Muslim in Australia: Celebrating National Days

Abstract

The new millennium has drawn renewed attention to Muslim presence in Australia despite the fact that the links between Muslims and the continent predate the European settlement. A complex set of informational, institutional, and political factors have shaped multiple identities of Muslims in the country with the set of views and identities ranging from orthodox to more modernist interpretations of what it means to be a Muslim in a majority non-Muslim state. The complexity is consistently being reinforced and rendered more complex due to the emergence of organizations, groups and forces that present what they assume to be the ‘definitive’ view of Islam. The phenomenon exists in both Muslim and non-Muslim communities in Australia. Among Muslims, this diversity has expressed itself, among other issues, with reference to national days that have come to symbolize Australian identity. This article will explore this diversity of views and responses with reference to Australia Day celebrations and the ANZAC Day. It argues that despite the presence of ideas promoting a global caliphate of Islam, as well as a tendency to present an essentialist nature of Islam and Muslims, the responses by Muslim communities in Australia have differed with respect to these national days—an indication of the flaws inherent in conceiving Muslim presence as a singular identity in Australia.