ISLAM IN AUSTRALIA
Well
before 1788, Makassan fishermen from the east-Indonesian archipelago,
fishing for trepang (sea-slugs), began annual voyages to our northern
shores. It is thought that the fishermen of Makassar had been visiting
the north coast of Western Australia, Northern Territory and Queensland
from as early as the 16th century.
Aboriginal
cave paintings also depict the traditional Makassan sailing vessel or
'prau' and a number of Makassan artifacts have been found in Aboriginal
settlements on the west and northern coast of Australia.
In
1803, Matthew Flinders recorded the sighting of 6 praus off the east of
Arnhem Land. Some inter-marriages between Aborigines and Makassans took
place and Makassan grave sites exist along the coastline.
These
early Muslim traders were among the first visitors to establish an
economic enterprise, founding Australias first modern industry. Unlike
later European settlement, Makassan enterprise encroached little on the
Aboriginal way of life. More lasting is their place in Aboriginal
history and culture.
They
came intermittently as visitors, revealing only a part of Islam. While
day-to-day contact would have made Aborigines aware of prayer times and
burial practices, Islam as a way of life had little impact on Australia.
The First Fleet
In
1770 Captain Cook landed at Botany Bay and in 1788, the First Fleet
sailed into Australian waters. Ali Williams, a Member of the Fellowship
of the First Fleeters, when investigating his own family history, found
that according to Government records, the Musters of 1802, 1811, 1822,
and the Census of 1828, had listed a number of Mohammedans, the term
used for Muslims at the time. Thus, the first Muslims settled in NSW
only 13 years after the colony was formed.
He found that a person by the name of Rhamut, aged 23, came free on the ship "Favourite" in
1801. He was later listed as a land-owner residing at Evan, near the
Nepean River in NSW. Satim, aged 25, and Marnie, aged 23, both came free
on the "Louisa" in 1828 and were employed by John Maughan as servants, residing at George Street, Sydney.
Malay divers
Long
before the last Makassan prau had sailed from Australian waters in
1907, Malay divers were employed in the pearling grounds off Western
Australia and the Northern Territory. By the 1870s, Australian pearlers
were actively recruiting Asian divers for the pearling industry,
acknowledged as being of primary importance to Australias fledgling
economy.
In
1875, it was estimated that there were 1,800 Malays working in Western
Australian waters. They were mainly recruited from Koepang under an
agreement with the Dutch colonial authorities.
Later,
Japanese were preferred and Malays were forced into other areas of
employment. In 1921, only 14 were recorded as employers, while 131
worked on their own account and 1,207 were wage-earners. The number of
Malays decreased significantly over the following decades. In the 1930s,
the Malays built a mosque in Broome.
The Afghan camel drivers
Another
group of Muslims to settle in Australia was the Afghan camel drivers.
They came between 1867 and about 1910 when the use of the camel as a
means of transportation was at its peak.
Every
school-aged child in Australia probably knows something about the
ill-fated Burke and Wills expedition in the central outback in 1860.
Camels were imported specifically for that expedition, as it was
correctly considered that camels would be more suited to exploration in
this arid and waterless land than either horses or bullocks. What seems
to have escaped most history textbooks is the fact that those
expeditionary camels were accompanied by two Muslim Afghan cameleers,
Dost Mahomet and Esan Khan. Both of these men survived the ordeal due to
the resilience of their camels. However, Dost Mohamet died shortly
after his return to Menindie, South Australia, where he suffered an
injury to his arm from one of the camels. He was buried at Menindie, the
first Afghan to die on Australian soil.
From
then on, the immense value of the camel was acknowledged and thousands
of them were imported to assist in exploration and freight haulage by
rich pastoralists like Thomas Elder. Elder was knighted in 1876 for his
importation of camels and his services to exploration, unlike his
faithful Afghan retainers, and even unlike his active partner, Samuel
Stuckey. Stuckey had gone to India in 1862 and again in 1865, and
eventually landed over 120 camels at Port Augusta, along with 31 Afghan
handlers. Included among them were two brothers, Faiz and Tagh Mahomet,
who were to go on to become perhaps the most successful and enterprising
Afghans in Australia, with huge businesses and camel studs.
The
journals, diaries and reports of early European explorers speak very
highly of the Afghans - their strict adherence to the code of Islam
(especially in regard to their daily prayers and the eating of halal
meat and the avoidance of alcohol), and their excellent character,
reliability, stamina and live-saving skills. Many of the explorers
gladly acknowledge the debt owed to their camel-handlers in saving their
lives in difficult and dangerous situations. The very success of most
of these important expeditions was due to the Afghans themselves, and
their ability to manage their camels.
But
no public recognition or reward was ever given to the Afghans. The best
that happened for some was to have a landmark named after them - for
example, "Allanah's Hill", "Bejah's Hill" and "Kamran's Well". In
all probability, the first non-Aboriginal to stand on top of Uluru
(Ayer's Rock) was not the European explorer, Gosse, but his Afghan guide
and companion, Kamran. Gosse's diary states that on 20 July 1873, after
reaching the summit, he envied Kamran's tough feet: "He seemed to
enjoy the walking about with bare feet, while mine were all in blisters,
and it was as much as I could do to stand."
The only public reminder of the Afghans is to be found in the "Ghan", the name of the famous train that runs from Port Augusta in South Australia to Alice Springs in the Northern Territory.
In
1887 the NSW railways reached Broken Hill and Bourke, and these towns
too became gathering points for the Afghans. At each of these railheads
the Afghans constructed their shanty "Ghantowns", attempted to
raise families and built ramshackle, corrugated-iron mosques. Their role
in transport, supply, discovery and camel breeding was indispensable to
Australia's economic growth and development.
