From Afghan cameleers to Olympic champions, a faith at home in the Great South Land.
Muslims have been part of Australia longer than the nation's federation. Afghan cameleers opened the interior, Makassan traders reached the north centuries before Europeans, and today Australian Muslims come from over sixty cultural backgrounds, a community as diverse as Australia itself, and increasingly as Australian as the country they call home.
Sonny Bill Williams
All Blacks & heavyweight boxer
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Converted to Islam in 2009; a dual-code rugby international and champion boxer.
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Country
Australia
Muslims
813,400 Muslims
Share
3.2% of the 2021 population
Landmark
Sydney Opera House · Sydney
A faith at home here
Long before European settlement, Makassan fishermen from what is now Indonesia traded with Aboriginal communities in northern Australia. In the 19th century, Afghan and Pakistani cameleers arrived, opening the arid interior with their camels and building the first mosques. Post-war migration from Lebanon, Turkey, the Balkans and South Asia built today's communities, joined more recently by converts and refugees. Australian Muslims now span generations.
In Australia, as in every continent Islam has reached, the faith grows because it asks of a person what every honest soul already senses it should give: to worship one God, to be honest, to honour one's parents, to give to the poor, and to remember that this life is a brief test. That message, the original, unchanged message of every prophet, needs no culture to translate it, because every culture already understands it. Australian converts and born Muslims alike testify to the same simplicity: that when they finally heard Islam clearly, it felt like coming home to something they had always known.
"We have sent you but as a mercy to all the worlds." — Qur'an 21:107
Positive contribution
Muslims serving Australia
Muslims in Australia contribute to the whole society — in service, scholarship, sport and charity.
Sport & national pride
Sonny Bill Williams and other Muslim athletes have represented Australia at the highest level in rugby and boxing.
Medicine & frontline work
Australian Muslims serve as doctors, nurses and paramedics, including prominently through the pandemic's frontline.
Trade & enterprise
Muslim-owned businesses and halal food exports contribute to Australia's trade with Southeast Asia and the Gulf.
Community service
Muslim charities and volunteer groups are active in bushfire relief, food drives and refugee support across the country.
Every country tells the same story
Different languages, different cultures, one message. Explore more countries or read the Qur'an for yourself.
