Over the last two decades, a number of surveys have been conducted to capture the views and opinions of Muslims in the West, including North America, Europe and Australia. They have examined religious identity, beliefs, views on social and political issues, as well as experiences of islamophobia and integration. The Islam in Australia study was conducted through the Centre for Social and Cultural research, Griffith University, Australia in the form of an online survey.

An important factor investigated by the survey was the extent to which Australian Muslims practiced their religion publicly. An overwhelming majority (86.6%) said they “publicly/openly identify as a Muslim” and 6.2 percent said “I consider my identity as a Muslim to be a private, personal matter”, while 3.6 percent said they “identify as Muslim within Muslim communities only” and 3.7 percent said “I share my identity as Muslim with friends/family only”.

The Islam in Australia survey presented 10 statements, phrased according to definitions derived from the scholarly literature across a spectrum of typologies, asking “how well they describe you as a Muslim”. In Muslim communities, stigma can be associated with labels ranging from liberal, progressive, and secular to political Islamist and militant.

Continue reading at: Euro-Islam