200 (Yeasmeen et al (2023)). The authors state that the Muslim population is part of a racial/ethnic minority group in Western countries (at 202). That is certainly true of Australia where Muslims "are usually immigrants and as such their religious identity can be associated with racial identity" (at 202). As at 2016, nearly 37% of Muslims in Australia were born in Australia (at 203, citing Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2016 Census Community Profiles). Thus, in Australia, Muslims are overwhelmingly people of colour and immigrants or descendants of relatively recent immigrants. They are also a marginalised and discriminated against group. The case for the inclusion of Muslims as a protected group on the basis of race, colour and national origin, as distinct from the protection of religious beliefs, practices and rituals, is obviously strong. That is reflected in the EM. The example given in the second reading speech for the Racial Discrimination Legislation Amendment Bill 1992 (Cth) (at 3891) of a white woman wearing a hijab or headscarf being attacked because she is thought to be an Arab rather than because she is thought to be Muslim illustrates the close connection between race, ethnicity and religion in this context.
277 Further, it seems to me that although the universal unifying characteristics of Muslim identity are religious, there are important characteristics that are not. The universal religious characteristics, which Senator Faruqi referred to as the five pillars of Islam, are the belief that there is no god but God and that Muhammad is the final Messenger of God, and the commitments to pray five times a day, to fast during the month of Ramadan, to pay charity and (for those able to do so) to undertake a pilgrimage to Mecca to perform the Hajj. But Islam also teaches a way of life that creates a special bond between Muslims, perhaps exemplified by the universal Muslim greeting in Arabic, referred to earlier in these reasons in variant spelling, As Salaamu Alaykum (peace be upon you), and the response, Wa Alaykum As Salaam (and peace be upon you). That illustrates another characteristic, which is that although Muslims from all over the world speak a variety of different languages and there is no language that all Muslims speak, the authentic text of the Quran is necessarily in Arabic and Muslims universally share that Arabic greeting and response. All Muslims, even if not at all religious, share in the festival of Eid Al Fitr at the end of Ramadan–it is as much a cultural festival as it is religious. It might also be said that the "shared customs, beliefs, traditions and characteristics" of Muslims are "derived from a common or presumed common past" (King-Ansell v Police) and that they have "a long shared history of which the group is conscious as distinguishing it from other groups, and the memory of which it keeps alive" (Mandla v Dowell Lee).
