Islam and the Muslim Community in Australia: A Complete Guide for 2026

Introduction

Australia is home to one of the world’s most dynamic and rapidly growing Muslim communities. With 813,392 Muslims recorded in the 2021 ABS census — 3.2% of the national population — Australian Muslims represent the second-largest non-Christian religious community in the country. Experts predict the Muslim population will exceed one million by the next census in 2026, reflecting both high birth rates within the community and continued immigration from South Asia, Southeast Asia, Africa, and the Middle East.

This guide provides a comprehensive overview of the Australian Muslim community in 2026 — its history, demographics, institutional landscape, key bodies, and the educational provision that has become one of the community’s most important investments.

A History of Islam in Australia

The history of Islam in Australia is longer and more layered than most Australians realise. The first contact between Islamic civilisation and the Australian continent came through the Macassans — Bugis and Makassarese traders from the Sulawesi port of Makassar (now Indonesia) who visited the northern coast of Australia regularly from the sixteenth century onwards, trading with Aboriginal Australians for trepang (sea cucumber). These visits, which may have introduced the first elements of Islamic practice to some Aboriginal Australians, predated British colonisation by hundreds of years.

The most visible early Muslim presence in colonial Australia was the Afghan cameleers — Muslim men from British India (present-day Afghanistan and Pakistan) recruited from the 1860s onwards to manage the camel trains that opened the interior of the continent. The Ghan railway line between Adelaide and Darwin is named in their honour. The central Adelaide mosque, constructed in the 1880s, is one of the oldest purpose-built mosques in the country.

Modern Muslim immigration to Australia came in waves. Post-World War II European reconstruction brought Lebanese and Turkish workers in the 1960s and 1970s. Australian participation in UN refugee programmes from the 1990s onwards brought Somalis, Afghans, Sudanese, Iraqis, Bosnians, and others fleeing conflict. More recently, skilled migration from South Asia — particularly Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh — has added another major demographic layer. Today, Australian Muslims come from more than 183 countries of origin.

Demographics: The 2021 Picture

The 2021 ABS census recorded 813,392 Muslims — 3.2% of Australia’s total population of approximately 25 million. This represents significant growth from 476,000 in 2011 (2.2%). Islam is now the second-largest religion in Australia after Christianity.

Geographic distribution:

• New South Wales: approximately 250,000 (50% of national Muslim population) — concentrated in Greater Sydney (42% of all Australian Muslims)
• Victoria: approximately 200,000 (33% of national) — concentrated in Greater Melbourne (31%)
• Western Australia: approximately 65,000 (7%) — Perth and surrounds
• Queensland: approximately 5% — Brisbane
• South Australia: approximately 3% — Adelaide
• ACT, Tasmania, Northern Territory: remainder

Urban concentration: The vast majority of Australian Muslims live in the major metropolitan areas. Sydney’s western suburbs (Lakemba, Auburn, Bankstown, Fairfield, Liverpool, Punchbowl) and Melbourne’s northern and western suburbs (Broadmeadows, Coolaroo, Thomastown, Craigieburn, Truganina) are the areas of highest Muslim population density in Australia.

Age profile: Australian Muslims are significantly younger than the general population, with a median age of 29 years compared to the national median of 38. This demographic profile — a young, growing community with a high proportion of children — creates substantial and sustained demand for Islamic education.

Australian-born Muslims: Approximately 36% of Australian Muslims were born in Australia. This growing cohort of Australian-born, Australian-educated Muslims represents both the community’s future and its most significant pastoral challenge: ensuring that second and third-generation Australians maintain meaningful connection to Islamic practice and identity in a highly secular, multicultural society.

Ethnic diversity: The largest ethnic groups within the Australian Muslim community are Lebanese, Turkish, Pakistani, and Bangladeshi, with significant and growing communities from Indonesia, Malaysia, Afghanistan, Somalia, Sudan, and various other African and Asian countries.

