The first Muslims to come to Australia were Afghan camel drivers in the nineteenth century. Many returned to their homeland after their period of work and during the first half of the twentieth century, Muslims declined. The main reason for this decline was the Immigration Restriction Act, 1901 also known as the White Australia Policy. The 1911 Census recorded just under four thousand Muslims in Australia which at the time represented 0.09 per cent of the population.

This fell to 1 877 in 1933 and had increased by less than one thousand in 1947.
However, in the 1960’s (when the White Australia Policy was abandoned) and 70’s, the number of Muslims began to increase. Turkish immigration began in 1968 when Australia signed an agreement with Turkey, and Lebanese Muslims arrived in the 1970’s as a consequence of the civil war in Lebanon. The 1971 Census recorded over 22 thousand Muslims representing 0.17 per cent of the population. This community has continued to increase rapidly over the last few decades as Muslims arrived from troubled areas of Europe such as Albania and Bosnia-Herzegovina and from parts of Africa such as Somalia and Ethiopia.

In the decade between the 1971 and ‘81 Censuses, around 55 thousand Muslims arrived in Australia. Between 1991 and 1996, the Muslim community increased by 36 per cent or 53,378 people bring the total to over 200,000 or 1.13 per cent of the total Australian population. This growth was continued in the period leading up to 2001 in which identifying Muslims increased by 80 693 or 28.7 per cent with the identifying community numbering 281 578 or representing 1.5 per cent of the population. Thus in 2001, Islam was the third fastest growing religion in Australia. Buddhism had experienced the most rapid growth while Hinduism had grown only slightly more than Islam.