The Assimilation Problem of Australian Muslims

Muslim communities’ position in non-Muslim countries is frequently problematic, and Australia is not an exemption. Both Australian public attitude and Australian policy brought about inconvenient feeling among Muslims, which escalates after the introduction of anti-terror laws. 

Besides the political, social and cultural escalation on domestic level due to the introduction of anti-terror laws by the Federal Government of Australia, there is another fundamental issue which is an inevitable consequence of such circumstance. Muslims’ assimilation in Australia is one of the most important issues in this case.

Australian Muslim community was dominated by immigrants. An Australian Islamic institution’s website mentioned that majority of Australian Muslim immigrants were Lebanese, and afterward Turkish, South East Asian, and then Indo-Pakistani. Islam existed in Australia since a long time. In the early period of European settlement, Islam came in Australia through several Afghan travelers who afterward contributed significant influence upon Islam’s development in Australia.

History has shown that Afghans were not the first Muslims to reach Australia. This honour goes to the Muslim Bugis seamen of Makassar (Macassar) in the Celebes (Sulawesi), whose fishing boats began collecting trepang (a sea slug in great demand at the Chinese court) from the Gulf of Carpentaria during the 17th Century. During their limited contact with north Australia, the Muslim Bugis seamen made contact with the local Aborigines, partially influencing their art, social organization and religion.

Today the population of the Muslim community in Australia numbers about 250 000. Approximately 37 ethnic backgrounds are represented. Most Muslims in Australia live in the capital cities of Canberra, Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth, Darwin, Sydney and Melbourne, with the latter two accounting for 80% of the total Muslim population. There are small communities in the provincial centers of Shepparton, Katanning, Hedland, Geraldton, Townswille, Mareeba and in the mining town of Newman.

However, this does not guarantee Muslims’ well assimilation into Australian society and culture. Problem of assimilation has been a hot issue among academicians today. Showing his positive attitude toward Islam, Professor James Fox, an academician from the Australian National University (ANU), wishes for turning this university to be the centre for Islamic studies. Unfortunately, this positive spirit and attitude is not in line with the public attitude.

On the other hand, a sociologist Michael Humphrey, who has studied Australia’s Lebanese community, said that Muslim community in Australia were defensive upon anything regarded as being direct criticism and negative pressure over them. Humphrey observed that Muslims in Australia were talking by their ethnical terminologies more than about the more local Islam. They preferred to refer the Middle Eastern ethnical root as the base of Islam’s birth. There has been no attempt, for instance, to create a new model of Islam which is specific to Australia, which would lead to the more comprehensive way to assimilation.

Therefore, culturally, assimilation is hard to achieve in short term. The Australians’ perception on the essence of Islam and the attitude of Australian Muslims blocked the assimilation process. In a meeting with Muslim student at ANU, Canberra, vice-chancellor Prof. Ian Chubb, realized the difficulty of changing public’s culture and perception which were already stuffed by stereotypes.

A Muslim student told him about discriminative treatments received by Australian Muslims in public service sector. Prof. Chubb asserted that in this case, revising a political decision is an easy task. But to him, any policy or political decision without cultural transformation will be meaningless.

On this point, assimilation becomes more difficult as there are different perceptions and attitudes among Australian communities. The problem increases due to the difficult assimilation on the cultural level, and also due to the unsupportive policy of the government. The recent political decisions of Australia has extended the gap between Muslim and local community.

That is obvious in the establishment of Australian Federation of Islamic Councils which functions more as the agent of control which is responsible for the statements of imams and preachers in mosques, rather than communicating the interests of Australian Muslim community. Many have observed that this establishment is not based on sociological and cultural consideration, but on political and security factors.

Furthermore, the institution does not include all Muslim groups in Australia by taking in the Sunni-Muslims and abandoning the Shi’a Muslims. Besides, this institution seems to benefit the government only and trigger disintegration among Muslims.

Even so, an indication for a kind of paradigm shift about the immigrants has been rising among the Australians. There is a strong idealism of feeling inclusion therefore the status of immigrant is no more being an obstacle for assimilation. This is a good indicator whenever it supported academically, culturally, and politically. As long as these three components run well, the assimilation process of Muslim community in Australia would not meet any significant barrier. 

Anyhow, to what extend will this idealism grow within global political constellation which perceives Islam and Muslims as the global disorder’s maker and it therefore becomes common enemy of every peace-lover?