Q&A: Indigenous and Muslim 'a growing trend'

20 Jul 2012, 7:11 pm   -   Source: Rhiannon Elston, SBS
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The number of Indigenous Muslims has risen more than 60 percent in a decade. (AAP)

The number of Indigenous Muslims has risen more than 60 percent in a decade. (AAP)

Dr Peta Stephenson is an honorary fellow at the Asia Institute. She has interviewed dozens of Indigenous Muslims as research for her book 'Islam Dreaming', and says numbers of those converting are on the rise.

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Dr Peta Stephenson is an honorary fellow at the Asia Institute. She has interviewed dozens of Indigenous Muslims as research for her book ‘Islam Dreaming’, and says numbers of those converting are on the rise.

DR STEPHENSON, HAS THERE BEEN AN INCREASE IN INDIGENOUS AUSTRALIANS CONVERTING TO ISLAM?

If we look at the 2006 census and the two before that, we do see that the numbers are rising. In 1996 and 2001 there were just over 600 Indigenous Muslims in Australia in each of those censuses.

In the subsequent one, in 2006, the number had risen 60 per cent to more than 1,000. So, not huge numbers if we look at the population of Australia, but it’s still a significant climb.

WHAT CAN YOU TELL US ABOUT THE MOTIVES FOR CONVERTING TO ISLAM YOU'VE FOUND DURING YOUR RESEARCH?

I conducted interviews with Indigenous Muslims for my book ‘Islam Dreaming’. Some of those were descended from Muslim fathers or forefathers, but wouldn’t classify themselves as practicing Muslims.

Perhaps they had an Afghan cameleer father or grandfather or a so-called ‘Malay Man’ who came to work in the pearl shelling industry. Then there were others who didn’t have that family history but had decided to embrace Islam.

And I found that the men and women who converted to Islam shared many commonalities with converts globally. Their experiences were that they enjoyed feeling part of a community, that they found Muslims to be extremely welcoming and hospitable.  

In many ways, they felt that by becoming Muslim they were going back to their traditional pre-colonial indigenous identity, because they could see that there were many similarities in traditional Indigenous societies and Islamic ones.

For instance, men can have more than one wife, arranged marriages were common to both societies, men were usually much older than their wives, they had gendered spheres of influence, so, sort of ‘men’s business’ and ‘women’s business’.

The indigenous people I spoke to felt re-affirmed in their Aboriginality by becoming Muslim, and that wasn’t something I expected to find at all. That’s something that’s quite distinct from non-Indigenous people who embrace Islam.

Another difference was that Aboriginal people are coming to Islam against a backdrop of Christian ‘missionisation’, so some of them were attracted to Islam because it’s a non-Christian faith, and something they embraced by choice, not something that was imposed upon them.

DID YOU COME ACROSS ANY DIFFICULTIES WHERE THE TWO CULTURES MIGHT NOT PARTICULARLY BE COMPATIBLE?

I think that Aboriginal people haven’t really found that to be a difficulty, I mean, some people say they have foregone or given up their Aboriginality by becoming Muslim, but as I’ve just mentioned, the Indigenous Muslim people I’ve spoken to say, on the contrary, they feel more Aboriginal by becoming Muslim, particularly because in Islam, language differences and colour and cultural differences are recognised in Islam. It’s seen as a sign of God or Allah’s will to make people different.

So Aboriginal people maintain that, unlike Christianity, or their experience with Christian Missionisation at least, wherein people were expected to forego their languages and stop practicing their culture, Islam accepts that.

The difficulty they might find is in the reception, perhaps by friends or families but also the wider population who doesn’t perhaps understand, and might just think aboriginal people are embracing Islam as a, sort of oppositional anti-white type identity. 

What about traditional aspects of Aboriginal Spiritualism? Have any of the Indigenous converts or their families expressed any regret at that being overlooked?

Most of the Aboriginal Muslim people I spoke to, and according to census figures as well, are younger people under 30 years old, and they live in metropolitan centres, the majority in Sydney.

These are people who have felt that they haven’t had access to their traditional spiritual beliefs, and perhaps, access to their languages and their traditional ways of life. I guess Islam to them helps provide an alternative route back to those roots.

Some people explained to me they felt they didn’t have a full identity, they could claim Aboriginality but they didn’t really have the full exposure to what that meant, to their traditional culture. So Islam helps fill that gap a bit, I suppose.

Of course some people I spoke to lament the fact that they don’t have access to that traditional way of life and traditional spirituality, but once the language is lost, and people die, that access is simply not possible. Islam has provided them with another way back, if you like.

WHAT CAN YOU TELL US ABOUT MALCOLM X, AND HIS INFLUENCE HERE?

A lot of the men I spoke to, particularly those who had been though the prison system, were first inspired by Malcolm X.

They had read his autobiography, and some of them openly described themselves as having been angry men who got into trouble with the law partly because of their attitude, they resented feeling like outcasts in their own country and were perhaps attracted to Malcolm X and the Black Panthers and those sorts of movements thinking that they were anti-white.

But once they started to learn more about Islam, they soon started changing their way of thinking very much, because they found a faith that accepted them, that accepted they were different from mainstream white Australia and that they weren’t judged for that, because Islam says all people are created equal.

So once the indigenous men sort of restored their sense of self, then that anger sort of dissipated. A number of them talked about how it is ironic some people accuse them of perhaps having terrorist tendencies because they have become Muslim.

They’ve said, before they embraced Muslim, they were angry, and afterwards they’ve actually become very peace-loving people, and their attitudes have been noticed in the prison system and by their families as well.

