A Muslim Australian response to fear and division

A Muslim Australian reflects on immigration, service and community to challenge fear-based rhetoric and reaffirm the place of Muslim Australians in the country’s multicultural story. Mainul Haque writes.

If I drew the line of my life it wouldn’t be straight. It would bend across countries, cultures and identities. But there is a single, unbroken thread running through it: the search for belonging.

Belonging is not always easy to achieve. Sometimes I inherited it. Sometimes I lost it. Most of the time I had to build it.

I was born in Bangladesh into a society shaped by humility, service and responsibility, but also by political instability. From an early age, I learned that leadership is a duty, not a privilege; And once that trust is broken, it takes generations to rebuild.

After university, I was entitled to study economics with a scholarship from the Malaysian government. International Islamic University Malaysia. This experience taught me a lesson I have carried ever since: Belonging is often created not through sameness, but through hospitality and shared responsibility.

Then graduate school took me to Canada, first to Ontario, then to Montreal, another migration, another adjustment, another encounter with uncertainty, a far-flung place that few of my generation have ever experienced.

I immigrated to Australia in 1992 and began what would become my longest and most formative period.

Like many immigrants, I arrived with qualifications but no certainty. I taught briefly at the University of Sydney and TAFE before joining the Australian Civil Service in 1993. I have worked as an economist, educator and public sector leader in many institutions for over thirty years, mostly here in Canberra. I have served on advisory councils, government boards, and community organizations. I stood for public office in the ACT Elections, believing that participation itself is a form of belonging.

Over time, I was honored to receive the Order of Australia Medal for service to the community. I don’t see this as a personal compliment. I see this as a recognition of what is possible when immigrants are given the space to contribute fully to Australian civic life.

Migration is not just movement across borders. It is the gradual reconstruction of identity. He’s learning new systems, new accents, and new assumptions. It is contributing silently, knowing that you are still being observed.

For visibly Muslim Australians, belonging is sometimes negotiated rather than assumed.

In recent weeks, the public debate sparked by the Senator’s statements has turned again to Islam. Pauline Hanson “He questions whether it isgood muslims” In Australia.

Such statements do not reflect the lived realities of Muslim Australians. It deletes the daily contributions of people working in hospitals, schools, emergency services, universities and public institutions. They volunteer, pay taxes, raise families, and participate fully in civic life.

Rejecting an entire faith community as incapable of doing good is not just factually wrong. This contradicts Australia’s fundamental principle: Individuals are judged by their behavior, not their religion.

Islam teaches responsibility towards neighbors, honesty in business, care for the vulnerable, and accountability in leadership. These values ​​are not foreign to Australia’s civic foundations of justice, the rule of law and democratic participation. For many Muslim Australians, these principles are lived instinctively rather than defensively.

I know this not as theory, but as lived experience in Canberra.

One of the defining parts of my life, Gungahlin Mosque As President of the Canberra Muslim Community in North Canberra. At that time, there was no mosque in the region and the community was fragmented. Leadership was challenging and sometimes lonely. Still, we brought together more than 40 ethnic communities, raised over $3 million in donations, and completed the mosque in two years.

From the beginning, the mosque was not intended to be just a place of worship. We opened our doors to our neighbors, schools, media, interfaith groups, and local leaders. We organized open days and mass iftars. Our non-Muslim neighbors saw interaction, not isolation. Not a retreat, but a contribution. In this process, no affiliation was claimed. This has been proven.

Public debate often relegates Muslims to the headlines. Security concerns and cultural differences dominate the discussions. What receives much less attention is the daily reality of Muslim public servants shaping policy in Canberra, Muslim doctors in regional hospitals, Muslim traders building homes and Muslim volunteers responding to bushfires and floods.

Belonging is more than citizenship. Participating without apology is trust. It can be seen without being subjected to suspicious treatment. It is by contributing without being asked over and over again that he proves his loyalty.

Rhetoric does not strengthen Australia when it frames an entire faith community as suspect. It narrows it down. Fear may be politically powerful, but it is socially corrosive.

Australia’s multicultural success did not happen by accident. It was built by successive generations of immigrants who worked hard, contributed quietly, and insisted they belonged through service. Muslim Australians are part of the ongoing story.

My journey included vulnerabilities: coming to foreign countries alone, rebuilding professional paths, running for public office as a visibly Muslim candidate, knowing that visibility brings scrutiny. But I also received profound generosity from colleagues, neighbors and fellow Australians who judged me by my actions. This generosity reflects the Australia I believe in and have served for over 30 years.

Belonging develops through encounter, not doubt. Communities thrive when they open their doors, when Australians from diverse backgrounds share schools, workplaces and neighbourhoods, and when we move from parallel to shared lives.

The question is not whether Muslim Australians can belong. We are already doing it.

The question is what kind of Australia we want to raise: an Australia defined by a concern for difference, or an Australia confident enough to integrate it?

The line of my life bends beyond borders. At every turn someone made room for me. In return, I tried to make room for others.

belong to received.

Belonging was created.

Faith lived through service.

This is not a slogan. This is the quiet, everyday story of the countless Australian Muslims who call this country home and help shape its future.

Mainul Haque OAM is a retired Australian public servant with nearly three decades of experience in government, academia and community leadership.

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