Islam in Oceania

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Islam in Oceania refers to Islam and Muslims in Oceania. Some countries in Oceania, notably Australia, have Islam as their third largest religion, after Christianity and Buddhism. By current estimates, there are 600,000 Muslims in Oceania. ^[1]

[edit] History

Islam has been in some parts of Oceania for at least 400 hundred years (since the 1600s). When the people of Papua New Guinea and West Papua traded with China and the Malay empire, in the early 1600s, the presence of Islam was felt in Oceania for the first time. ^[2]

Other parts of Oceania hadn't felt the presence of Islam until the 1800s. For instance, the first Muslims in Fiji came when Muslim migrants came on a ship bringing indentured laborers to Fiji in 1879. Muslims consisted of 22% of the boarders on Leonidas, which was the first such ship. In the next 40 years, a total of 60,553 laborers were brought to Fiji from India under the Indenture system.

[edit] References

v • d • e Islam in Oceania  Australasia Australia · Christmas Island · Cocos (Keeling) Islands · New Zealand1 · Norfolk Island   Melanesia East Timor2 · Fiji · New Caledonia · Papua New Guinea3 · Solomon Islands · Vanuatu  Micronesia Federated States of Micronesia · Guam · Kiribati · Marshall Islands · Nauru · Northern Mariana Islands · Palau   Polynesia American Samoa · Cook Islands · French Polynesia · Niue · Pitcairn Islands · Samoa · Tokelau · Tonga · Tuvalu · Wallis and Futuna 1 Often included in Polynesia.  2 Often included in Southeast Asia.  3 Often included in Australasia.