The first Muslims to settle permanently in Australia were the cameleers, mainly from Afghanistan. Between the 1860s and 1920s, the Muslim camelmen worked the inland tracks and developed relationships with local Aboriginal people.
Contact between Muslim Indonesian fishermen from Southern Sulawesi and Indigenous people in northern Australia from around the 1750s is the earliest evidence of a Muslim connection to Australia.
Islam's introduction to Australia predates European colonization, through waves of contact and settlement including Macassan interaction with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples along the northern coast; Muslim sailors, convicts, and settlers arriving with European colonization; the opening of the interior ...
Most historians believe that Islam originated in Mecca and Medina at the start of the 7th century CE. Muslims regard Islam as a return to the original faith of the Abrahamic prophets, such as Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, Solomon, and Jesus, with the submission (Islām) to the will of God.
Many historians claim that the earliest Muslims came from the Senegambian region of Africa in the early 14th century. It is believed they were Moors, expelled from Spain, who made their way to the Caribbean and possibly to the Gulf of Mexico.
Hinduism has been called the oldest religion in the world. The word Hindu is an exonym although many practitioners refer to their religion as Sanātana Dharma (Sanskrit: सनातन धर्म, lit.
The first Muslims to settle permanently in Australia were the cameleers, mainly from Afghanistan. Between the 1860s and 1920s, the Muslim camelmen worked the inland tracks and developed relationships with local Aboriginal people.
Permanent emigration of North Africans and Middle Easterns to Australia began in the 1940s onwards, possibly due to political turmoil in the MENA region that saw a wave of its international migrants. As of 2021, they number 800,000 persons with a nomination of their distinct ancestries.
Christianity was introduced with the European settlement of Australia in 1788. During the 19th century European settlers brought their own traditional Christian denominations to Australia.
The Jewish people have been part of Australian history since 1788. At least eight Jewish convicts came on the First Fleet. Over a thousand more people of Jewish descent were sent to Australia as convicts during the next 60 years. In addition, Jewish free settlers were arriving in Australia as early as the 1820s.
Christianity came to Australia in 1788 with the first British settlers on the First Fleet. Of the convicts and settlers, most were members of the established Church of England with lesser numbers of Nonconformist Protestants, Catholics and other faiths.
Anglican / Presbyterian - Anglicanism was also the faith followed by the majority of Australian colonists, convict and free settler, military and merchant class, throughout most of Australia's colonial history.
Hindus by state or territory
Hinduism is one of the fastest growing religion in absolute numbers in every state and territory of Australia.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are the first peoples of Australia, meaning they were here for thousands of years prior to colonisation.
As Professor Riaz Hassan and his team at the Hawke's International Centre for Muslim and non-Muslim Understanding expertly identify, Muslims currently constitute 2.2% of the Australian population, and it is estimated there will be almost one million more Muslims in Australia by 2050.
Muslims were some of the very first visitors to our shores and have helped to build our country into the prosperous and successful nation it is today. Many have chosen to live in Australia for the sake of their children, for education opportunities and for a better life.
19th century
The first Afghan cameleers arrived in Melbourne in June 1860, when three men arrived with a shipment of 24 camels for the Burke and Wills expedition.
The Hijrah or Hijra (Arabic: الهجرة) was the journey of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and his followers from Mecca to Medina. The year in which the Hijrah took place is also identified as the epoch of the Lunar Hijri and Solar Hijri calendars; its date equates to 16 July 622 in the Julian calendar.
The start of Islam is marked in the year 610, following the first revelation to the prophet Muhammad at the age of 40. Muhammad and his followers spread the teachings of Islam throughout the Arabian peninsula.
Muslims in Australia: The Bond Between Indigenous Australians and Islam. Muslims in Australia come in all shapes and sizes. More than 1,000,000,000 Australians identify themselves as Muslims.
The first converts to Islam at the time of Muhammad were: Khadija bint Khuwaylid - First person to convert and first free female convert. Ali ibn Abi Talib - First free male child in Muhammad's family to convert. Zayd ibn Harithah - First freed slave male convert.
He was born of a Jewish mother, in Galilee, a Jewish part of the world. All of his friends, associates, colleagues, disciples, all of them were Jews. He regularly worshipped in Jewish communal worship, what we call synagogues. He preached from Jewish text, from the Bible.
Christianity developed out of Second Temple Judaism in the 1st century CE. It is founded on the life, teachings, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and those who follow it are called Christians. Islam developed in the 7th century CE.
Knowing that versions written in the Hebrew Bible and the Christian New Testament does predate the Quran, scholars recognize the borrowing from Persian, Jewish and Christian texts.
A comprehensive religious forecast for 2050 by the Pew Research Center predicts that the global Muslim population will grow at a faster rate than the Christian population – primarily due to the average younger age and higher fertility rate of Muslims.