Minority Muslims and freedom of religion: Learning from Australian Muslims’ Experiences

Abstract

This paper aims to examine the position of ummah while Muslims are living as minority in Australia. This paper argues that Australia as a secular and multicultural state has supported the development of ummah. There are some reasons to deal with this argument: first, the state consistently protects, respects and fulfils the right to the freedom of religion of all citizens because it ratified some international human rights documents; second, the state administrators have shown their professionalism in their daily life activity in terms of implementing the state law enforcement; third, although there are minor cases of religious discrimination that have been imposed by a minority group of fundamentalist Christian, they can be mitigated through the larger involvements of Muslims in the process of social development such as organising interreligious dialogues, discussions on religious tolerance, which significantly has been conditioned by the societal context of multiculturalism in Australia; fourth, a Muslim intellectual in Australia is totally pro-human rights.