Australia and managed by the Meat and Livestock Association.

Of the thousands of international students studying in Australia, a number are Muslims from countries such as Malaysia, Indonesia, India, Bangladesh and Pakistan.