In Australia, the first Muslims were Indonesian Makassars, as early as 1500. Much later came Afghan camel drivers.
Musims have a long peaceful history in Australia. It is only since the Afghan war of 1970-80s, the Saudi spread of Madrasa schools financed by oil money, and the Iraq invasion of 2003 that have spread radicalism. Saudi Arabia and the USA fomented and financed radical Islamist terrorists to fight the Russians. This also spread radicalism into neighboring Pakistan.
The Saudis deserve much of the blame for radicalizing Muslim youth. However Trump and his Australian stooges refuse to blame the Saudis because the Saudis have a lot of money and buy politicians and political influence.
Australian Muslims have a record of peaceful existence and assimilation for hundreds of years. Islamophobia and hate propaganda has provoked some Muslims to break from their peaceful existence. However, that number is very few.
In fact that can be said for much of Europe. The recent spate of Muslim refugees is a consequence of the Iraq war which spawned ISIS. Saudi Arabia and USA have fomented the war in Syria and the ISIS insurgency in Iraq which is causing the refugee problem.
http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-27260027 Quote:Few Australians are aware that the country's Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples had regular contact with foreign Muslims long before the arrival of Christian colonisers. And Islam continues to exercise an appeal for some Aboriginal peoples today, writes Janak Rogers.
The white lines are faint but unmistakable. Small sailing boats, picked out in white and yellow pigment on the red rocks of the Wellington Range in Arnhem Land, northern Australia, tell a different story from the one most Australians accept as the history of their nation.
They are traditional Indonesian boats known as praus and they brought Muslim fishermen from the flourishing trading city of Makassar in search of trepang, or sea cucumbers.
Exactly when the Makassans first arrived is uncertain. Some historians say it was in the 1750s, but radiocarbon dating of beeswax figures superimposed on the cave paintings suggests that it was much earlier - one of the figures appears to have been made before 1664, perhaps as early as the 1500s.
They apparently made annual trips to gather the sea cucumbers, which fetched a high price because of their important role in Chinese medicine and cuisine.
The Makasssans represent Australia's first attempt at international relations, according to anthropologist John Bradley from Melbourne's Monash University - and it was a success. "They traded together. It was fair - there was no racial judgement, no race policy," he says.
Quite a contrast to the British. Britain designated the country terra nullius - land belonging to no-one - and therefore colonised the country without a treaty or any recognition of the rights of indigenous people to their land.
Some Makassan cucumber traders stayed, married Aboriginal women and left a lasting religious and cultural legacy in Australia. Alongside the cave paintings and other Aboriginal art, Islamic beliefs influenced Aboriginal mythology.
"If you go to north-east Arnhem Land there is [a trace of Islam] in song, it is there in painting, it is there in dance, it is there in funeral rituals," says Bradley. "It is patently obvious that there are borrowed items. With linguistic analysis as well, you're hearing hymns to Allah, or at least certain prayers to Allah."
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Muslims have migrated and assimilated for ages (Read 1338 times)
