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A History of Islam in Australia
by Bilal Cleland
A comprehensive and very detailed study by Bilal Cleland of the history of Islam
in Australia.
Introduction
Islam in our Near North
The Fleet of Prahus
The Impact of Macassar
White Christian Civilisation to the East
The Conquest of the Interior
The Camel Communications Network
Racism rears its head
Muslims and the Policy of Racial Exclusion
from 1901
The Muslim Community before the Great War
Muslim Family Life
The Great War
The Indians, the Empire and White Australia
Pearling and White Australia
Between the World Wars
The Thinking behind Racial Classifications
The Approach of the Second World War, Refugees and Australia
After the Second World War
White Australia sinks into oblivion
Building a National Body
Discrimination at the level of Local Government
The Gulf War
Conclusion
Introduction
The isolation of Australia was not as total as some Eurocentric historians have
asserted. The straits and seas to our north have been very busy routes for many
centuries. Travellers in the region have included some of the outstanding figures
of Islamic history and just how close they came is uncertain. However they did
not leave their mark upon the place. The known history of Muslim contact is dominated
by two outstanding factors, firstly that of European colonisation and secondly
that of racial discrimination.
It was the spread of European settlement and administration which ejected the
Muslim Macassans from trade and cultural contacts with northern Australian. Although
there were desultory attempts to utilize that contact for the benefit of the British
Empire, they came to nothing. The memory of the Macassans remained among the tribal
peoples of the north but almost completely vanished from the consciousness of
mainstream European Australia. The few Muslims present in the penal settlements
of the east coast also failed to make an impact upon colonial society and went
largely unnoticed by 200 years of Australian historical writing.
The growing demand from the east coast of the continent for new lands and for
new mining areas, in the middle of the nineteenth century, facilitated the introduction
of the camel and its appendage, the Muslim Afghan cameleer. These despised men
had greater impact than previous Muslims but their vital importance in every exploratory
expedition into central Australia from the Burke and Wills debacle until the 1939
crossing of the Simpson Desert, is still only dimly perceived by most modern Australians.
Their role in the construction of the 1872 Overland Telegraph, in carrying supplies
into the interior, keeping remote stations and settlements alive in the most severe
drought, in providing water to desert mining towns for many years, was written
out of the history books. Their role lasted for about fifty years. As the railways
moved inland and as the 1901 Immigration Restriction Act and accompanying restrictive
legislation killed off their businesses and their contacts with their home countries,
their mosques and their faith faded from the scene.
The hawkers, whether Afghan or Indian, with their bases in the major cities, were
also subjected to this harsh legislation and were, by their racial identification,
alienated from the mainstream European community. Although there were signs of
an embryonic Muslim community in both Sydney and Melbourne at the turn of the
twentieth century, this also faded away. It was only in the far north, in the
pearling areas, that non-Europeans were allowed to enter, under indenture to employers.
This caused considerable controversy but as the industry was considered too demanding
for European workers, the exceptions were permitted to continue for the duration
of the life of the White Australia Policy. Malays were reluctantly allowed in.
It was not until the economic boom which occurred after the Second World War that
a significant and permanent Muslim population established a base in this country.
A dearth of European workers willing to migrate encouraged the Australian government
to bring Turkish immigrants to fill the gap left. At about the same time that
there was an increased demand for places from Lebanese wishing to immigrate. Since
the early 1970s the various Muslim communities, now concentrated mainly in Melbourne
and Sydney, have developed many mosques and Islamic schools and have begun to
take their place in Australian society. This process has been encouraged by the
adoption of a multicultural policy framework by all levels of Australian government.
Although there are still points of friction between the institutions of Australian
society and the Muslim community, it is establishing itself and shows none of
the signs of impermanence associated with earlier Muslim communities in this country.
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