Saturday, December 22, 2012

ISLAM OVER THE WORLD : HISTORY ENTRY OF ISLAM TO AUSTRALIA



Entry History Islam / Muslims to Australia

The history of Islam to Australia starting from the first interaction of fishermen from South Sulawesi (Indonesia) by natives in northern Australia (Aboriginal) in about 1750. Not a lot of the number of Muslims living in Australia at the time, until about the year 1860 a group of camel herders from Afganisthan come to Australia to increase the number of Muslims living in Australia.

In the 19th century Australia has many areas / land rich in natural resources that have not tereksploitasi. Half of the form of the desert with extremely high temperatures with little springs. Camel is an ideal animal for the condition, then in 1840 a man named Horrick insert (import) was first camels to Australia, he wanted to compare between camels and horses as animal porters in the desert, but the mission failed. The next group of camels came in 1860 as many as 24 camels. By trying to use camels as draft animals, Australia need people who are experts in driving and operating a camel, then be brought for the first time the Afghan people to operate 24 camels, and not long after that more Muslims coming into Australia afghanisthan. About 10,000 to 12,000 camels were brought to Australia in the period between the years 1860 to 1907.

Around 3000 Muslims from Afghanistan to work as a carrier of goods, water, and food by using camels in areas that are difficult. (A. Saeed, Islam in Australia, Allen & Unwin, 2003). The camel herders from Afghanistan found a nearly identical conditions as in their home areas in central Australia, they drive ontanya and walk across the desert about 600 km to transport goods from the main and important towards Oodnadatta Alice Springs (Central Australia) . "Their contribution in open areas as well as a common pathway for the general public in areas of Australia is very big and important. Traditional economic backbone of Australia at that time, namely agriculture and mining in dire need of camels as a means of transportation and their herdsmen "(Tin Mosques and Ghantowns - Christine Stevens 1989).

With the end of the era of using camels in the transport industry around 1920, and the regulations that are stricter than Australia Immigration regarding at least the white population of Australia, the number of Afghan Muslims who come to Australia to be reduced. (B. Cleland, The Muslims in Australia: A Brief History, Islamic Council of Victoria, 2002).

In around 1960, due to the more flexible rules of Immigration Australia with regard to the nation's non-European migration to Australia, the number of Muslims who came to Australia to be increased. At around 1960 and around 1970 in an amount large enough Muslim migration from Lebanon and Turkey to Australia, where the largest number of Muslims in Australia today comes from both State. The largest number of Muslims living in Australia now come from the Arabs, as compared to other Muslim Arabs from Lebanon has the greatest number and a longer history of migration / long. Lebanon's first national migration to Australia occurred in the late 1880's. The second wave of migration occurred between 1947 to 1975, especially after a war between Arabs and Israel in 1967. The third wave occurred in 1976 after the civil war in Lebanon. Other Arab nations have the largest population in Australia is from Egypt. Like the Lebanese, Egyptians migrating to Australia's largest occurred after World War II, this migration occurs in two waves, namely between 1947 up to 1971, and the second wave occurred in the late 1980's. (A. Saeed, Islam in Australia, Allen & Unwin, 2003).

Muslims in Australia today

According to the census of the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) in 2001, the number of Muslims in Australia amounted to 281,578 people, or 1.5% of the population is the population of Australia. Meanwhile, according to one estimate from Islamic institutions in New South Wales (NSW) reached 300,000 people. The census also shows that Muslims in Australia come from various countries, with only 20.8% came from Lebanon and 14.5% came from Turkey, while 64.7% came from about 9 countries (Indonesia, Afghanistan, Bosnia, etc.). The census also showed that Australian Muslims have a pretty good education compared to the Australian population as a whole, 21.7% of Australian Muslims who are over 15 years old have a bachelor's degree (bachelor degree) or higher, the percentage is higher than 12 , 4% of the Australian population as a whole. Important conclusion from the results of these statistics is that the negative perception of the majority of Australian Muslims are not educated, especially those from Arab nations are unfounded.

Activity of Worship

In doing acts of worship of Muslims in Australia has more than 85 mosques and about 50 musolah (the prayer), besides in some areas away from the mosque several Muslim initiative to hire a building (eg building community centers) to be a place of prayer Friday . To build a mosque requires certain procedures established by the government to fulfill the terms as constructing buildings for public interest.

Individual Muslims usually have no problem in doing acts of worship during weekday prayers, the most experienced problem is when the implementation of the Friday prayers. When facing a problem of difficult perform Friday prayers, a devout Muslim opted out of work or organize some neighboring Muslim place of work to perform Friday prayers, while the less devout Muslims perform Friday prayers of worship to choose to leave. Religious activities in Australia is quite vibrant, it may be seen from the number of assemblies taklim or study groups there, even some fairly active Islamic movements seen doing various activities.

Conditions Muslim Australia Post July 7, 2005 London bombings

Not long after the events of the explosion of a bomb in London July 7, 2005, Western State governments to immediately continue the campaign to enact special laws for Muslims living in Western countries. They are trying to mislead the public to form an opinion that the new law is intended to protect and fight the danger of terrorism in their country. But it can not be avoided, the hidden agenda of the campaign is targeting and undermine Islam and Muslims in the West immediately apparent.

Strategies and hidden agendas indicated by the State Government of West have many similarities. Propaganda that began with reasons sought to combat terrorism, soon expanded to combat what they call the opinions / ideas are radical and extreme, this strategy is targeted to divide Muslims by giving moderate Muslims and Muslim predicate radical / extreme.

In Australia, the target is also directed to Muslim schools, where the government would review the curriculum taught in the schools. This plan immediately got a strong reaction from Muslim schools because the curriculum is taught today is not much different from what is taught in other schools, and many students from the Muslim schools that have higher achievement than other schools. The government also proposed that Muslim schools teach more Australian societal values, such as tolerance, responsibility and so on, where these values ​​are also present in Islam and has been taught in Muslim schools, more than that school- Muslim schools in curriculum learning never taught terrorism. Meanwhile, in the mosques, the government proposed that the imam should be briefed of what they should preach.

Not only there, Liberal MP Bronwyn Bishop proposes to ban headscarves in public schools, because the veil is considered contrary to the values ​​of Australian society of equality and caused a split in the schools. This proposal also got a tough challenge from both Muslims and non-Muslims, most of which were against the proposal saying that there was no evidence of headscarves in schools causing discord and equality. Kerry Cullen one public high school principals upper level (SMTA) in Sydney, said that in his school there is only one person who wear veils brownish red color which is in accordance with the school uniform, and that's not a problem in the school. There is never any negative reports from teachers or students caused by the wearing of the hijab. Other school heads say that we have never seen a split caused by the use of the veil, we see it as a cultural diversity.

Relations between Muslims and non-Muslims and Muslims in Australia hope

In general, relations between Muslims and non-Muslims in Australia is quite good, especially before the events of 11 September. But after the events of September 11, Bali bombings, London bombings followed a lot of Muslims who received less favorable treatment both by the public and by governments and the media. However, personal relations between Muslims and non-Muslims is still fairly good, although sometimes the terrorist designation in both jokingly and seriously frequently asked non-Muslims to Muslim terrorist designations or labels is sometimes less fun for Muslims.

In general, the expectations of Muslims living in Australia is that it can more easily carry out the activities of worship, especially worship Friday prayers, while expectations were addressed to the Australian government and the mass media are not continuously marginalize Muslims by giving labels are not as exciting as extremists, radicals , terrorists, and so on.

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