Australia's Islamic Schools

Abstract

Given the fact that a tenth of Australia's convicts came from Ireland, it is no surprise that in the early nineteenth century, the first Catholic schools were established. However, they only became firmly established after 1820 with at least ten by 1833 following the arrival of Fathers John Thierry and Philip Connolly in New South Wales. In 2005, sixty three per cent of all non-government schools in Australia were Catholic and today it would be surprising if most young Australians know the differences between the different denominations that set up Church schools in the nineteenth century or know anything about the struggle over government funding and the sectarian rivalry that developed between Catholic and Protestant schools. Since the White Australia policy came to an end, Australia has slowly become a multi-faith nation. For example, Jewish schools, of which there are now eighteen, were established from the 1940s onwards. The new wave of faith-oriented schools have included not only Eastern Orthodox and conservative Christian schools but Islamic, Hindu and Buddhist schools. This development has been financially and ideologically encouraged by the Howard government since 1996 and although most of the new schools are conservative Christian schools, Islamic schools have also come into being since 1983, reflecting the growth of the Muslim population in Australia, currently approximately 340,000 or 1.7% of the Australian population.