But
what happened to the Afghans? Why are there to be found no resilient,
thriving communities descended from them, at least in some of those
inland towns? The answer to that question lies in a number of factors.
Racism and religious intolerance were always prevalent. The Afghans were
always "aliens" in a foreign land, never allowed to become its
citizens, even after Federation in 1901 and having lived here for two
generations. They were "non-whites", considered as culturally
inferior as the Aborigines, but more feared, because of their reputation
as rugged fighters in the two Anglo-Afghan Wars of the 1840s and 1870s.
The
death-knell really came with the advent of modern road transport. Cars
and trucks finally ended the reign of the camel as undisputed master of
the inland. Many were shot by the Authorities as a "public nuisance";
they were taxed so heavily by a burdensome licensing system that many
Afghans simply could not pay and preferred to release them into the wild
than see them destroyed. This is why Australia has the only feral
camels in the world, roaming among the saltbush scrub and gibber plains.
They are free, in robust health and excellent physical condition, and
now highly-prized as an export commodity and as tourist attractions.
It's a pity the same cannot be said for the men who introduced them and
bred them here.
The years of decline (1900-40)
In
1903 the Naturalisation Act excluded most non-Europeans from the right
to apply for naturalisation; nor were they permitted to bring their
families into the country. The White Australia Policy had significant
implications on the Australian Muslim community. Many Muslims chose to
return to their homelands. By 1921 there were fewer than 3,000 Muslims
living in Australia.
Amid
the decline was a second wave of emigrants from Albania who worked as
casual labourers in Western Australia, Queensland, and Victoria
throughout the 1920s and 1930s. The Albanians, not of Asian descent,
were not subjected to the White Australia Policy.
The Post-War years
After
the Second World War, the need for better security and a larger
population became important. The government was compelled to widen its
criteria on what constituted an acceptable Australian. The first intake
of Muslims was displaced persons from Europe (Yugoslavia, Bulgaria,
Cyprus, Poland, Hungary and Russia).
Liberalisation
of Australias immigration policies was further underpinned by an
economy which grew strongly over the next two decades. The key event in
Australias immigration history was the official abandoning of the White
Australia Policy in 1972. Between 1967 and 1971 more than 10,000
emigrated from Turkey under an agreement signed in 1967 for large-scale
assisted immigration.
Following
the Arab-Israeli war in 1967 and continuing civil war in Lebanon,
Lebanese Muslim immigration to Australia also increased dramatically. By
1981, Australia had received around 16,500 Lebanese-born Muslims.
Religious Groups
Between
1981 and 1991 Muslims increased from 0.5 per cent to 0.9 per cent of
the Australian population. The two largest groups, Catholics and
Anglicans, still account for over 50 per cent of the population.
Immigration has accounted for the vast majority of the growth of
Muslims. The second reason for the growth is the higher fertility rate.
In the 1986 Census, Muslims had the highest rate of marriage, the lowest
rate of divorce, the lowest proportion of women with no children, and
the lowest rate of religious intermarriage. [At the time of writing, the
1996 Census data had not been analysed]
Countries of origin
According
to the 1986 Census, two-thirds of Muslims were born overseas. Very
important, is the fact that one-third of Australian Muslims were born in
Australia. The bulk of Muslims in Australia have come from Turkey,
Lebanon, Yugoslavia and Cyprus (more than 50 per cent). According to the
1991 Census, 17.4 per cent were born in Lebanon and 15.5 per cent in
Turkey. The largest group of Muslims were the Australian-born, 35 per
cent. This percentage is likely to increase as births grow more than
immigration. Muslims have settled predominantly in Sydney (50 per cent)
and Melbourne (32 per cent). Only 4.3 per cent live outside one of
Australias major cities.
The
Muslim community will continue to grow. The growth rate will be
determined by the Muslim populations’ high birth rate, low rate of
religious outmarriage, conversions, and immigration.
Mosques in Australia
There
are more than 60 mosques. The first city mosque to be built in
Australia still serves the Muslim community in Adelaide, South
Australia. It was built between 1888 and the early 1890s by the Afghan
cameleers. The first mosque in NSW was built in 1891 at Broken Hill. The
Broken Hill mosque, now a museum, is presently maintained by the Broken
Hill Historical Society. The second city mosque was built in Perth in
1905. The first mosque established in Sydney in the late 1960s was in
Lakemba (Imam Ali Mosque). The King Faisal mosque in Surry Hills was
built shortly thereafter. The largest mosques in NSW are in Lakemba and
Auburn. The largest mosques in Victoria are in Preston and Broadmeadows.
The future of Islam in Australia
Islam
is here to stay and Muslims are going to play a significant role in
Australias future. The Muslims have already put religion back on the
agenda with secularism versus religion the debating point.
The
mosque remains the most vital social structure in Islam and our
association with it must be increased. Secondly, we must ensure that the
benefits that we as Muslims receive from Islam are also communicated to
the wider non-Muslim community. We should be ambassadors of Islam and
promote Islamically-based systems and alternatives as potential
solutions to the problems faced by the wider community, such as:
abstention to combat alcoholism; having a life-mission to prevent
suicide, shared equity and rental instead of usury, etc.
Equipped
with good will, hard work, increased faith, wisdom and dedication,
Muslims in Australia will indeed ensure a brighter future for themselves
and for Australia as a whole.
"You
are the best of peoples ever raised up for mankind, you enjoin what is
good and forbid what is bad, and you believe in Allah."
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