The Two Bodies Claiming National Representation

One of the most distinctive features of the Australian Islamic institutional landscape is the existence of two bodies both claiming to represent Australian Muslims nationally — and the ongoing controversy about which one holds legitimate authority to appoint the Grand Mufti.

AFIC: The Australian Federation of Islamic Councils

The Australian Federation of Islamic Councils (AFIC) — also known as Muslims Australia — is the older of the two national bodies. Founded in 1964 as the Australian Federation of Islamic Societies (AFIS), it transitioned to a three-tier federal structure in 1976. AFIC is a not-for-profit umbrella organisation representing Sunni Muslims, with State Islamic Councils as its second tier and individual mosques and societies as its third.

AFIC’s most significant institutional contribution has been in Islamic education. In 2015, AFIC directly operated or was associated with six schools: Malek Fahd Islamic School (NSW), Islamic College of Melbourne (Vic), Islamic College of Brisbane (Qld), Islamic College of South Australia (SA), Langford Islamic College (WA), and the Islamic School of Canberra (ACT). These schools collectively received tens of millions of dollars in government funding annually.

AFIC’s school governance record has been troubled. A 2012 federal audit discovered financial irregularities in the transfer of funds between AFIC and its schools. Multiple schools received non-compliance notices in 2015 following governance investigations. Malek Fahd School ultimately separated from AFIC governance after protracted legal dispute. These difficulties are not unique to AFIC — they reflect the broader challenge of transitioning community-founded Muslim institutions from volunteer governance to professional institutional management — but they have shaped how Australian Islamic education governance has evolved.

AFIC’s Grand Mufti: On 9 March 2024, AFIC appointed Sheikh Riad El-Rifai as the new Grand Mufti of Australia, replacing Sheikh Abdul Quddoos Al-Azhari. This appointment followed AFIC’s revival of the Grand Mufti position after scrapping it in 2007.

ANIC: The Australian National Imams Council

The Australian National Imams Council (ANIC) emerged to fill the Grand Mufti vacuum when AFIC retired the position in 2007. ANIC has appointed Dr Ibrahim Abu Mohamad as Australia’s Grand Mufti since 2011 (with a brief interruption in 2018). Dr Ibrahim has been the face of Islamic religious authority in Australia through major incidents including the 2014 Sydney siege and various national security debates.

The result is that Australia currently has two organisations claiming to have appointed a Grand Mufti — an unusual situation that reflects the genuine complexity of representing a diverse, decentralised Muslim community in a federal system without a government-mandated Islamic authority equivalent to Singapore’s MUIS.

ISAA: The Islamic Schools Association of Australia

Separate from both AFIC and ANIC, the Islamic Schools Association of Australia (ISAA) is the peak body specifically for full-time Islamic schools. ISAA has member schools educating over 40,000 students, employing over 5,000 staff, at more than 40 locations across Australia. It provides governance support, advocacy, professional development, and school improvement services to member schools. Its website publishes a school finder for families seeking Islamic school options nationally.

Key Community Statistics and Characteristics

Number of mosques: Australia has more than 100 mosques and Islamic prayer centres, with the highest concentrations in Sydney and Melbourne. Notable mosques include the Lakemba Mosque in Sydney’s south-west (the largest mosque in Australia), the Auburn Gallipoli Mosque in Sydney (built in Ottoman style with Turkish community funding), and the Islamic Museum of Australia attached to the mosque complex in Melbourne.

Young median age: With a median age of 29, Australian Muslims are nearly a decade younger than the general Australian population. This means a community with a disproportionately high number of school-age children and young adults — precisely the cohort most urgently needing quality Islamic education.

Two-thirds born or raised in Australia: Research suggests that approximately two-thirds of Australian Muslims are either Australian-born or converts — a majority that is often underrepresented in mosque life and Islamic institutional activity. This demographic reality is both a challenge (maintaining engagement with second and third-generation Australians whose relationship to Islamic institutions is different from their parents’) and an opportunity (a community with deep Australian roots, Australian education, and Australian professional skills available to strengthen Islamic institutions).