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Islamic organisations in Australia include a wide range of groups and associations run and supported by the Islamic community in Australia. Organisations include major community councils, local organisations, mosques and schools. Most Australian Muslims are Sunni, with Shia then Sufi and Ahmadiyya as minorities. [1]
A listing of the 384 Australian Mosques, Masjids and Musallahs is maintained by Islamiaonline. [20]
Islamic schools in Australia are predominantly located in New South Wales and Victoria.
| State | School |
|---|---|
| New South Wales | Islamic Sciences and Research Academy of Australia (ISRA), University and School |
| Al Kauthar Institute | |
| Al-Faisal College | |
| Unity Grammar College | |
| Al-Noori Muslim Primary School | |
| Qibla College | |
| Al Zahrah College | |
| Arkana College | |
| Australian Islamic College of Sydney (formally King Abdul Aziz College) | |
| Irfan College of Australia | |
| King Abdul Aziz School | |
| Malek Fahd Islamic School | |
| Noor Al Houda Islamic College | |
| Rissalah College | |
| Sule College | |
| Victoria | Al Iman College |
| Al Siraat College | |
| Australian International Academy (formerly King Khalid Islamic College) | |
| Darul Ulum College | |
| East Preston Islamic College | |
| Ilim College of Australia | |
| Minaret College | |
| Werribee Islamic College | |
| Northern Territory | Australian International Islamic College |
| Queensland | Islamic College of Brisbane |
| Australian International Islamic College | |
| South Australia | Islamic College of South Australia |
| Western Australia | Langford Islamic College |
| Australian Islamic College | |
| Al-Hidayah Islamic School |
A number of Australians, from these organisations, have been identified as radicalising youth which in some instances has in resulted in people joining ISIS. [26]
A number of small Islamic militant groups have existed in Australia since the 2000s, these groups were believed to have either plotted or carried out acts of terror in Australia.
As at January 2015, there were 20 organisations designated and banned, by a court or a government department, for active involvement in terrorism. All but one of those organisations are Islamist. Identification of terrorist organisations may result from a prosecution for a terrorist offence, or from a listing determined by the Attorney-General of Australia. [56]
Jemaah Islamiyah is a Southeast Asian Islamist militant group based in Indonesia, which is dedicated to the establishment of an Islamic state in Southeast Asia. On 25 October 2002, immediately following the JI-perpetrated 2002 Bali bombings, JI was added to the UN Security Council Resolution 1267.
Hizb ut-Tahrir is an international pan-Islamist and Islamic fundamentalist political organization whose stated aim is the re-establishment of the Islamic caliphate to unite the Muslim community and implement sharia globally.
Al-Muhajiroun is a proscribed militant network based in Saudi Arabia. The founder of the group was Omar Bakri Muhammad, a Syrian who previously belonged to Hizb ut-Tahrir; he was not permitted to re-enter Britain after 2005. According to The Times, the organisation has been linked to international terrorism, homophobia, and antisemitism. The group became notorious for its September 2002 conference "The Magnificent 19", praising the September 11, 2001 attacks. The network mutates periodically so as to evade the law; it operates under many different aliases.
Islam is the second largest religion in Australia. According to the 2021 Census in Australia, the combined number of people who self-identified as Muslims in Australia, from all forms of Islam, constituted 813,392 people, or 3.2% of the total Australian population. That total Muslim population makes Islam, in all its denominations and sects, the second largest religious grouping in Australia, after all denominations of Christianity.
The Australian Federation of Islamic Councils (AFIC), founded in 1964 as Australian Federation of Islamic Societies (AFIS) and also known as Muslims Australia, is a not-for-profit umbrella organisation to represent Sunni Muslims across Australia.
The Ethics Centre, formerly the St James Ethics Centre, is a fully independent not-for-profit organisation which provides a non-judgmental forum for the promotion and exploration of ethics and ethical decision-making. The Ethics Centre works with business, professions, community groups, governments and individuals to encourage and assist them to include the ethical dimension in their daily lives. It is based in Sydney, Australia.
The threat of terrorism in Kazakhstan plays an increasingly important role in relations with the United States which in 2006 were at an all-time high. Kazakhstan has taken Uzbekistan's place as the favored partner in Central Asia for both Russia and the United States. Kazakhstan's counter-terrorism efforts resulted in the country's 94th ranking among 130 countries in the 2016 Global Terrorism Index published by the Institute of Economics and Peace. The higher the position on the ranking is, the bigger the impact of terrorism in the country. Kazakhstan's 94th place puts it in a group of countries with the lowest impact of terrorism.
Wassim Doureihi is a prominent member of Hizb ut-Tahrir in Australia, a global Islamic political party that advocates the re-establishment of the Caliphate in the Muslim world. He is a spokesman for the organisation.