WOULD YOU SAY FOR SOME CONVERTS THE DECISION TO BECOME MUSLIM IS LIFE-SAVING?

For all of them, yes, on so many levels. Islam, you can’t drink, you shouldn’t gamble so just on that very basic level some people have found it very helpful to align themselves to a faith that forgoes some of the things that have had adverse effects in indigenous communities.

Men and women have embraced Islam for some of the same reasons but also some distinct ones. So men, for instance find Islam attractive because men are deemed to be the head of the household and they’re expected to protect and maintain their family, it says in the Qur’an.

A lot of the men have said Islam has helped them to step up and take responsibility for providing financially for their wives and children, to be hard-working men.

The women find that attractive because there are a lot of single-headed households in indigenous communities, particularly headed by women.

So the women are attracted to aboriginal men who are very family-oriented and who believe that having paid employment is important.

Also, against the backdrop of the taking away of children and the forcible breaking up of families, aboriginal women are attracted to faith that really places a lot of emphasis on the sanctity of marriage and the importance of the family and women’s role within that.

Islamism , Rhiannon Elston SBS

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aboriginal choice not domination

gary - from LISSNER, charters towers, 2 months ago

Typically the arrogant and culturally narcissistic opinion we all expect from the european invaders. It's an inconvenient truth to them that Aboriginal Australians can find true love, respect and acceptance through Islam and with our fellow brothers and sisters of the world. So accustomed are they in their hereditary ideological deformity that they under-estimate the ability for Aboriginal peoples to rise from the ash's of tyranny and bath in the glorious light of ALLAH. It must pains them so.

Reality Check!

Tania - from Gold Coast, 5 months ago

According to the 2006 census, the population of aboriginals was only 2.5% of the total population of Aust.Lets not forget the size of this great Continent and try to imagine the population of indigenous people before European Colonization.Now that is "worrying" to me.Also if all people do proper research, they will find a rich History of Islam in Australia,long before any 'white' or Christian contact. Lets not forget about the 'Half Caste Act' either,where we lost our language and true identity.

What a load of bollocks.

That Guy - from Darwin, 9 months ago

1) with such tiny numbers this story is a beat up from any angle. 2) Most of the 'Indigenous' converting would be only lip service converts in the way so many have been lip service converts to the modern world and it would oft times probably just be done as a way of rejecting 'whitefella' ways and niggling them. Even though Islam is at least as foreign to traditional Indigenous culture as Christianity it would feel 'smart' to do this.

Its not the system that matters

Rob - from Geelong, 9 months ago

The primary problem of any system of religion, economics, politics, etc, is that humans r flawed creatures. No 'system' can fix our genetic impulses. We will always find a way to abuse or subvert an otherwise reasonable system. Sociopaths, be they high level leaders or street level thugs, always work toward attaining power & appear in numbers leading up to & during civil strife to satisfy their sick pleasures in the name of their religion, nationalism, or whatever.

The positve of Indigenous Muslim Converts

Jakob - from Sydney, 9 months ago

The positive of Muslim Converts from indigenous communities being exposed to Islam and the different sects is as the article says it will be life saving and will enrich there lives. Drug taking is forbidden in all sects of Islam. Smoking in Salafi (self destructive and some cigerettes contain pigs blood in the paper) Alcohol forbidden in all sects but Alawi, Alevi and Quranism (moderation of alcohol as in no binge drinking) Any of these will stop some of the problems some Indigenous have.

This is good to see as long as it is not radical Islam who abuse the teaching for there own purpose

Jakob - from Sydney, 9 months ago

I read about this a few years ago it has positive and some negative. The negative is some will see the Muslim Indigenous as traitors to there people as there have been convert Muslims shunned out of comminities and abused by other none Muslim indigenous. Some indigenous been exposed only to Wahhabism as justifying violence to none Muslims and those of white in skin. Also cases of not accepting white skinned converts Having this thinking is not Islamic as many have said

Read on Islam

Mohamed - from Malaysia (Maldivian), 10 months ago

To Sam, read a little about the effect of first world war. If you can read you can find that the number of men who died in the first world war was much much higher than the women for example even among French. What about the widows? Dont they deserve someone to take care of them again. Now if you read about islamic history and the situation that were present when polygamy was allowed you will understand. It is not something to do for fun, but it is something with great responsbility.

Unity not Division

Take_A_Dtep_Back - from Berwick, 10 months ago

Reading some of the posts above reminds how ignorant and unknowledgeable sore people are and how we choose to remember parts of history that promote our views. It was not the Muslims that invaded other countries and forced their laws, beliefs on the owners of other lands at the point of a gun. It was the Roman's, the Brits who were all Catholic. White Americans, White Australians, White New Zelands, White South Africans ectt.. all came from Europe. Time for religious devide is out date!

Islam just doesn't make sense

Sam - from Mt Martha, 10 months ago

How can you say that "men can have more than one wife", yet also say that Islam is a "faith that really places a lot of emphasis on the sanctity of marriage and the importance of the family". To me that is a moral contradiction.

Reverts are welcomed, while anyone else is nothing less than an equal in creation.

Yousif - from Sydney, 10 months ago

Islam stresses that mankind originated from Adam and Eve; therefore, race, color, and ethnicity are not factors for social privileges or extended rights, and it is for this reason that Imam Ali has been reported as saying, “Know that people are of two types: they are either your brothers in religion or your equals in creation.” May this noble enlightment always remind us of how we should respect each other. Salam Aleekum

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