Maajid Usman Nawaz is a British activist and former radio presenter. He was the founding chairman of the think tank Quilliam. Until January 2022, he was the host of an LBC radio show on Saturdays and Sundays. Born in Southend-on-Sea, Essex, to a British Pakistani family, Nawaz is a former member of the Islamist group Hizb ut-Tahrir. His membership led to his December 2001 arrest in Egypt, where he remained imprisoned until 2006. While there, he read books about human rights and made contact with Amnesty International who adopted him as a prisoner of conscience. He left Hizb-ut-Tahrir in 2007, renounced his Islamist past, and called for a secular Islam. Later, Nawaz co-founded Quilliam with former Islamists, including Ed Husain.
Man Haron Monis was an Iranian-born refugee and Australian citizen who took hostages in a siege at the Lindt Chocolate Café at Martin Place, Sydney on 15 December 2014, lasting for 17 hours, until the early hours of the following morning. The siege resulted in the death of Monis and two hostages.
Hizb ut-Tahrir America is a separate, but linked entity to the international pan-Islamist and fundamentalist organization that seeks to establish a global caliphate governed under Shariah law. Under this caliphate, members work toward uniting all Islamic countries as well as transforming secular, host countries into Islamic states. Hizb ut-Tahrir America's goals are the same as the global organization – the installation and implementation of sharia law as the sole source of law.
The Australian National Imams Council (ANIC) was formed in 2006 during a meeting of more than 80 Sunni imams which had gathered to discuss the crisis created by comments made by Taj El-Din Hilaly. In 2011, they requested that the Darulfatwa-supported Muslim Community Radio Incorporated not have its licence renewed due to ties with Al-Ahbash and because of its promotion of "sectarian fringe views".
The fight against terrorisminAzerbaijan is one of Azerbaijan's declared priorities. International organizations banned as terrorist include Al Qaeda, Al-Nusra Front, Azerbaijani Jamaat, Hizb ut-Tahrir, Islamic International Brigade, ISIS, Jeyshullah, and PKK. According to the Global Terrorism Database, seven people have been killed and over 20 injured in terrorist attacks from 2000 to 2015.
On the morning of 18 September 2014, police in Australia carried out the biggest counter-terrorism operation in the nation's history, with over 800 heavily armed officers targeting households in the cities of Sydney and Brisbane. It came days after the Australian government raised the terror threat from medium to high due to concerns about Australian citizens returning to the country after fighting with the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). Following the raids, two people were charged, one with terrorism offences and the other for possession of an unauthorised firearm. One of the two arrestees became one of only two men on remand at the highest security prison in Australia, as he is considered an "AA" security risk.
Ibrahim Abu Mohamed is an Egyptian-born and educated Sunni Islamic scholar and Grand Mufti of Australia from September 2011 to March 2018. He became Grand Mufti again after Afifi's death.
Rabiah Hutchinson is an Australian Muslim sometimes described as the "matriarch" of radical Salafi jihadist Islam in Australia. Hutchinson, a one time Presbyterian country girl "turned marijuana-smoking beach bunny and hippy backpacker" turned Islamic extremist has married at least eight times as of 2006, primarily to members of Al Qaeda and Jemaah Islamiah, and has been the subject of an investigation by Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO). Hutchinson traveled to the Mujahideen camps in Afghanistan and into Osama bin Laden's inner circle and is believed to have been schooled there by the Mujaheddin. She is the mother-in-law of al-Qaeda's current leader, Saif al-Adel; he married her daughter Asma, from her third marriage to Egyptian journalist Abu Walid al-Masri.
The Ahlus Sunnah Wal Jamaah Association of Australia (ASWJA) was founded by Melbourne sheikh Mohammed Omran. Ahlus Sunnah Wal Jamaah is a generic term referring to Sunni Islam. Those who adopt it as organisational name do so as adherents of the Salafi movement in Australia, US, UK, and Canada.
Hizb ut-Tahrir is an international pan-Islamist and fundamentalist political organisation. The organisation is considered a "radical Islamic group" and has come under scrutiny from the Australian government.
The National Counter Terrorism Agency is an Indonesian non-ministerial government department that works to prevent terrorism. BNPT is headed by a chief, who is responsible to the President. When it was first launched, the leader of BNPT held the ranking of a civil servant but the Presidential Regulation in 2012 elevated the post of BNPT Chief to the ministerial level.
Hizb ut-Tahrir Britain is the official name of the United Kingdom branch of Hizb ut-Tahrir, a transnational, pan-Islamist and fundamentalist group that seeks to re-establish "the Islamic Khilafah (Caliphate)" as an Islamic "superstate" where Muslim-majority countries are unified and ruled under Islamic Shariah law, and which eventually expands globally to include non-Muslim states such as Britain. The group was designated a proscribed terrorist organization in the UK in January 2024.